Greetings friends,
I did some research on the wonderful SNCF C-C 7l00 locomotives and hope that those who have responded to my original post will find this information interesting.
1. The locomotive was 62 feet one inch long over the buffers. This would require an O scale locomotive to be slightly over 15 inches long. in fact the JEP locomotive is only 13 1/2 inches long over the couplers and somewhat less over the buffers. So, as I thought, the JEP version is really semi-scale, not scale. The JEP locomotive featured 2 AP5 20 volt DC motors.
2. Introduced in 1952, the locomotive was one of the best performers in the postwar era. It established a world's record of 205 mph in 1955. In contrast the USAs C-C General Electric E60CP , introduced 22 years later, proved to be a huge disappointment and was succeeded in 1980 by the excellent Swedish Meatball --the AEM-7. Although in the 1950s 1960s, and 1970s the USA was way ahead of the world in diesel electric technology, it proved to be woefully behind the French, Swiss, Swedish, German and even the British (Classes 86 and 87) in electric propulsion.
3. 58 C-C 7100 class locomotives were ultimately produced.
4. In 1957 the French introduced the BB-9200 series, their first venture into modern 4 axle high performance electric locomotives. Hornby was ready for them. In 1961 they introduced the TNB 20 volt DC B-B- diecast version of the B-B 9200. It is interesting to note that Hornby followed JEP by using 20 Volt DC in place of AC in this locomotive.
A wonderful source of information on early postwar electric locomotives is Ken Harris' World Electric locomotives published in 1981.
Finally, another picture of the JEP C-C 7100 on my layout.
