After they were put to sleep in the 1920s, French powder mills were reactivated in 1939 due to the rise of Nazism. They placed an order under number 4680 for 6 locomotives Sans Foyer, based on the locomotives built by Hanomag that they had acquired in 1910, from the Tubize Metallurgical Workshops.

However, with the annexation of Belgium in May 1940, this order was diverted to Dynamit Nobel in Troisdorf, which was the largest German explosives manufacturer during World War II. Dynamit Nobel employed nearly 100,000 men, including 177 Belgians who were subject to the Compulsory Labor Service (S.T.O.) through its own labor camps.

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On March 7, 1941, the first boiler tests took place on the site of the Ateliers de la Métallurgique in Nivelles.

The 6 locomotives were delivered to Troisdorf and then distributed to the company’s various sites. Our locomotive number 2259 was sent to Clausthal, while locomotive 2260 was delivered to the Krümmel site, a suburb of Hamburg, where it was numbered 9.

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Subsequently our 2259 will join her in Krümmel and will bear the number 10 on the site. At the end of the conflict, the machines remained on site until September 1948.

After which, back in Belgium, the 2259 found itself at Solvay in Couillet/Montignies and the 2260 joined the wash house of the Charbonnage du Roton in Farciennes (last colliery to close in Wallonia on September 30, 1984).  

Their return to Belgium can be explained in two ways:

1) in connection with the restitution of post-war property

2) because Solvay was a 25% shareholder of IG Farben, which itself owned Dynamit Nobel.

After being put up for sale at Charles Focquet, a wholesaler, it was bought by Univerbel in May 1952 for use at the Zeebrugge site. In 1954, it was replaced by a more powerful locomotive and transferred to the Dampremy (Charleroi) site, where it continued to be used until 1969, when it was replaced by a Cockerill locotractor. Thereafter, it was used only sporadically for replacements before being definitively put in reserve in 1971

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The locomotive Sans Foyer, acquired in 1979 by C. Ladrière, was transferred to the CF3V (Chemin de Fer à Vapeur des Trois Vallées), but unfortunately was not properly developed before joining the Museum of Industry in 1996. It was then integrated into the collection of the Musée du Bois du Cazier in the early 2000s.

Currently, the locomotive is still owned by the Ladrière family. It was returned to service on 29 February 2020, but runs on compressed air because the site does not have an adequate means for steam heating. Further restoration is planned in the future to fully restore the locomotive to its original state.