Old French Railway Postcards

Unmistakable metre gauge Corpet.

Senonches is in the Sarthe if I believe. Chartes-Alençon area.

What a great postcard with the 3 little girls along with everyone posing.

Notice the railway is by the road with a seperating line of trees in typical tramway style and a wagon full of hay or straw in the background.

These cards remind me of photo's in the station restaurant at Angouleme. They show the original station there, which has now been hideously clad in 70's modernism. There are still traces of the original building to be seen, as any of you that come to visit by TGV will be able to recognise!

Have you any cards of Angouleme, Cognac, Bordeaux or La Rochelle, Mikey ??

Cheers B

many brian. angouleme in fact had 4 stations. Its an interesting story but do you know the road tunnel that passes under the centre of angouleme? Well originally that was the railway tunnel and unfortunatley the company that built it failed to ask permission from the people who lived over it. One bright spark sued the company which in turn led to their early demise.

The other stations were destroyed by allied bombing in two raids in WW2. My other passion besides my guitar and model railways is walking old lines and visiting preserved lines. saddo aint I?
No not really!!

mikey

Nothing sad in any of those activities at all. Long may they continue.

heres a few more. this time its 'tramways and trams' Does anybody knowwhat type of loco is in the #first pic? Its at fort Mahon#Abbeville# in the Somme.

mikey

1910 saw the first and largest strike of French railway workers. This is how they dealt with it then (nothing changes!!)



Mikey

I do find these images endlessly fascinating, Mikey. The colourised one is superb! The second pic (Aix-les-Bains) looks like there is a rack rail down the middle of the track?

I always find myself wondering, when looking at those people looking at the guy with the camera, what they would have made of it all. Life seems so much less complicated back then...

So right Clive.I would imagine that having your pic taken in front of a train was akin to posing with Michael Jackson or the PM? (not a good comparison!!)

Mikey

Love the square windowed Piguet locomotive of the T.A. Tramways de l'Ardeche. What a priceless photo.

Now if someone would just make a live steam Piguet (or Pinguely) I would buy one at any reasonable cost.

And that 60cm tramway at Fort Mahon plage with the Decauville locomotive.....
Regner used make a 30mm gauge electric model.

There were a lot of these 'tramways betteraves' (beetroot tramways...!) on the north coast at one time.

I'm being a bit self-indulgent this time as all this months offerings feature my personal favourites~ the tramways .







more to follow

Mikey

theres more!







Mikey

This picture shows the conditions the tramways worked under!





Mikey

Fascinating images again, Mikey. Maybe it's just me, but often I find myself wishing I could project myself into those places at the time the photos were taken, just to see what life was really like back then. (I seem to recall an episode of 'Red Dwarf' where they did exactly that, so it must be possible! ) Keep them coming!

Identification please! any idea what engine this is? looks interesting!



Mikey

heres another of the same line



mikey

I've now realised they are Corpet Louvrets but they just look a bit different? Interesting line this one; the tramway winds its way around the town with a loop round the eglise. and only 4k long

mikey

Dammit, I was gonna guess Corpet Louvet too... of course no one will believe me!

Well done Mikey for posting those 020 Corpets.....rare beasts.
And particular to a line in Normandy near Le Havre..

I copied this off a post from about Expometrique 2002

Le Tramway de Saint-Romain de Colbosc :
Le tramway de Saint-Romain de Colbosc fut la première ligne d'intérêt local construite en Haute-Normandie en 1896. Il reliait la commune de Saint-Romain-de-Colbosc, chef lieu de canton situé à 20km à l'est du Havre, à la ligne Paris-Le Havre de la Compagnie de l'Ouest en gare d'Ethainus après un court trajet de 4,3km.

La locomotive représentée par Philippe sur son diorama rappelle les trois 020T Corpet-Louvet livrées au Tramway de Saint-Romain de Colbosc en 1897, et particulièrement caractéristiques avec leur cheminée pare-escarbilles. Ces locomotives succédèrent aux automotrices à vapeur Serpollet qui ne donnaient pas satisfaction. Ces trois locomotives assurèrent le trafic sur la ligne jusqu'à sa fermeture le 24 février 1929. Ces locomotives ont par la suite été vendues en Afrique où l'on perd leur trace.

Bibliographie:
- "Petits trains et tramways Haut-Normands / Seine Inférieure - Eure", Hervé Bertin, éditions Cénomane/LVDR, Paris, 1994.

Thanks for that Carl. i find this line particularly interesting, a; because of the three locos (why those chimneys?), and b; the havoc that must have been caused during construction for such a short line albeit through a very built-up area.

mikey

I could be wrong (has been known!) but are those sorts of chimneys for wood-burning locos? I think the logic has it that wood burning locos tend to spit out a lot more sparks, and this design of chimney is meant to arrest them from flying off and starting fires everywhere. I think.

and I guess every building contained a lot of wood in its structure. They had fireless locos in Paris at that time for the same reason. certainly gives a different look to a corpet!

mikey

I don't know about these chimneys Clive although some coal burning locos were likewise fitted with spark arrestor chimneys like Excelsior at Bowaters because of the fire risk in a paper mill.

I will find out....

Also of interest in the first postcard with the Corpet in the street is the sign on the shop in background.

It says 'Chocolat Menier'.
Antoine Menier was the inventor/creator of the chocolate bar. The factory on the banks of the river Marne is only 10km from me at Noisiel and there now is a chocalate museum there.
Menier was eventually taken over by Rowntree Mackintosh and later Néstles.

Interesting aside about the chocolate shop.... In Bristol in the mid 19th Century, JS Fry, a Quaker, introduced Britain to its first taste of solid chocolate. At the turn of the 20th Century his factory in Union Street became the place of employment for (among others) Mr Edward Badman, who was (according to the 1901 census) a 'stationary engine fireman'... his eldest son, Ernest Badman, (known to most as 'Walter') was also employed there as a confectioner - indeed, part of the research and development team that brought the "Fry's Five Boys" chocolate bar to a very appreciative public. The young 'Walter' then met, and very wisely married a Miss Leonora Bane. Some 56 years later they both very wisely became my maternal grandparents!

Sorry for the thread creep there!

i love all these historical facts and stories connected with the railways and their postcards. so interesting. i must build a chocolate shop!

mikey

Manoeuvring gently back towards the thread topic, here is possibly a useful link if you wanted to know a bit more about the Corpet-Louvet story:

http://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/27/CL_1.htm

Usual disclaimers apply as to accuracy etc