Baldwins in France

[yellowdog]

Found some interesting data on the current status of the surviving Baldwin fleet in France.

There is a photostream in Flickr that indicate some Baldwin 62000-series (DRS 6-4-660) units may still be active with the SNCF.

The photographer is Patrick VERBAERE:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jobiwannn/ ... otostream/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (Thionville...12/30/13)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jobiwannn/ ... 022876251/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (Somain...1/12/13)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jobiwannn/ ... 022876251/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (Grande Synthe...9/4/12)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jobiwannn/ ... 022876251/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (Dunkerque...9/4/12)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jobiwannn/ ... 022876251/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (Somain...1/12/13)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jobiwannn/ ... 022876251/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (Dunkerque...9/4/12)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jobiwannn/ ... 022876251/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (Hazebrouck...9/4/12)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jobiwannn/ ... 022876251/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (Douai...1/12/13)

There are more photos in the stream but I think most of them are repeats (of a particular locomotive).

[yellowdog]

Also found this on a German railfan site. Photo dates from 2010 and shows 62001 (and a possible sister unit behind her) looking kind of tattered. A quick check of Google Earth shows a shed on the east side of the railyard in Arc les Grays (north of the river and close to Route D670) with some parked rolling stock and at least one really rusty loco that could be her.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4125/513 ... 29a0_b.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[yellowdog]

Posted the last item too soon. Found another Flickr stream by a photographer by the name of Alex Leroy who took a series of excellent shots of 62001 and her sister unit--62062--in 2012.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alex-leroy ... otostream/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Too bad they are so far away. Would be nice candidates for preservation in a US museum...

[yellowdog]

For anyone (besides myself) who hadn't already seen these, here are nice videos of some of the surviving French Baldwins.

62000
(1970) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGzVkogz7Z4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (the unit appears at 5:03 and 11:19)
(2009) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixJbbVyJUhU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (rusting in the deadline)

62029
(2010) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idvgMk_lqNc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
(2012) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfsGrg6F_Ow" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

62094
(2007) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSKyX0x ... FCB5323025" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
(2008) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCCHtv5sme8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
(2008) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJVQWjehnCU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
(2010) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr1mRx2WjT8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
(2014) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2Ia_iBkIHg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (an awesome restoration!)
(2014) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2arPDeq9C0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[SebastienKieffer]

Dear All,
I'm Sebastien, railfan since 1984, Baldwin fan since 1987, and volunteer since 1994 in the association CFTR (cftr.evolutive.org) where one of the last DRS 6-4-660 (the 62029) from the french state railway could be preserved in 1983 and run on our line on a regular base.
I'm very busy to repair and restore it as I'm quite alone with few exceptions to do the job but I love it so much that I preserved (with the help of few others members) another exemplary of them, the 62073.
I'm in contact with the webmaster of the baldwin railfan zone and post there the results of the work we do.
Here: http://baldwindiesels.railfan.net/sncf/index.html#cftr
Or here http://baldwindiesels.railfan.net/sncf/ ... nting.html concerning the works currently done (or in doing) on the 62029.
Concerning the 62073, this is a picture of the salvage of it in the french town of Pontarlier.
http://baldwindiesels.railfan.net/sncf/62073-b.jpg
Now the loco is at our depot, exactly at the border to Germany and, when I'm finished with the 62029 and 2 GE locos i've also to care for, I'll restore the 62073.
If you have any questions, let me know, I'm very glad to help if I can do it.
Thank you a lot and long live the baldwins around the world!
Sebastien

[Jeff Smith]

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews ... in-france/

Baldwin diesels scrapped in France



PARIS — Four nearly 80-year-old, Baldwin-built diesel locomotives have been scrapped in France after preservation efforts failed. Two of the units were scrapped in December, following the scrapping of two similar diesels earlier in 2023.

The locomotives were part of the effort to resupply French Railways (SCNF) following World War II, when it lost more than 80% of its locomotive fleet through war damage, neglect, or transfer of the equipment to other countries by the occupying German forces.

Initially seven of the Baldwins were saved for preservation, but in the intervening 30 years lack of resources — and crucially, perhaps, lack of opportunity to use them — left several locomotives stored in various locations around France exposed to the elements and slowly rusting away. Unlike neighboring Britain or Germany, where diesel preservation is well established — and funded by supporters and volunteers, given opportunities to operate the units on heritage lines or even the mainline — this is not the case in France. The locomotives scrapped in 2023 — class leader AIAAIA 62001, plus 62032, 62036 and 62062 — were owned by a variety of organizations and in several locations, and were considered beyond repair or taking up space in mainline sidings.
...

[SebastienKieffer]

Dear Jeff,
Thanx for having posted this article but in fact there are several points which are not correct:
I'll try to give more accurate information:
The 62036 (and not in december as there was confusion about the property of the loco so it was scrapped in january of 2024 but that's not very important) and only this one has been scrapped at Domrémy-la-Canne. The scrapper is Derichebourg and it is there: https://maps.app.goo.gl/WqHG6cEZ4yCwmFkKA
It was really chance/accident that I was made aware of the scrapping of this locomotive 1 day (!) before it should be scrapped.
The 62032 was not there at that time and as far as the people on this site were correctly informed, it was not known that it had to be scrapped. So wait and see.

The 62001 (which was landmarked!) andthe 62062 were not scrapped in 2023 but in september 2021, in Gray. And currently, concerning the 62001 there is a police investigation to determine who is responsible for this pity.
In France if you destroy something landmarked, you can be fined with 7500€ (approx. same in $) and 6 months jail... At the moment, there are no further info about who was responsible for this.

The 62029 is not operational at the moment and to be honest, I'm not sure that it will be operational this year when I see the amount of work I've to do on it. It's simply enormous! As the loco was all the time outside, water was able to go in, especially beyond the big can which leads the air behind the oil- and water radiators. So it could reach the air can leading to the traction motors and a lot of rust was the consequence. Enormous work had to be done to seal it and it is still not finished... I hope I'll be done by end of march of this year.
Concerning the 62073, we are very far away to see the end of the tunnel but with the parts we have saved in the past and in the last month, I'm quite optimistic that I'll succeed. This project will last at least 10 years. Every day, a new electric component is renewed. The day is not so far anymore when the whole electric circuit will be completed. (This year in every case) But this is only one chapter from many to run this loco which has been considerably damaged by gypsies when it was parked 15 years in Pontarlier.

Also I noticed that in the article, the autor says that top speed is 50 which is not correct. Top speed is originally 60mph (96km/h). Only after few years in service, the SNCF limited there max. speed to 50.

In fact I'm glad to see that there are some articles about our good old baldwin, also in the US railfan press.
At the end of the decade, there will be only 3 baldwin left and saved for sure: 62029, 62073 and 62094. I'm quite sure that the 62032 will also soon disappear as noone is able or willing to save it. I'm not sure which (62032 or 62036) but for sure one had a major engine failure (engine block cracked) and the other had a major generator failure. So it would have been only possible to do one loco using parts of both. This will sadly never happen...