THE GARRATTS OF ALGERIA

by Andy Hart


[From SNCF Society Journal Number 124, Dec 2006.]

The early development of railways in Algeria was somewhat disorganised. The PLM, a dominant player from the start, steadily expanded its network. The four other principal concessionaires had by 1921 coalesced into the state-run Chemins de Fer Algériens de l'Etat. To rationalise matters, the latter exchanged some of its lines with the PLM Algérien. Then in 1933, the CFAE and PLM-A came under joint management (Chemins de Fer Algériens - CFA), in part as common measure to combat the recession. As the economy improved, it became possible to think of modernisation, although electrification was ruled out. When the railways of France itself were nationalised in 1938, there was even a proposal to make those of Algeria a region of SNCF (!). The Algerian authorities resisted, instead establishing the SNCF Algériens (still known as CFA), effective from 1 January 1939. We are here concerned with the PLM-A, whose principal routes extended from Algiers west to Oran and the Moroccan frontier, and East to Constantine and the Tunisian border. These were standard gauge. From Blida - not far from Algiers on the line to Oran - south to Djelfa the line was to 1055 mm gauge, originally built by the Ouest Algérien. This gauge was used on several lines in Algeria. It may have been considered compatible with 3 ft 6 in, being only ½-inch narrower. French sources occasionally refer to it as 'métrique', though there were also genuine metre-gauge lines in the country.

The 1055 mm gauge Garratts.

241-142 YAT 2 on test with the 400-tonne train at an unidentified location on the Blida - Djelfa line, 1932. [AH Collection]

The chief engineer of the PLM-A, Ducluzeau, no doubt aware of the success of the Garratt type on railways farther south in Africa, felt that they could be a solution to traction problems on both his standard-gauge and narrow-gauge routes which had similar heavy gradients and sharp curves. From Franco-Belge at Raismes, who already held a licence from Beyer, Peacock, to build Garratts in France, he first ordered four of the 4-8-2+2-8-4 wheel arrangement for use on the Blida - Djelfa line. The design was closely based on the existing EC1 class of Kenya-Uganda Railways and the new engines were delivered in 1931. They were gallicised with air brakes and ACFI feed-water heaters and had piston valves, Walschaerts' gear and duplicated cab controls for running in either direction. The engines were numbered 241-142 YAT 1 to 4, 'Y' being the designator for 1055 mm gauge, 'A' the class letter and 'T' meaning locomotive-tender in the normal PLM style. Tests took place in the first quarter of 1932. Unlike the trials of the later standard gauge locos, they had to be conducted in Algeria as there were no railways of the right gauge nearer to the F-B works. Initially, two test trains were used. One consisted of two fourgons, a bogie coach, 13 wagons loaded to 10 tonnes each and 29 empty wagons - 92 axles, 404 tonnes; the other was shorter, but included a 2-6-0T as a braking loco This was the first time more than 250 tonnes had been worked on the line and was possible as the stock had been fitted with Willison automatic couplings in place of the traditional centre buffer and side couplings. It showed a need for more powerful compressed-air sanding. The saving in fuel was said not to be great but there was a 30% economy in crew wages.

The standard gauge prototype. 231-132 AT 1.

231-132 AT 1 prepares to leave Laroche-Migennes on one of its test runs to Dijon, 1932 It is believed that both these photographs were taken by W. Cyril Williams who, from the South African Railways, joined Beyer Peacock as Sales Representative. [AH Collection]

The standard-gauge Algiers - Oran trunk line had gradients of 22 ‰ (1 in 45 ½) and Algiers - Constantine 26‰ (1 in 38½); both had curves down to 300 m radius on the mountain sections, but also long straight stretches where sustained high speed was possible. Express-passenger Garratts already existed elsewhere, such as on the FC Paulista in Brazil (2-6-2+2-6-2, 1927 - soon converted to 4-6-2+2-6-4) and the Central de Aragón (4-6-2+2-6-4, 1931). The Algerian specification called for haulage of 540-tonne trains at 105  km/h on straight, level track, and 24  km/h on 300  m-radius curves. The design for a double Pacific was worked out by Franco-Belge in conjunction with Beyer, Peacock. I think we can discount the statement that the design was done by Beyers, but they certainly exploited the Algerian locomotives in their promotional literature. It had many features in common with the YAT class, including Walschaerts' gear and piston valves to two simple-expansion cylinders at each end, ACFI, and duplicated cab controls. It was fitted with Beyer, Peacock's patented conical revolving bunker to bring the coal forward to the shovel plate. The exhaust was a single Kylchap. Numbered 231-132 AT 1, the engine was outshopped in 1932. After running-in, it was subject to intensive testing on the parent PLM. On 12 July it joined a roulement of Pacifics and 4-8-2s between Laroche and Dijon, working 26 rapides as well as omnibus and freight trains. Typical loads were 560-570 t. but up to 719 t. were taken over Blaisy-Bas. In March 1933 it moved to the other classic proving ground from Lyon to Roanne via the Rampe des Sauvages, before going to Algeria, where it was subjected to further tests throughout 1933. Its regular turn was the night express between Algiers and Affreville, a daily round trip of 238 km with a load of 350-450 tonnes. By May 1934 it had clocked up 75,000 km.

It was felt that better performance should be possible, and in 1934, it was modified with Cossart valve gear, new cast steel cylinders and a PLM exhaust double à croisillons - which had to be fitted transversally due to the short, fat smokebox¹ - and smoke deflectors. The steam-servo reversing gear was replaced by an electrically-operated mechanism. Although its performance was deemed 'average' by French standards, given the size of the loco, it was still way ahead of anything that had hitherto been achieved in Algeria and was sufficient to warrant the production of more Garratts. In order to allow the engines to be stabled in the roundhouse at Algiers, a huge 35-metre turntable was installed.

The production series, 231-132 BT 1-29.

Two official views of 231-132 BT 1 ex-works at Raismes. Lower view shows the electrical reversing apparatus half-way along the mainframe girder, the shafts linking it to the cam boxes, and the two turbo generators (for lighting and the reversing gear), above. [AH Collection]

The new requirement included speeds of 120 km/h on level track with curves of 750 m radius and 50 km/h on 200 m radius; haulage of 450 t. at 100 km/h on gradients of 3.5‰ and 45 km/h on 20‰. Henschel is reported to have offered a Garratt with four-cylinder compound propulsion on each engine unit, an enormous boiler of 2.5 m diameter with an 8 m² grate. This was considered a loco too far, and CFA went back to Franco-Belge for a design based on the improved 231-132 AT. The boiler pressure was raised from 16 kg/cm² to 20, grate area increased and a Clyde soot blower fitted. The transverse double PLM chimney and Cossart valve gear were retained The revolving bunker was replaced with a conventional bunker with coal pusher, but still fully lidded; the first batch of these engines were hand-fired, requiring two firemen. The firedoor was interlocked with the blower to prevent flames backing up into the cab. A Beyer, Peacock brochure refers to the design being capable of conversion to oil-firing, but (pace Durrant) I do not think this was ever carried out.

The feature causing most comment, and which possibly contributed to the locos' downfall, was the electrically-operated reversing gear. On the left-hand mainframe girder was a contactor box, linked by long universally-jointed shafts to the cam boxes on each engine (the modified 231-132 AT appears at one stage to have had a separate electrical unit on each engine). The cab control, duplicated for each way running, was a small lever by which "the smallest alteration in the cut-off can be accurately and quickly effected". Power came from a turbo-generator (separate from the one supplying the lighting) which could run off low steam pressure, or even compressed air from a brake reservoir.

The most visible change was in the styling. The fore and aft tanks were given a similar profile to the boiler and the ends streamlined, giving a uniform outline, disguising the Garratt look of a barrel between two boxes. Smoke deflectors were fitted to both the front tank and the smokebox and the boiler had a 'skyline' casing. The headlights were buried in the downswept running plate; the right-hand one in each direction of travel was a powerful searchlight. The result was striking, and from some angles even elegant.

The first of the class was delivered in early 1936 to the joint management and carried the initials CFA. By September 1936 enough were available to provide much-accelerated schedules. The timing of Algiers - Oran expresses was cut from some nine hours to just under 7 hours with 19 stops, averaging 62.5 km/h over 422 km; Algiers - Constantine was reduced by four hours to 8½ (464 km). In combination with the comfort of new coaches² this wooed back passengers: from a trough of 5¾ million in 1932, journeys reached a peak of over 11 million in 1936.

No 231-132 BT 11 could now be spared to run trials in France. One suspects that this may have been at the request of the Nord itself, anxious to see its very own Cossart gear in action on a high-powered locomotive, following the failure in 1933 of its two Cossart simple Pacifics (due, it has been said, to wrongly proportioned cylinders). Testing took place in March and April 1937, on the transversale Nord-Est, particularly between Valenciennes and Hirson; then from Paris to Aulnoye and Paris to Calais. On one trip, BT 11 accelerated a 568-tonne train up Survilliers bank, which it topped at 119 km/h, recording an output of 2900 dbhp. On 23 March, on a high-speed run to Calais, the loco attained 135 km/h on the downgrade between La Faloise and Ailly-sur-Noye, an unofficial record for an articulated locomotive, which has never been equalled.

Other 'records' claimed for the class (not all easily verifiable) are: largest driving wheels and highest boiler pressure applied to any Garratt; heaviest weight of any French (-built) locomotive; highest tractive effort of any express passenger steam locomotive outside the USA (30,000 kg/66,000 lb).

Some variations in the driving mechanism of the Cossart³ gear are noticeable: there seem to have been problems with the balancing. A prominent component, familiar from the Nord 141 TCs⁴ , is the saumon weighted eccentric rod, counterbalancing the reciprocating masses. The modified 231-132 AT did not have this, the rod being instead a perforated, elongated lozenge shape, similar to the upper valve lever - in other words a lightweight fitting. As first built (see photographs) 231-132 BT 1 had a saumon like that of the 141 TCs - though without the large safety stirrup. By the time of the Nord trials, however, and in all subsequent photographs, the thick end of the rod is seen to have three large holes in it (as in the accompanying drawing), once more reducing its mass.

Three more batches of the BTs followed: Nos 13-16 in 1937, 17-22 in 1939 and 23-29 in 1940. The last two batches were fitted with mechanical stokers.

In the small hours of 17 April 1938, 231-132 BT 3 was involved in a gruesome and notorious incident. A permanent-way worker, Eugène Calvert, who had recently been dismissed as mentally unstable, took revenge by unbolting a turnout on the approach to St Cyprien-les-Attafs, so causing the wreck of train 1033, the Algiers - Oran night express. Six passengers were killed, all of them in an older, wooden sleeping car which was crushed between two of the modern steel coaches. The Garratt rolled on its side, trapping passed-fireman Marchica by his arm which was outside the cab. To free himself, he amputated the arm himself with his pocket knife. After treatment for the resultant gangrene, he eventually made a good recovery. Calvert was duly tried, found guilty and executed.

The heyday of these imposing locomotives was short-lived. On 8 November 1942 the Allies landed in North Africa and the railways, although still under Algerian management, had to meet the demands of the military and accept drafted-in personnel. The sophisticated Garratts may have been fine when manned by titular crews and serviced by staff trained in the French tradition, but the 'rough soldiery' was more attuned to Dean Goods and USATC S-160s. Several factors affected the operation of the Garratts; commentators have placed different emphasis on each. The reversing gear caused problems: delicate electrical equipment does not work well in an environment of soot, grime and moisture; and despite the back-up systems to ensure the generator kept operating, there does not seem to have been provision for manual reversing if the contactors themselves failed. If the mechanical stoker failed, spares could not be obtained in wartime, though the engine could revert to hand firing, as half of them were hand-fired anyway. Probably the most important factor was priming (carry-over of water into the cylinders). The local water was of poor quality - to say nothing of difficulties of supply - and, even in peacetime, the boilers needed washing out after every return trip. The small vertical piston valves of the Cossart gear were very vulnerable to damage from this cause.

Ducluzeau, now Deputy Director of the CFA, was one of a mission which went to the USA in early 1944 to seek equipment to keep the North African lines running. Whilst there he was asked to discuss requirements for the post-war recovery of France itself, which was then still under Nazi occupation - studies that ultimately led, among other things, to the 141R. During his 5 months in America and Canada Ducluzeau was impressed by US practice. On his return to Algeria, he initiated a crash programme of dieselisation on the American model, using ready-to-run road-switchers from Baldwin and Alco (the Alsthom 060 DBs came later). Along with other steam power, the Garratts were laid aside, the last of the standard-gauge engines being withdrawn in 1951. The 1055-mm gauge locos remained in service rather longer, principally on freight and livestock trains, until the Blida - Djelfa line was dieselised in the 1960s, this time using French-built machines.

Note on liveries

As is frequently the case, sources are silent as to liveries, and the orthochromatic film of the time makes interpretation of black-and-white images difficult. Pictures of 231-132 AT 1, and some of the narrow-gauge YATs, show lining on the tanks and cylinders. The official pictures of 231-132 BT 1 show black below the level of the running plates on the engine units, continuing over the full length of the locomotive. This engine is in works photographic grey, as rendered in a colour painting in Hollingsworth's book. J-P Vergez-Larrouy has informed me, however, that in service all the Garratts were PLM green, lined-out in red and black "when the staff had the time and the paint"!

¹Chapelon rejected the transverse double-chimney as a nonsense since the exhaust must be concentrated as close to the boiler centre line as possible (see note in Journal 114 p. 19).
²These were designed by the OCEM and closely based on the corresponding vehicles on SNCF. However, they were of welded instead of riveted construction, saving 12-13% of weight. For insulation they had double-skinned roofs and an outer layer of timber matchboarding on the sides.
³It is stated that the valve gear was manufactured by Corpet-Louvet.
⁴See Ian Jowett's article in Journal 97.

REFERENCES
Beyer-Garratt Express Locomotive, P.L..M. Ry. (Algeria) in The Locomotive, August 15, 1932.
Beyer, Peacock & Co Ltd: New Express Passenger Beyer-Garratt Locomotives for Algeria (Offprint from Railway Gazette , March 27, 1936)
P. Béjui, L. Raynaud & J-P Vergez-Larrouy: Les Chemins de Fer de la France d'Outre-Mer Tome 2 (La Régordane, 1992)
A.E. Durrant: Garratt Locomotives of the World (David & Charles, 1981)
A.E. Durrant, C.P. Lewis & A. Jorgensen: Steam in Africa (Hamlyn, 1981)
B. Hollingsworth: Encyclopaedia of the World's Steam Passenger Locomotives (Salamander, 1982)
P.M. Kalla-Bishop: Locomotives at War (Bradford Barton paperback, undated)
Baron Vuillet: Railway Reminiscences of Three Continents (Nelson, 1968)
A. Chapelon: La Locomotive à Vapeur (English Edition, Camden 2000)
E.D. Brant: Railways of North Africa (David & Charles, 1971)
Loco-Revue: Fiche Documentaire No 373/4, 1972

	241-142 YAT 1055 mm gauge	231-132 AT standard gauge	231-132 BT standard gauge
Length over buffers	24.273 m	29.380 m	29.432 m
Driving wheel diameter	1.092 m (3'7")*	1.800 m	1.800 m
Bogie wheel diameter	0.723 m (2'4½")*	1.00 m	1.00 m
Trailing wheel diameter	0.723 m (2'4½")*	1.20 m	1.20 m
Boiler pressure	14 hpz/bar (200 psi)*	16 hpz/bar	20 hpz/bar
Grate area	4.06 m2	5.07 m2	5.40 m2
Total heating surface	225.01 m2	348.37 m2	350.26 m2 **
Cylinders (bore x stroke)	419 x 559 mm (16½ x 22")*	490 x 660 mm	490 x 660 mm
Weight in working order	144.0 tonnes	211.6 tonnes	216.0 tonnes
Adhesion weight	87.1 tonnes	111.0 tonnes	111.0 tonnes
Maximum axle loading	11.5 tonnes	18.5 tonnes	18.5 tonnes
Coal	6 tonnes	9 tonnes	11 tonnes
Water	28.50 m3	28.75 m3	30.00 m3

^*Imperial measures inherited from KUR class EC1
^**Sources give different figures according to how measurements are taken. These figures include firebox, tubes and superheater and are taken from the gas side.