Vivarais.

[45669]

Is there any recent news on the Vivarais? There is mention on another group of

a possible re-opening. Does anybody on this group know the up-to-date position?

I gather that there have been some works trains keeping the tracks clear, but no

mention of a public re-opening.

 

In the meantime, if anyone's interested to have a look, I have just put another

half a dozen pictures from happier times on my Fotopic site :

 

http://ronfisher.fotopic.net/c1099919.html

 

They are in the 'Stop Press!' collection for new pictures at the moment.

However, in due course, I shall move them to the C der F du Vivarais collection;

they will then be here :

 

http://ronfisher.fotopic.net/c1446973.html

 

I hope that there will soon be some good news from France. I'd love to go there

again, but I don't suppose that they'd re-open it just for me!

[Re6/6]

Thanks for posting Ron. I had no idea that all was not well down there. Was there ever one of the Portuguese metre gauge 2-4-6-0T Mallets operating there?

[cornelius]

The last I heard (in August) was that the D?©partement de l??™Ard??che would buy back the track bed and there was some investment for repair and maintenance. I don't know what results have come of this so far though.

[45669]

Thanks for posting Ron. I had no idea that all was not well down there. Was there ever one of the Portuguese metre gauge 2-4-6-0T Mallets operating there?

 

Unfortunately, it is currently closed and we can only hope for better times in the future.

 

One of the Portuguese 0-4-4-0 Mallet tanks visited the Chemin de Fer de la Baie de Somme recently, but I have never heard of any of the 2-4-6-0s visting there or Vivarais. Does anybody know different?

 

Ron.

[45669]

The last I heard (in August) was that the D?©partement de l??™Ard??che would buy back the track bed and there was some investment for repair and maintenance. I don't know what results have come of this so far though.

 

There have been some works trains this year, but no passenger trains. All we can do at this stage is keep our fingers crossed.

 

Ron.

[Pacific231G]

There have been some works trains this year, but no passenger trains. All we can do at this stage is keep our fingers crossed.

 

Ron.

 

The latest news I've got is that five vehicles belonging to FACS that were based at Tournon - a Corpet Louvet 040T (0-8-0T) no 24, three ex-Tramways de la Sarthe coaches and a Reseau Breton Fourgon- were moved in late October to the SABA depot at Ecueille in the Centre region. SABA operate as Le Petit Train du Bas Berry and have reopened the closed section of the Blanc-Argent south of Lucay-Le-Mal. This may not be as ominous as it sounds as no 24 wasn't central to the CFV's normal operations and SABA have been wanting to add steam to their succesful autorail and locotracteur based operation for a while. They are already restoring a smaller Corpet-Louvet 020T acquired from the Baie de Somme having borrowed one of their active locos of the same type for a gala weekend in 2007. Whether this is a permanent move for the FACS vehicles or just until the CFV reopens isn't clear but the train will be a very pleasant addition to a line that is very typical of France's rural secondaires.

 

On the CFV itself it seems that monthly works trains using either the Billard autorail or a locotracteur have been run all year to keep the line open.