André Chapelon

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André Chapelon (born October 26, 1892 in Saint-Paul-en-Cornillon , Loire ; died July 22, 1978 in Paris ) was a French mechanical engineer . He is one of the two developers of the Kylchap suction train system, which was used in numerous French, British and Czechoslovakian steam locomotives . The British world record locomotive A4 No. 4468 “Mallard” was equipped with a Kylchap suction system. Two locomotives of the series 23 of the German Federal Railways were tentatively fitted with Kylchap-exhaust installations.

Life

SNCF 242 A 1
SNCF 231 E 41
Cut open smoke chamber with two Kylchap blowpipes of the Spanish steam locomotive Renfe 141F 2416 in the Delicias Railway Museum
Sectional drawing of a 1'E2 'locomotive planned by the DEL
World record locomotive A4 No. 4468 "Mallard"

Chapelon is considered to be one of the most skilled steam locomotive designers ever. He began his professional career as "Ingénieur des Arts et Manufactures" in the first half of the 1920s with the Compagnie Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée (PLM) railway company . Since he did not subordinate himself to the riotous constraints of PLM - his ideas were viewed as eccentric by his superiors - he first switched to telephony and then in 1925 to the research and development department of the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans (PO) .

Due to the poor economic situation in the interwar period , Chapelon had to deal with the financially weak PO primarily with improving existing machines. Deviating from the usual constructive procedure in steam locomotive construction based on rules of thumb and empirical values , he went into the technical details of the constructions with scientific meticulousness. The success of his designs is essentially based on this.

He achieved remarkable increases in performance when converting the locomotives through consistent application of thermodynamic knowledge. In this context he was a particular proponent of compound machines . Chapelon succeeded in increasing the thermal efficiency of its locomotives to over 12 percent, a value that has never been achieved elsewhere.

1934 Chapelon was chief engineer of the merged to Midi PO-paths of the PO and Midi called. After a study trip to the United States in 1938 , Chapelon planned more powerful new buildings that would have achieved a synthesis of the design principles of two leading steam locomotive-building nations and would have been far ahead of their time. However, the merger of the four major French networks to form the SNCF set new priorities to which these plans fell victim. So Chapelon was never allowed to design a completely new locomotive for France. He was only able to design such locomotives for Brazil.

Well-known and successful locomotive conversions by Chapelon were the PO 4701, at that time (1931) the most powerful locomotive in Europe with 3000  hp , the 240 P and the 242 A 1 , which with outputs of up to 5300 hp was considered the largest and most powerful steam locomotive in Europe . During test drives, the 242 A 1 even measured pulling hook outputs of around 6000 hp, which corresponds to a boiler output of around 6600 hp.

When converting the older 1'C1'h4v locomotive 4521 into the ultra-modern 2'Dh4v engine 240-701 in 1931, the head of the PO gave him a free hand. Chapelon calculated all thermodynamic processes and functional areas and designed the components of the locomotive accordingly. The design goal was a large radiant heating surface , streamlined, wide steam lines, a high degree of filling and identical performance values ​​for the high and low pressure cylinders . There was also a double Kylchap induced draft system, which Chapelon developed from an invention by the Finnish locomotive engineer Kyösti Kylälä until 1938 and gave it its name.

In 1938 Chapelon published his book La locomotive à vapeur (The Steam Locomotive) . In the same year he became head of the Division des Études de locomotives à vapeur (DEL) and developed plans for 160 km / h fast universal steam locomotives. The Second World War and the German occupation of the country ruined his plan. All he had left was to supervise the delivery of the US Mikados 141 R in 1945 and 1946 .

Even after his retirement, Chapelon's expertise was used to deal with tracking problems at high speeds. He also contributed to the success of the French high-speed trains ( TGV ).

André Chapelon was most recently “Ingénieur en Chef Honoraire” at the SNCF. Preserved Chapelon machines are the “Pacifics” 231 E 22 and 231 E 41 of the Mulhouse Railway Museum “Cité du Train”.

Awards

See also

literature

  • La locomotive à vapeur, A. Chapelon, Baillère editor Paris, editions 1938 and 1952. (without ISBN)
  • Les PACIFICS du PO-MIDI et l'oeuvre d'André Chapelon au réseau d'Orléans, M. Maillet, EDITIONS DU CABRI editor 1980.
  • L'oeuvre d'André Chapelon à la SNCF et son influence mondiale, M. Maillet, EDITIONS DU CABRI editor.
  • W. Messerschmidt, Farewell - André Chapelon..in memory, LM 93, Franckh 1978
  • A. Lepage, A. Chapelon - the life's work of a great engineer, LM 25, 26, Franckh 1967
  • Erhard Born: 2 C 1: Development and history of the Pacific locomotives. Franckh, Stuttgart 1965.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Chapelon, André ( 1892-1978 ) at dmg-lib.org, accessed on April 9, 2020
  2. ↑ BR 23 at dampflokomotivarchiv.de, accessed on April 9, 2020
  3. ↑ a b Didier Janssoone: L'Histoire des chemins de fer pour les nuls . Éditions First, Paris 2015, ISBN 978-2-7540-5928-2 , pp. 66 f .
  4. ↑ J. Michael Mehltretter: Full steam ahead. Power and technology of steam locomotives . 1st edition. Transpress, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-613-71469-4 , p. 69 .
personal data
SURNAME Chapelon, André
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French engineer
DATE OF BIRTH October 26, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint-Paul en Cornillon , Loire
DATE OF DEATH July 22, 1978
Place of death Paris