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Pauline (railcar)
French railcars series built in the 1930s / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
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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.