Our transalpine correspondent, Philippe Bernard Chatellet, sends us these photos and a drawing of one of the ugliest French locomotives.
Developed to replace the steam locomotives used to maneuver in large stations, it was equipped with a 379 hp engine and a hydraulic transmission recovered from a scrap yard in Dieppe sur Saone.
These were times of economy for the railways, not only French, and it was necessary to adapt innovation and eagerness for progress to the reduced financial resources.
According to our correspondent, for the construction were used some refrigerators left by American soldiers in France after the war and not usable because in 110 Volts 60 Hz. As an engine was used a Berliet-Peugeot precisely 379 horsepower from which later, with aesthetic results certainly better, was developed the Renault Douphine Station Wagon.
A fall in style for the cousins across the Alps, certainly caused by financial constraints imposed by the post-war period, but, as we shall see, was quickly overcome.