France also produced some of the last Baltic locomotives. In 1938, Marc de Caso, the last Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Nord, originated the construction of eight Baltic locomotives, all delivered to the newly established "Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français" (French National Railway Corporation or SNCF). Of these eight, three were 232.R class three-cylinder simple expansion (simplex) locomotives with rotary cam poppet valve gear, while four were 232.S class four-cylinder compound locomotives, initially also with poppet valve gear that was later replaced by Walschaerts valve gear driving oscillating cams. Built for comparative purposes, it was found that the compounds outperformed the simples.