Pauline or Charentaise were the nicknames of the railcars series built in 1930s by The Entreprises Industrielles Charentaises in Aytré. Initially developed on the initiative of the Chemins de fer du Midi, these railcars were subsequently ordered by various French railway companies, some of them joining the SNCF. They were the first series of French diesel-powered railcars.
Several series were produced, each with technical and structural differences, but all based on a very light body design using riveted aluminum and duralium sheet metal. These different series are known as type 1 (prototype), type 1 N, types 2 and 2 bis, type 3 N, and type 4 N. Among these railcars, the XC 11000 is a set of nineteen units from the type 2 and 2 bis series, ordered by the AL, State, PLM, and Midi (then PO-Midi) networks and integrated into the SNCF workforce when it was created in 1938.
These railcars, which entered service gradually in the early 1930s, were mostly written off after the war. Only a few XC 11000s remained in SNCF inventories until 1952, one unit being preserved from scrap until the mid-1970s when it was de-motorized and used as an escort car for a tunnel-sensing train. No Pauline railcars have been preserved.
The Pauline railcars bear witness to a pivotal period for the French railroads, which had to face stiff competition from automobile transport, which was cheaper for both users and operators. They were an efficient and economical response for the railways of the time to the closure of secondary lines due to the operating costs of traditional steam trains.
Type 1 (prototype)
Creation context The 1930s saw the significant development of automobile and air transport, and competition with the railroads became increasingly intense. As these means of transport became more accessible and democratized, the operation of secondary railroad lines with steam trains became less and less profitable for French railways.
In response to competition from cars and buses, railways and carmakers ordered light, self-propelled railcars to replace steam traction on lightly trafficked lines. This was the concept of the railcar, still sometimes referred to at the time as a self-propelled train. The first series developed were largely inspired by buses before railcars gradually broke away from their road-based origins.
Given the success of the railcar, in the late 1920s Michelin designed lightweight railcars equipped with pneumatic tires to replace steel wheels. While this new solution improved passenger comfort and provided better grip between the wheel and the rail, it also severely limited axle load, making it necessary to increase the number of wheels mounted on the bogies and limit the vehicle's weight. Several series of railcars were produced by Michelin, grouped under the nickname Michelines. Dunlop, Michelin's competitor, drew inspiration from them to create the Dunlop-Fouga railcar in 1935.
Controls André Ménétrier, chief engineer for equipment and traction at Compagnie du Midi, was asked by Jean-Raoul Paul, director of the company, to draw up specifications for an order for a rail “bus ”. This railcar, capable of carrying around sixty people, was intended to provide efficient and economical rail operations on short lines.
In 1930, the Compagnie du Midi ordered a single example of the prototype railcar, designed and built by EIC in collaboration with the Compagnie Lilleoise de moteurs (CLM) and the Société de l'Aluminium Français. It was delivered in September 1931.The prototype, designated Type 1, was presented to the press on October 27, 1931, during a trip between Bordeaux-Saint-Louis and Le Verdon. The railcar leaves the Bordeaux-Saint-Louis station, following the express for the 100 km to Le Verdon. With stops in Bruges, Pauillac, Lesparre and Soulac-sur-Mer, the journey takes 1 h 45. The return journey is an omnibus mission which, despite stopping at each of the 22 stations on the line, takes just 1 h 40, five minutes less than the express and almost half the time taken by the steam omnibus train to cover the same distance.
The unique Pauline type 1 is registered ZZt 23501 at Midi, then renumbered ZZEt 23301 when the PO-Midi was created. The SNCF assigns it the registration ZZC 10001 (C being the EIC manufacturer's code).
Surname The prototype was quickly nicknamed Pauline, in reference to Jean-Raoul Paul, its fervent promoter.Later, other railcars produced by EIC also inherited this nickname, notably those of the Midi and then the PO-Midi. The Eastern and State railcars, types 3 N and 4 N, received the nickname Charentaise, about the manufacturer of these machines, while at the PLM both nicknames were used interchangeably, although the railroader's preferred nickname was Pauline.
Description and features The frame and body of the Pauline railcar prototype are constructed from a variety of duralium sections and sheets. The frame and body together form a tubular structure designed to ensure strength and avoid local buckling.The faces of the machine are made from 2 mm thick sheet metal. All connections are made using duralium rivets, either cold-applied or preheated to 180 °C.
The widespread use of aluminum and its derivatives enabled the railcar's mass to be significantly reduced, and lower-powered engines to be used, while still guaranteeing high traction performance. This metal was also of interest for the body's resistance to impact - able to absorb a large amount of energy - and the alumina layer that immediately formed on the bare metal effectively protected it from corrosion. However, aluminum was not used on a large scale for later railway equipment, steel being widely preferred despite its higher density.The chassis rests on two 750 mm axles spaced 6.805 m apart; suspension between the body and the SKF axles is provided by leaf springs. Numerous press articles from the early 1930s were devoted to explaining and demonstrating why wheel-rail adhesion had been chosen instead of Michelin's pneurail, which was seen at the time as a technology of the future. The advantages presented argue in favor of the iron wheel: limitation of the number of wheels, activation of track circuits and signaling, excellent track holding and use of sandpits to increase the wheel-rail adhesion coefficient.
Braking was initially provided by cast-iron brake shoes actuated by servo brakes. In the weeks following the press launch, this system was replaced by Charlestop drum brakes, a technology derived from aeronautics, to further reduce the weight of the machine.
The prototype is equipped with a single driver's cab, making it non-reversible: it has to be turned around at the end of a run to start again in the opposite direction. The railcar's low centre-to-centre distance enables it to be turned around on a small turntable.
The interior layout accommodates 61 passengers seated in a single class on varnished plywood-covered benches offering rudimentary comfort to say the least. The luggage compartment can carry a ton of cargo or six standing passengers. The front end houses the driver's cab, the engine compartment - covered by a hood - and a toilet.
The railcar is powered by a CLM type 85 LC 3 engine, manufactured under license in France from a Junkers model. This is a three-cylinder, two-stroke engine rated at 80 hp at 1,500 rpm, and weighing just 480 kg thanks to the use of aluminum alloys. The engine is cooled by a water circuit running through a radiator located at the front of the machine, which also heats the passenger compartment via a bypass circuit. The flywheel is bolted to a clutch controlled by the driver with a pedal, which is connected to the Minerva four-speed gearbox - including reverse - enabling speeds of 20 km/h in first, 48 km/h in second and 95 km/h in third (in direct engagement with a unitary transmission ratio). A shaft transmits the tractive effort to the rear axle via a bevel gear.
The gearbox lever is hinged through the floor directly to the gearbox cover: it is operated by the driver, seated next to it on a rudimentary farm-type seat.The Pauline type 1 du Midi sports a green and white livery, similar to that of the Paulines type 2 bis of the same network.
Services performed Before her maiden voyage on October 27, 1931, between Bordeaux-Saint-Louis and Le Verdon, the first Pauline du Midi completed several test runs, covering more than 2,500 km. On February 27, 1931, she was presented to Cyrille Grimpret during a round trip between Bordeaux and Marmande. On September 4 and 5, 1931, a trip between Bordeaux and Montréjeau through the steep ramps of the Pyrenees - in particular the Capvern ramp - and at full load, enabled us to calculate the machine's fuel consumption on difficult track profiles.
The prototype joined the staff of the Mont-de-Marsan autorail center a few weeks after its presentation to the press. In 1933, it was joined by four Paulines type 1 N and eight type 2 bis to serve the Mont-de-Marsan star. These railcars cover services from Mont-de-Marsan to Marmande, Dax, Nérac and Morcenx, as well as omnibus services between Saint-Sever and Hagetmau, and between Marmande and Eymet.
From July to September 1932, the Pauline was used by the Compagnie du Midi, in agreement with the Société des voies ferrées des Landes, for a trial campaign in Sunday service between Mont-de-Marsan and the Mimizan-Plage station. Satisfied with the results of these trials, the Conseil Général subsequently considered acquiring thirteen Pauline railcars (including three for metre gauge) of type 2 bis or similar, to provide a fleet of railcars for the department's local railroads (chemin de fer de Luxey à Mont-de-Marsan, voies ferrées des Landes and steam tramways de la Chalosse et du Béarn), a project which never materialized.
In August 1943, the SNCF asked the Secretary of State for Industrial Production and Communications for authorization to sell some of its railcars to German secondary networks through a Franco-Romanian company. The unique Pauline type 1 was one of the railcars considered for sale, the reasons given being its non-reversibility and the fact that it was a one-off prototype. However, the sale was never finalized.
The inventory of equipment as of December 31, 1946, indicates the existence of a project to demotorize the prototype and transform it into a railcar trailer under the registration number RZ 10201. This project was subsequently canceled, and the railcar was finally written off in 1948.
Type 1 N
Controls Shortly before its merger with Paris-Orléans, Midi ordered four Pauline type 1 N railcars from EIC. These cars incorporate some of the improvements introduced on the Paulines types 2 and 2 bis, which, although higher numbered, were ordered almost a year before the Paulines 1 N.
At Le Midi, the four railcars are numbered ZZ 23511 to 23514, before being renumbered ZZEt 23311 to 23314 at Le PO-Midi. The SNCF assigns them ZZC 10111 to 10114.
At least one Pauline 1 N was in operation on the Chemins de fer économiques (SE) network in Gironde in the late 1950s.
Description and features Although built after the Paulines types 2 and 2 bis, the Paulines 1 N du Midi are based on the two-axle design of the prototype. The car's light weight is ensured by the use of duralium sheet metal riveted to a U frame.
Unlike the prototype, the railcar is reversible, with a driver's cab at each end. In addition, the front and rear faces are profiled, far from the parallelepiped shape of type 1. The interior faces and ceiling are made of sheet aluminum. The floor is made of fluted duralium sheet, riveted to the crossmembers and covered with cork and linoleum in the passenger compartment.
This passenger compartment offers forty-three seats and twelve standing places. With a ceiling height of 2.204 m, it is more comfortable than the prototype's passenger compartment, which has a much lower ceiling.