Here is what Ron Ziel had to say in his book, "American Locomotives - 1858-1949":
Among the most rakish and appealing of American export steam locomotives were the Liberation-Class 2-8-2 built for the Société Nationaldes Chemins de Fer Français (S.N.C.F.) between 1945 and 1947. More than four-fifths of the French National Railways' locomotives had been destroyed, severely damaged or expropriated by the Germans during the Second World War, so a massive infusion of new power was needed -- and fast! The solution came quickly, in the form of the 141.R 2-8-2, 1,340 of which were erected by the three major U.S. builders, plus the Canadian Locomotive Works and Montreal Locomotive Company, in just two years. The French had been among the world's most successful steam-locomotive designers and builders, having created engines that were at once mechanically sophisticated and beautiful in line and form, but the motive-power crisis faced by the S.N.C.F. at the time of Liberation was so severe that there was no time to work on new designs, so a very basic Mikado with medium-size driving wheels was chosen--a well proven concept that was equally able to move heavy freights and hold down the schedules of all but the fastest express passenger trains. So successful was the 141.R type that, by 1951, although it comprised just 15 percent of the total locomotives on the S.N.C.F., it accounted for 30 percent of all engine-miles and handled 45 percent of all freight traffic, plus passenger runs. When the end of the steam era in France neared in 1971 and a mere five hundred steam locomotives remained on the main-line French rails, over four hundred of the active engines were survivors of the once ubiquitous 141.R roster.
From the same book, here is a photo of the 141.R.446:
Question -- I noticed in this photo that the throttle reach rods and compensating lever are on the left side of the engine. Do the French engineers sit on the left side of the cab?
Ed