The AL S 9 Class, was a class of 4-6-0 express engines, built for the Kaiserliche Generaldirektion der Eisenbahnen in Elsaß-Lothringen.
History[]
The strugle of the AL S 4 Class ahead of the high speed trains of the Elsaß-Lothringen Imperial Railway, led to the demotion of the class as P 7, for mixt traffic duties in 1912. The EL, in the need to have engines most suitable for speed trains would commanded to Alfred De Glehn at Graffenstaden, another class of 4-6-0 from his conception. In 1906, the first engines of a new class of Tenwheeler engines leave the factory. They were identical to S 4s, later P 7s, but with some differences. These new engines have a bigger driving diameter (1.98 m), and different the steam passage sections.
Germany[]
EL S 5 251 to 331, then S 9 901 to 980[]
The SACM at Graffenstaden produced 65 engines for the EL. the last 15 engines were produced in 1909 by Henschel & Sohn. At their arrival between 1906 and 1909, they received the registers S 5 251 to 330, and they received name plates with the names of rivers, just like the S 4s. In 1912, the class would be renumbered S 9 901 to 980. In 1913, they lost their number plates. During their career on the EL, the S 9s would replaced the P 7s from the high speed trains of the railway.
The EL would equipped the S 9s with Knorr type preheaters on engines no. 904, 911, 913, 914, 920, 928, 930, 931, 935, 948, 949, 953, 966 and 970.
France[]
AL S 9 901 to 980
In 1918, after World War 1, the EL railway passed under the control of the French army. In 1919, after the annexation of Alsace and Moselle to France, in July, the Administration des Chemins de fer d'Alsace et de Lorraine (AL) which replaced the EL, and incorporated its roster. Including the S 9 class. But at the end of the war, one member of the S 9 class remained in Germany, this engine was no. 947.
During the war the EL had ordered a batch of 60 engines identical to the Prussian S 101 Class, the most powerful 4-6-0s of the KPEV. However due to the war only 17 engines have been delivered to the EL, the rest of the series had been canceled for the benefit of construction of goods engines for war effort. This little amount of engines, magnified by adding five engines taken from the prussians railways as war reparation, wasn't enough and the AL needed new express engines. The railway had no other choice then improve the 79 S 9 engines.
In 1923, the AL transformed two of its engines, no. 928 and 974, by adding a Schimdt superheater, with small tubes, and an improve of the lubrication of the High Pressure drawers. A similar upgrade also given to the SBB A 3/5 700 Class, in Switzerland. This upgrade would be applied to 30 engines by 1926. However this upgrade didn't show satisfaction, as it was prone to drawers heating and the crushing of the small superheater's tubes during a long run. In 1928, the superheater's tubes were replace by thicker tubes, and 20 engines received a "Kylchap" exhaust. In 1927, the S 9s have their boilers showing their age and being replace. The year began a new transformation with: the replacment of the tube sheets; the implement of a Schmidt superheater type A, with the enlargement of the Higher Pressure cylinders at 370 mm, and the use of special spools, identical to the flat drawers, which allows conserved the pre-existing distribution. This last modification adding an increase of the power 20%, would be applied to every engines of the class. In 1936, 52 engines of the class were equipped with a superheater. In 1930, the class "Kylchap" exhaust was replaced by a "Shamrock PLM" type. In 1931, the works of Sarreguemines proceded to the add of A.C.F.I. RM type pre-heater on the engine, that weren't equipped with a Knorr type pre-heater, only 9 engines wouldn't received this feature. From 1935 onwards, every class member received smoke deflectors.
The S 9s does there come back at the head of express trains and other fast train with a weight of 350 metric tons. They ensure the reserve of the express passenger train, the "Edelweiss", between Metz and Strasbourg, at the average speed of 107 km/h (66.5 mph).
SNCF 1-230.D.901 to 980[]
In 1938, at the creation of the Société National des Chemins de fer Français (SNCF), every 79 engines were still in service. They were incorporated into SNCF's roster and became SNCF 1-230.D.901 to 980, and their tenders received the registers 1-20.B.901 to 980. They were allocated at the time at the depots of Metz-Sablon, Réding, Sarrebourg, Sarreguemines, Hagueneau, Strasbourg, Sélestat, Colamr and Mulhouse-Île Napoléon. In plus of the light express trains they pulled, they also enshured semi-direct trains and local trains.
In 1940, during the occupation of Alsace-Lorraine by Germany, the entire class was retrieved by the Deutsche Reichsbahn. After World War II, the SNCF did the repatriation of the ex-S 9s, between January 1945 and July 1950, but only 57 engines came back in Alsace. The 22 other engines : 902 to 904, 906, 917, 919, 921, 928, 935, 938, 940, 942, 945, 946, 948, 959, 963, 965, 968, 971, 975 and 978; never came back.
however they pulled only local trains and light goods trains, for some of them on the star on Bénestroff. In 1949, the withdrawn of the class began, with the engines no. 931, 937, 970 and 976, and accelerated from the following year. On July 1st 1952, there were 24 remaining engines, at the depots of Strasbourg, Hausbergen, Hagueneau, Sarreguemines, Sarrebourg and Thionville. The ex-S 9s were written off on January 1st 1957.
References[]
Books:
- BUCCHMAN, Jean, (2012), Les 230 SACM de l'AL, La Revue Périodique du Cercle Historique du Rail Français, no. 5, 16-21.
- GILLOT, Jean, Les locomotives à vapeur de la SNCF. région Est, Editions Picador, Levallois-Perret, 1976