Old French Railway Postcards

Notice how I kept quiet? Wouldn't have a clue!! Thanks.

Mikey

Its been a while so here's a couple more old postcards for inspiration!;





mikey

You know very well Mr Mikey that I enjoy these old photos very much

In fact, I was Googling for research pictures of 'pompiers' this evening, and stumbled across this...

http://www.marcheran.com/trains.htm

Sorry if you already knew of this site!

Blimey...Nothing since September and all this.

Some gems there.

Notably the CFS (Chemin de Fer du Saleve) the first electric rack railway in the world.

Provins, showing the original wooden station which was destroyed.

Livry Gargan in rural bliss, now a grotty (sorry if anyone lives there) overcrowded surburban mess with a smart tramway that replaced the train.

There are some lovely old photos of Châtillon-Coligny here:

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/gatinais.histoire/images_chatilloncoligny.htm

Not all train-related, but there are some on there, towards the bottom of the page.

Edited to add:

Some fascinating pics of Vierville. No actual trains in these pics, but what amazes me is the close proximity of the (metre gauge?) line to people's front doors in some cases!

http://vierville.free.fr/651-RuePavee.html

Fascinating stuff - I'd never heard of the Saleve line, and its my kind of railway - Volks Electric Railway meets the Rigi Bahnen. Meanwhile the Vevy Chillon tram lives on as Montreux trolleybus route 1.

Keep them postcards coming - theres loads of stuff I've never seen before....

They're all wonderful glimpses into the past. Fascinating.

I'd like to see more of the locomotive in the Mourmelon le-Petit carte. It looks like a very old large-driver type.

Great link to the Marcheran site Clive! Loads of pics on there I hadnt seen before.


Mikey

The line in pictures of Vierville sur mer is actually 60cm gauge.

There was a vast network in Normandy especially around Calvados.

Here are some more pics including a map of the railways around St Lo.

Histoire St-Laurent-vie Village

There is a book somewhere if I can find the link....

Also a modelling article on LR Presse Forum

Possibly the worlds first national rail strike (1910)



mikey

Here's a book link.

CF du Calvados

were these networks because of apples, or sugarbeet ,or maybe something else?

mikey

Well I've ordered the book! There are some excellent close-ups on that site Carl. good inspiration for modelling French houses.

mikey

mikeyh wrote:

were these networks because of apples, or sugarbeet ,or maybe something else?

mikey

'Les chemins de fer betteraves (beets...not necessarily beetroot ) were often 60cms (or metric) lines across the country notably in the North.

These were used for shifting the huge piles of beets for sugar (and to a lesser extent fruit, apples, pears etc) to the pressoir or sucrerie.

Some like the CFC in Calvados carried carried passengers and freight and operated 'tramway' services between villages especially along the Normandy coast connecting with the main lines.
The came down near me as far as Lisieux and Orbec.

The principal engineering was done be Decauville, locos, stock and track.

Further south near Orleans is a surving railway and museum at Pithiviers

Carls St Laurent link (above) took me to this picture, which I have as my PC wallpaper, and look at every day. For me, it says everything I like about secondary railways, so I thought I would share it with you.

mikeyh wrote:

Possibly the worlds first national rail strike (1910)



mikey

It had to be in France, n'est ce pas?

In 1910 the railway workers had the strongest union in France. By 1914 they didnt! It was only in 1938 on creation of SNCF that they got their strength back. Ironic n'est-ce pas?

mikey

'They' were on strike again yesterday. Teachers too.... but not me....blackleg!

There's a strike for something or other at least every 2 or 3 weeks...and they get paid too!

Are you persuaded to join the union Carl, or is it obligatory?

mikey

I couldn't join the union even if I wanted to as I'm not on a fixed contract. I just work as a vacataire which suits me at the moment. But there's an annual limit of 200 hours and after that they put you on a CDD which gives them the right ask a bit more from you.

The irony of it is that most of the fonctionaire teachers are going on strike because of (people like) me.

The education cost-cutting reforms are trying to get rid of qualified expensive permanent staff and replace them with unqualified cheapies off the street.

So there's a bit of ill feeling especially as I earn slightly more than them hourly paid as a vacataire because I don't get any holiday pay.

Firstly one for Carl;

Is the bridge still there?



and a couple of colour cards;





Mikey

There's still a brigde but not this one, was replaced for 4 tracks and now has been redone again for 6 tracks as the TGV Est start from here to speed up and then in Vaires sur marne the next station it goes to it's own line at full speed.

Here the construction of the last bridge, but there's a missing one on the picture there's 4 tracks now in the middle and 2 on the edge :

I think part of the original bridge still exists. The iron arches in the postcard look familar.

I drove under that bridge twice a day when living in Chelles. What a bottleneck, avenue de la resistance.

Some wonderful old images to be found here:

http://dumultien.over-blog.fr/

I think the second railway-related image (Le CBL) looks as though it's showing a steam railmotor!

Great site Clive! Added to favourites!

Mikey