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Moves at Limoges and other French Photos


jamie92208
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Cracking photos Jamie, certainly a very interesting setup.

 

To answer your questions regarding the motive power, the small shunters you ask about in your second set of photos are the Y 9000 series used on freight and infrastructure duties. They're actually late-50s and early-60s 7100 and 7400 series locotracteurs that underwent a full modernisation from around 2010, which is probably why they're not in your book. The chassis and body are the only parts that were retained IIRC. There are about 100 of them dotted around the country shunting things around.

 

The brand new unit which you correctly identified as a BiBi is - despite its 846xx unit number - a B 84500 series Regiolis of the type now infamous worldwide for being too fat for SNCF platforms. For the benefit of anyone not familiar with these, they are bi-mode (diesel / electric power), bi-current (1.5kV / 25kV) units. I believe a tri-current 15kV one is also in the catalogue, for cross-border use to Switzerland and Germany.

 

Cheers,

 

JB (and good luck with the house purchase, I recently bought a house in France myself and it's the best decision I ever made)

The 9000 series are being converted at Quatre-Mares works, next to Sotteville depot, Rouen. If you click on this link :- http://lapassiondutrain.blogspot.com.au/search/label/Sottevillethen go back using the 'articles plus anciens' buttons, you will come to some photos of them under construction, taken back in May.

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I've had chance to do a bit of digging about the line that used to run through Saleignes Romaziers station near to the house we want to buy.   If I've translated the document correctly

 

http://pioussay.wifeo.com/le-train-saint-jean-dangely-saint-saviol.php

 

The line ran from Sant Jean D'Angely to Saint Saviol on the main line from Bordeaax to Tours north of Ruffec.   It went through Aulnay the local market town and closed in 1950.

 

Jamie

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I've had chance to do a bit of digging about the line that used to run through Saleignes Romaziers station near to the house we want to buy.   If I've translated the document correctly

 

http://pioussay.wifeo.com/le-train-saint-jean-dangely-saint-saviol.php

 

The line ran from Sant Jean D'Angely to Saint Saviol on the main line from Bordeaax to Tours north of Ruffec.   It went through Aulnay the local market town and closed in 1950.

 

Jamie

Many years ago, a modeller called Dennis Allenden wrote about St Jean D'Angely in Model Railway News. It might be worth seeing what you can find.

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Many years ago, a modeller called Dennis Allenden wrote about St Jean D'Angely in Model Railway News. It might be worth seeing what you can find.

 

Dennis was one of the most interesting contributors to the mag, as I remember, with a particular interest in scratch-building belle-epoque steamers - an odd choice, perhaps, for a man who lived in Washington DC. He also contributed (with Mike Sharman) to a wonderful book on the Crampton locomotives. but sadly died before it went to press.

 

Anything you can find by him is well-worth reading!

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The St Jean D'Angely Dennis wrote about was an old Etat 2-4-2 named after the town, which he built a magnificent 0 gauge model of, he didn't really write about the town as such. I have been to St Jean D'Angely and it is a very pleasant town with a rather nice market hall and a very good camp site .

 

Great pictures Jamie, thanks for posting.

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As I now live in France and have found a mate to go trainspotting with I thought I better revive this topic as I've started taking a few photos again.  We bought the house near the old station, it's about a kilometre away.  The house has a rather large shed for my model of Lancaster Green Ayre.   However we are about 20 miles from the Paris Bordeaux line at Ruffec.  The new TGV line also heads south about 16 miles away this side of Ruffec.   Andy and I tend to go where the two lines cross near Luxe a few miles north of the TGV Maintenance base where 2 of the high speed test units are based along with 4 or 5 shunters, that at Villognon just north of where the lines cross over again. We usually get out there on an afternoon after domestic duties.  There are plenty of TGV workings, most at full speeds but a few southbounds are slowing down to head onto the Classic line near Villognon.  The Northbound workings from Angouleme join the TGV line via a chord where we stand.  There is freight traffic, but a bit variable.

Here are 2 27xxx's on a northbound train.

P2253993.JPG.eb28a5816b4bbb2475f5451aaa90608a.JPG

We are standing on newly made ground that leads to an abandoned road overbridge that the freight is about to go under.   Directly behind us is the TGV line.

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There aren't too many Atlantique's around as they are being withdrawn but we normally see at lease one.   We very rarely see anything moving south on the classic line apart from a railcar at about 5pm and the odd track machine.  However one evening I spent some time on the station at Ruffec and saw several southbound freights.  This was one long one that the Chef Due Gare sent through the loop for some reason at 40kph.

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The combination of LPG bogie tankers and steel carriers is quite common and are often double headed.

 

Jamie

Edited by jamie92208
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I will probably rename this topic but it's a useful place to put photos from my trainspotting trips.  Today I had to go shopping in Angouleme and so picked up Andy and we spent several hours on the station.   Quite a few single unit and a few double unit TGV's came though plus some of the local units. There was some freight activity.  Here my first ever 4000 class loco hove into view on a flyash train.

P4034072.JPG.7165787df16a4a3df430d516cb8d900d.JPG

That ran round and eventually departed wrong line heading south, presumably to turn west towards Saintes and La Rochelle as it set off at the same time as a southbound TGV.  A northbound freight with a 27XXX on stood in the yard for well over 3 hours before heading north even though there was plenty of space for it to have headed north. I missed getting a shot of a 69XXX in the Yellow Infra livery.

Just as we were leaving this pair of 67/5's came in light from the south.

P4034079.JPG.37b3d1ce605ae37dbb3e2f5dcd8bcc88.JPG

Then we set off back and as we were getting out of town I saw some shunter cabs part obscured on a hillside in front of us.   We turned left at the next roundabout into a Leclerc's Click and collect and found this.

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There was another row of Y77XX's behind.  They're all withdrawn and the rails lead into a scrapyard.  Several of the shunters were missing their engines.   The scrapyard is off the mothballed line to Limoges.

 

All in all a cracking day.

 

Jamie

Edited by jamie92208
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10 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

We turned left at the next roundabout into a Leclerc's Click and collect and found this.

P4034084.JPG.074792ab01cf448be2b2c22763dd60ec.JPG

 

 

A shame you didn't mean it literally - that the locos were on sale at the Leclerc!

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On 04/04/2019 at 10:09, kintbury jon said:

Nice photos.  Do you know what the numbers of the 67400 were?

The 67400's were as follows.  The pair of light engines coming north were 67573 and 67574.  The two in the scrap line were 67420 and 67585.  The others in the scrap line were 63846, 63821, 63759, Y7711, Y7780, Y7810, Y7817 AND Y7744.

On 04/04/2019 at 11:19, brushman47544 said:

 

A shame you didn't mean it literally - that the locos were on sale at the Leclerc!

Yes, I didn't know that they'd gone into the 2nd hand traction business.   The scrap yard seemed to be extending it's external sidings or at least fettling them. Some of the locos were completely see through.

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The lead up from the Limoges line was almost overgrown.

P4034085.JPG.14bd8da5c96f28f4c6f3ae65c717786d.JPG

 

And I did try an arty type shot of the 4000 and 27007 at the north end of the station yard.

P4034075.JPG.09f8df3b90b4be94c547fa1b63094a87.JPG

 

Jamie

 

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A trip out last Friday had me near Luxe and this engineering train headed north with two 67400's in charge the rear one, just visible was in infrastructure livery.

 

P7190917.JPG.75d80885a724f676163b4e51e9d614fa.JPG

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I got out for an afternoon two days ago, (Tuesday 13th August) with my usual mate Andy who had been in dock for an operation.  As a result we couldn't scramble up to our usual vantage point so headed southwards, past Luxe and the TGV Maintenance depot to a village called Vervant just south of where the TGV line crosses the Classic line again and a spur allows southbound TGV's to access Angouleme.  We found a spot south of the junction and saw a surprising mix of northbound freights, TGV's and the two D/EMUs that go north and south    One of the northbound workings was a train of Corail coaches that looked as if they were going for scrap.

P8130930.JPG.3286b5d70d271342390f0f56d27e754c.JPGHauling the train were 22341 and 22343.   Not a very good photo but they made a nice sight.

I dropped Andy back home and then spent some time on Ruffec Station.  Parked in one of the Down sidings was a long Railgrinder train.

P8130934.JPG.5fcb14d42bc32983ed2a9f65baaad8f8.JPG

The train seemed to be named Grizzly 2 and had 7 grinding units, all articulated and 2 support wagons with another similar power unit at the opposite end.

The Chef du Gare was very helpful and told me what freights were coming.   This was the first one.

P8130938.JPG.2783aa9cefc816f9ca89c30049bed784.JPGAs I had plenty of warning I went to the Up platform to get a better shot.   186-309 followed about 20 minutes later with another southbound.   Much to Andy's annoyance I picked up 2 7200's, 1 186's, 2 TGV's and 2 units.   A very pleasant afternoon and early evening.   Next week Andy and I are heading to Limoges to meet the other members of our Model Railway Group and have a very French steam hauled excursion.  North out of Limoges then east and south to a nice town for a 3 hr lunch break then back again.   Andy and I are going over early enough to look at the depot and works.  It should be a good day out.

 

Jamie

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There was a Model Railway Group meeting in Ruffec yesterday and it would have been rude not to go to the station for a while on the way home, after all it was just at the top of the street.    I arrived just about in time for the two local passenger trains however after a quick chat with the chef du gare I was off over to the up platform and this train pulled into the northbound loop.

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Not the best of photos of one of Europorte's 4033 a Vossloh Euro 4000. as the sun was behind it but I've not seen a freight stop in the loop before.  It was pulling a long train of cereal hoppers.

 

The Northbound passenger arrived, a bi mode but working diesel under the wires and then the Chef informed me that there was a southbound coming soon.   This appeared

P9200116.JPG.e11441f51198b90ee2c1818aee9825ca.JPG

4050, 0ne of the VFLI Euro 4000's.   The first I've seen.    That was on a long train of loaded timber wagons and was put in the southbound loop.   It was due to wait for the next southbound passenger to pass in about 20 minutes.

 

Not a bad haul for a pleasant hour in the afternoon sun.

 

Jamie

 

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I had to go up to Niort (30 miles north west) today to get some nuts and bolts, whilst there I called at the station for a drink.  It's the main intermediate station between La Rochelle and Poitiers and was electrified when the TGVA was first built so that TGV's could get to La Rochelle. It has freight loops. Last week I saw a pair of Akiem 75XXX's (75101 and 75326) come in from Poitiers with a long train of what I think were cereal hoppers.  They then ran round presumably to set off towards a loading point.  My phone messed up the photos (unsupported file format apparently).   

 

Anyway today I saw a train of hoppers in as I drove over the bridge just south of the station.  This was at the north end of the train pointing towards Poitiers.

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My camera is away for repair to a cracked screen so I had to use my phone. I think that these are quite good looking machines.

 

Jamie

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My camera eventually arrived back from repair on Tuesday so yesterday my mate and I went out in the gloom and sat and put the world to rights for an our or so.    We were north of Luxe just south of our usual spot where the classic line goes under the TGV SEA.  The northbound connecting chord was alongside us but we could sit in the car out of the drizzle and cold between trains.

This was the southbound view from where we were parked.

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All the freight was northbound.  First was the one shown above with 27005 on the point.

 

Then 

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Then came a class 186 on a block Transfennicca intermodal

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I played with the long lens and was able to use it to record the numbers.

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Followed by one of the northbound TGV's from Angouleme using the chord to access the TGV SEA.

20200304-8.jpg.fdd310731ee9ae48e52be18a2da201dd.jpg

 

Then came the regular infrastructure working that often has extra locos dead in the train.

222292 was heading it.  I do like the yellow livery

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As hoped it had some locos in tow, this time 67673 in yellow and 67257.

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Last of all came a surprise in the form of a Euro 4000 in advertising livery to do with rail staff.

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All in all a good afternoon. Even if the whether and light wasn't very good it gave me a chance to play with my newly repaired camera.

 

Jamie

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Hello again after an enforced break of over 8 weeks, for very good reasons.   The DIY stores opened again this week so I went down to Angouleme today to get some bits and bats.  Coming out of town I went past the scrapyard site at Gond Pontouvrey and noticed some coaches so went and had a look.  

All the locos have disappeared and 5 Corail coaches have appeared, obviously for demolition. These three were sitting by the Leclerc click and collect place/

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Further down there were two more near the site entrance, obviously being stripped to bare shells.

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Lots of steelwork being removed from the Underframes.

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The entrance line was even more covered in grass than last year but the grass is now over 2' high. The track layout is quite constrained and those last two were parked across the access line which emerges between where the two vans are and there is a very restricted headshunt at the other end.  I suspect that rakes of coaches are pushed up by the locally based shunter probably Y8126 which was in the station yard today.

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18 hours ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

They look far to good to be being scrapped. But about 40 years old.

Yes, it makes me feel old. They were held up as the height of luxury when they were intoduced. However I remember using Corail stock from Marseilles to Cannes and going to the loo and being quite disconcerted at being able to look down the pan and watch the ballast going past.

 

Jamie

 

 

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Aye, me too.

 

And I also have an abiding memory of walking along a footway between coaches from Chambery station to the depot, for a quick look, before boarding a train for Modane, and smelling the coach underframes in the heat............

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3 hours ago, JeffP said:

Aye, me too.

 

And I also have an abiding memory of walking along a footway between coaches from Chambery station to the depot, for a quick look, before boarding a train for Modane, and smelling the coach underframes in the heat............

Where's the "Ugh" button when you need it.

 

Jamie

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Yippee the lockdown has been partially lifted and I had to go shopping today. By some obscure chance the garden centre was near a railway line.i actually saw a train for the first time since March.

20200526_144509.jpg.330b410fde212f7157c151658064633f.jpg

27037 heads north through Ruffec whilst another 27XXXwaits in the loop with a long tanktainer train. The loco was so far away and totally masked by trees so that was one that got away. However I did see two real trains, one of which was moving.

 

Jamie

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