LA France steam train

[Jukebag]

Been going through a few old home videos from the 1990s, and on one particular video taken at the long gone Carnforth Steamport I spotted an oddity amongst the familiar locos that were stationed in the loco sheds at the time, a steam train that I had never heard of before named LA France. I'm assuming this was a French built loco that was transported to Carnforth for some reason or other. There's a shot of this train on a different occasion outside. Can't find anything about this train, though I did find a photo of a similar looking train.

Anyone heard of this?.

Screenshot above, taken in 1992.

[Yertis]

'La France' was a French engine the GWR obtained for trials (I can remember that much without Googling) but I don't think this is it...

[john2443]

Have you got a pic from slightly further away so we can see what it looks like?

The GWR had a French loco called La France in 1903 but nothing on Google suggests that it was preserved.


PS It's a locomotive, not a train!

[GrahamG]

Its an SNCF loco - moved to Germany in around 2000 - Pics here

https://andrewstransport.smugmug.com/Germantrains/...

[Jukebag]

GrahamG said:

Its an SNCF loco - moved to Germany in around 2000 - Pics here

https://andrewstransport.smugmug.com/Germantrains/...

Thanks for that link, interesting. I never knew there were other similar locomotives that had been stationed at Steamtown Carnforth at the time. That's the only foreign looking steam loco I recall seeing (well only what I saw on the home videos I have as I would've been too young to be bothered about knowing the different locos at the time). Didn't Steamtown close in the late 90s?. My dad was a big steam enthusiast and I'm surprised he never pointed out the French loco to me that was there amongst the other A3s like Lord Nelson and Britannia (I believe Sir Nigel Gresley was at Carnforth during the early-mid 90s having a complete restoration done).

Edited by Jukebag on Thursday 29th October 13:21

[Flying Phil]

I believe several locomotives were imported to the UK in the 1970-90's as they were complete and relatively easy to get steaming again. Although Barry Island had many scrap locomotives then they were more expensive to get restored. Indeed the Nene Valley Railway highlighted their use of Continental locomotives for many years.

[Jukebag]

Noone hardy talks about Carnforth Steamtown anymore amongst rail enthusiasts, not that I've heard, it seems to have been forgotten.

[Jader1973]

Flying Phil said:

I believe several locomotives were imported to the UK in the 1970-90's as they were complete and relatively easy to get steaming again. Although Barry Island had many scrap locomotives then they were more expensive to get restored. Indeed the Nene Valley Railway highlighted their use of Continental locomotives for many years.

How did they do that given Continental loading gauge was larger than the UK so European locos don’t fit?

As for Steamtown we used to go regularly in the 80s and I have a vague memory of a huge European loco. Not sure if it was French or German. I’ll trawl my dad’s flickr and see if I can find it.

[rs1952]

Jader1973 said:

How did they do that given Continental loading gauge was larger than the UK so European locos don’t fit?

Moved in and out by road and left on shed while they were there

BR still has a stam ban for much of that time anyway.

4472/ 60103 and a DB class 042 were also there when I visited back in 1983

[Jukebag]

Here's another shot of LA France taken from a home video at Carnforth, this time outside in Sept 1993.



And here's Sir Nigel Gresley in a state of restoration in 1992. I wonder what health and safety would make of the place today, they would have a field day.

Edited by Jukebag on Friday 30th October 16:21

[Jader1973]

Found dad’s photos.

It was the SNCF 231K Pacific that was there mid-seventies, with a DB Pacific as well.