Production

35 locomotives were built by Schneider et Cie., of Le Creusot between 1948 and 1952.^[1]

Service life

The class was initially assigned to the line between Paris and Marseilles, hauling services including the famous Le Mistral expresses, but within a few years they were displaced by electrification. Most of the class was then transferred to the Nord, l'Est and l'Ouest regions. For over ten years they managed the traffic on the line west of Le Mans, including the 411 km (255.4 mi) line to Brest and 410 km (254.8 mi) line to Quimper. They hauled trains of up to 16 coaches, weighing over 800 tons.^[1]

The 241.P class were allocated to the following depots:

• South-eastern Region: Dijon, Marseille-Blancarde, Lyon-Mouche, Nevers
• Eastern Region: la Villette, Noisy-le-Sec, Chaumont
• Northern Region: La Chapelle (Gare du Nord)
• Western Region: Le Mans

Although powerful, the class was not without its problems. The frames, lightly constructed to avoid excessive axle load, were not able to handle the power of the cylinders and flexing of the frame under load led to problems such as hot axle boxes.^[2] The class also suffered from leaking boiler tubes after passing over points, which necessitated structural reinforcement.^[3]

The class was withdrawn progressively from service from 1965 for 241.P.1 to 1973 for 241.P.16. Their last regular work, on the Le Mans to Nantes route, ended in early 1970. The class was nicknamed the grosses P to distinguish them from the 141.P Class, which were called the petites P.

Preservation

Four 241.Ps have been preserved:

• 241.P.9, withdrawn in 1973 and placed in storage in Guîtres, was transferred from Bordeaux to Toulouse on 7 December 2008 and is the subject of a restoration project by AAATV-MP
• 241.P.16, withdrawn in 1973, is on display at the Cité du train (National Railway Museum of France) in Mulhouse
• 241.P.17, preserved at Le Creusot and restored to working operation in April 2006, is authorised to run on SNCF tracks with passengers, after a 13-year restoration project and since then travel across France and sometimes Switzerland few times a year. It is classed as a Monument historique
• 241.P.30, withdrawn in 1969 and transferred to the French-Swiss border town of Vallorbe for public display, was transferred again in 1997 to Saint-Sulpice, Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and into the care of the Vapeur Val-de-Travers group for static preservation^[4] In 2019 the locomotive was acquired by AJECTA and transported to Longueville.^[5]