French level crossings

[rue_d_etropal]

Although I have been interested in railways in France for many years, I still find new things, and new questions to ask. Many level crossings in France are lifting barriers, I had also seen pictures of gates that slid parallel to the track, but had not seen gates similar to those in UK.

I just received latest copy of Voie Libre(new format, smaller page slightly, glossy paper but style does not look as good as before in my opinion). Any ay there is a revue of a laser cut kit for a Barrieres de PN, with gates. This got me thinking, and checking google.

First question is , do the gates go across the track or are they opened towards the road, and are they hand operated or by turning a wheel as in UK .

Second question, on searching google, I noticed gates are painted red and white. In the revue the examples have red on top half, white on bottom half, but in many photos it is the other way round. Was there a standard, or was it up to local person  or railway.

[Mark Saunders]

I had also seen pictures of gates that slid parallel to the track, but had not seen gates similar to those in UK.

.

 

The new gates at Redcar are of the slide parallel type, again these may be the only ones of this type used as level crossing gates!

 

Mark Saunders

[Joseph_Pestell]

Although I have been interested in railways in France for many years, I still find new things, and new questions to ask. Many level crossings in France are lifting barriers, I had also seen pictures of gates that slid parallel to the track, but had not seen gates similar to those in UK.

I just received latest copy of Voie Libre(new format, smaller page slightly, glossy paper but style does not look as good as before in my opinion). Any ay there is a revue of a laser cut kit for a Barrieres de PN, with gates. This got me thinking, and checking google.

First question is , do the gates go across the track or are they opened towards the road, and are they hand operated or by turning a wheel as in UK .

Second question, on searching google, I noticed gates are painted red and white. In the revue the examples have red on top half, white on bottom half, but in many photos it is the other way round. Was there a standard, or was it up to local person  or railway.

 

I think that it is a long time since there were any gates on level crossings in France that worked as here by closing across the railway. But I know that I have seen old photos of such locations including, I think, where the N113 passed over the Midi mainline (subsequently rebuilt with a bridge).

 

But probably for 60 years or more, all PNs have been lifting barrier or, across minor roads,  the sliding type (which is also used as a road gate into goods yards etc.).

[Fat Controller]

I don't think I've ever encountered one which closes across the line. Modern installations seem to be AHBs, often with a solid concrete barrier on the road centre-line to stop people cutting around the 'open' side. For all that, they seem to have a lot of accidents, involving not just cars and tractors, but school buses and even police cars. We are on the distribution list for BEA-TT reports (the French equivalent of RAIB), and get about one report of a level crossing collision a week ; these are only the 'noteworthy' ones, or those with more than a couple of fatalities.

There are full-barrier staffed gates, which generally have some poor soul winding the barriers up and down- we have a lovely shot Lynne took at Tain-le-Hermitage, with an orange TGV passing one such. The line at this point was carrying about half-a-dozen workings per hour per direction, so you can imagine the work involved. It would have been even worse as it warmed up, as the gardienne was housed in a glazed shelter.

We're off to France in the morning; if I can, I'll try and get some shots of various types of PN 

[rue_d_etropal]

Did find some photos of crossings with gates which swung across railway, somewhere in eastern France I think. I think most with gates were hand operated, certainl all pictures I have seen of models look like simple hinged gates.

It is just that I am thinking about extra operating things for layouts, as I have designed a mechanism to swing a gate in model, so when I saw the revue in magazine just wondered. Could always have gates swing into road.

This is one which does swing across rails

http://roland.arzul.pagesperso-orange.fr/etat/architecture/pn.htm

[Pacific231G]

Hi Simon

Though very rare by then, traditional gated crossings were still in use in a few places until the 1990s and one example, PN460 at Kervignac on the Auray-Qiiberon branch in Brittany, was still gated in 1998 and operated in the summer (the line closes in the winter) by a garde barriere (crossing keeper) though its fame suggests it was close to being the last such crossing. An article about it in Loco Revue states that, in France, crossing gates always opened away from the track- the opposite of the British rule- and were always directly manually operated by the garde-barriere.  From contemporary views that's not quite true as the gates were often set back from the track so that they opened (for road vehicles) towards the tracks but never across them

 

This one is fairly typical.

I believe that in earlier days the gates were normally closed to the road during hours of railway operation and only opened to let traffic cross and of course that was only if the timetable and amendment notices indicated that a train wasn't due.

 

 

I think this gated crossing on the Le Blanc-Argent was also fairly typical and though well rusted ten years ago when I saw it is being restored by the preservation group SABA who now operate the southern part of the line

 

 

The last of the rolling barrier level crossings - familiar from the MKD kit- actually disappeared before the last of the traditonal gates and apparently that was welcomed by the crossing keepers (gardes-barrieres) as the wheels they ran on were prone to derailing from the crud thrown into the grooved rail by lorries etc. They continued in use though as entrance gates to various establishments. Like gates, rolling barriers were manually operated by the crossing keeper (or station staff). You can see one in the Burt Lancaster film The Train when the crossing keeper rushes to close the gates for the unexpected art train  I have a  book from 1927 that describes lifting barriers as "le plus moderne PN" (the most modern type of crossing.) Before they were automated, lifting barrier crossings were wound up and down either locally or from a short distance away 

 

I took these picture in Acquigny (the station that played the role of Rive-Reine in The Train) ten years ago during a period when the line, closed completely several years before part of the film was shot there in 1963, had been reopened to serve a large paper mill. The second man on the paper train had a number of these to contend with and if you look carefully you can see the signal type wires connecting the operating "winch"  to the barrier the other side of the line.*

 

With some exceptions French level crossings were traditionally not signalled though I noticed the week before last on the Baie de Somme that their automatic lifting barrier crossings do show a signal to train drivers to confirm that they've operated.  The exception to that were and are crossings in areas where shunting took place such as station approaches. To avoid contantly closing the crossing it is protected by a special signal known as a guidon d'arrret That is an absolute stop signal though deemed not to exist except when activated.    

 

*Don't worry, you won't meet a train in Acquigny anymore; the paper traffic is now safely back on the roads since RFF demanded several million Euros from the paper company to upgrade the line. The six very slow daily return runs of the paper train were replaced by dozens of trucks. That did require a new motorway junction but, as one of the local politiians said, "Using a train for this traffic did feel like something from a past age" .

 

 

[Hippel]

Help me out here please, what does the 'PN' stand for?

 

Paul.

[JAMO]

[JAMO]

[BernardTPM]

*Don't worry, you won't meet a train in Acquigny anymore; the paper traffic is now safely back on the roads since RFF demanded several million Euros from the paper company to upgrade the line. The six very slow daily return runs of the paper train were replaced by dozens of trucks. That did require a new motorway junction but, as one of the local politiians said, "Using a train for this traffic did feel like something from a past age" .

Well, that shows politicians in other countries are complete prats too.

[JAMO]

 

PN = passage à niveau

[Fat Controller]

Help me out here please, what does the 'PN' stand for?

 

Paul.

'Passage a niveau'- literally, level crossing.

[rue_d_etropal]

Thanks for info. I wonder when the British type crossings as shown in my link were replaced.

 

Also which is correct colour scheme, red above white or white above red?

[Joseph_Pestell]

Thanks for info. I wonder when the British type crossings as shown in my link were replaced.

 

Also which is correct colour scheme, red above white or white above red?

David's photo clearly shows white over red (for those watching in black and white).

[Pacific231G]

White over red (except where it was red over white or neither) Try to describe almost any "rule" about French raiways and watch the exceptions accumulate.

 

Sicne my earlier post I have found some other early photos of French crossings with gates that closed off the railway track. These seem to have been most used in towns for heavily traficced streets or in places where animals (herds or flocks of presumably) were likely to be crossing but the gates were still operated manually and I've never seen any evidence of level crossings being interlocked with signalling. I have a found a very full description of level crossings (with detailed diagrams of both swing and rolling gates) from a vast and enyclopaedic text book on every aspect of French railways from 1895. The section on passages a niveaux is fourteen pages long and does go into the whys and wherefores. I've not translated it yet so more to follow but not on a warm sunny day like today when the garden fence needs Ronsealing! 

[JAMO]

Thanks for info. I wonder when the British type crossings as shown in my link were replaced.

 

Also which is correct colour scheme, red above white or white above red?

 

For opening gates, most of the time (but be careful in France, the exception confirms the rule - l'exception confirme la règle -), the white is on the higher part and the red on the lower part (for the side of the road). Inside (to the trackside) the gates are only white painted.

 

;-)

[Pacific231G]

For opening gates, most of the time (but be careful in France, the exception confirms the rule - l'exception confirme la règle -), the white is on the higher part and the red on the lower part (for the side of the road). Inside (to the trackside) the gates are only white painted.

 

;-)

It didn't take long to find this exception.

This passage a niveau was on the section of the PO-Correze metre gauge railway out of Tulle that the Tramways de Correze also ran on.  The gates are closed because a Correze Tramway train is approaching.

I think it's red at top and bottom and white in the middle and it looks as though the gates are hinged to swing away from the track. We're looking of course at the inside of the gates which would normally be all white but it doesn't exactly look newly painted.   White at the top makes more sense as a driver, particularly of a horse drawn vehicle,  is more likely to see the white than the red against the background especially when the paint has been dulled with age but the earliest wooden gates weren't painted any particular colour so I don't know when the rule came in. .

[JAMO]

Very good exception Pacific 231G!

 

[JAMO]

This one isn't bad too...

 

[JAMO]

On www.delcampe.fr type or copy and paste "passage à niveau"

 

Some photos are fantastic!

[phil-b259]

One thing to bear in mind, when it comes to level crossings is the different legislative requirements in France.

 

Up until the 1960s, it was a legal requirement that UK level crossing gates on mainline UK railways (as opposed to these defined as 'Light Railways' or 'Tramways' by their enabling legislation) were required to ensure that when the crossing was open to road traffic the gates formed a contentious fence across the railway to keep animals and people off it and preserve the 'fenced in railway' principal.

 

In France, with no obligation to 'Fence in' their railways, sliding gates and lifting barriers could be used from the outset.

[Pacific231G]

One thing to bear in mind, when it comes to level crossings is the different legislative requirements in France.

 

Up until the 1960s, it was a legal requirement that UK level crossing gates on mainline UK railways (as opposed to these defined as 'Light Railways' or 'Tramways' by their enabling legislation) were required to ensure that when the crossing was open to road traffic the gates formed a contentious fence across the railway to keep animals and people off it and preserve the 'fenced in railway' principal.

 

In France, with no obligation to 'Fence in' their railways, sliding gates and lifting barriers could be used from the outset.

It's slightly more complicated than that (It always is when French railways are involved) Originally French railways were required (under article 4  of the law of 15th July 1845) to be completely closed off but that requirement was partly derogated by another law in 1897  (Loi du 26 mars 1897 and I think an earlier law in 1880) that allowed the Minister of Public Works, subject to public and railway security to dispense with fences and barriers along railway lines and level crossing barriers on quieter roads. The exceptions to this were

1 on lines with more than three trains an hour,

2 in built up areas (railways in large towns such as Paris always have been well fenced off though private and goods sidings running on or alongside public roads were far more common than in Britain) . 

3 when lines ran alongside public roads and were less than two metres above them (that must have been further relaxed later because I know several places where secondary main lines run very close to roads with no real separation)

4 for 50 metres each side of level crossings (I'm sure that distance got to be a lot less)

5 around stations or halts.

 

I don't know whether level crossings were originally required to fence off the railway when they were open to road traffic but, judging by early pictures, probably not.

 

One big difference was that in Britain the public railways were private enterprises and required to protect the public from their activities, whereas in France the actual routes, including level crossings and stations, were owned by the state (or the local authority in the case of purely local  railways) with the companies that built and operated the railways doing so as concessions, though in practice the companies usually did all the building.  This distinction is well  illustrated by a small number of lines that were completely built with tunnels, cuttings, level crossing keepers' houses and even station buiildings but where no track was ever laid.

 

There is a rule in France that level crossings aren't permitted on lines that carry trains at more than 160kph (100MPH) so there's been a fairly thorough programme to remove them from many main lines (the dedicated high speed lines LGVs are completely and very stingently fenced off) .

 

In Britain AFAIK the requirement applied to highways but accomodation crossings (which for farms might well involve animals) footpaths and bridleways had gates but not ones that closed against the railway.  One other major difference was that in Britain it was quite common to have signal boxes dedicated to level crossings with the crossings fully signalled (My grandfather worked such a box for a while) and interlocked with the gates with the red target on the gates acting as the stop signal but with distants as well. 

 

I did come across one station in France, Lucay-le-Male on the Blanc Argent where until very recently (the station is now closed) a stop signal on the approach to the station was closed until the crossing barriers were down (they werent interlocked) but that seems to have been unusual.

[rue_d_etropal]

all very interesting, and exactly the type of discussion I wanted here. Maybe someone in the SNCF society should put an article together about the subject. Far too much time is spent on just the trains, and the stations, and not enough on other common, but still important parts of the railway system.

 

Now I need to find a way of having a small model figure move around to open gates! Possibly a magnet on a stick under the board, as those operating the crossing were often semi retired, so leg movement could be limited.

[Pacific231G]

Update: I've just dug out a French book about railways from 1890 that I'd been looking for and this refers to there being two types of level crossing gates, swinging and rolling and included this diagram

 

 

 It does say that the latter were more common but, from the evidence of other contemporary sources,  I wouldn't take that as gospel though it probably was true of newer installations on main lines.

 

This book makes no mention of lifting barriers but a later professional textbook from 1895 goes into the question of level crossings in far more detail and gives three types of crossing.

 

The two main types are still swinging gates of wood or metal and rolling metal gates. It does mention lifting barriers barrières oscillantes though it says that these are normally only used on very quiet lines and most often remotely operated (at up to 1500m) .

 

The book does go into the ins and outs of gates that swing open towards or away from the track but, while seeing the advantage of closing off the track from vehicles within towns comes down fairly firmly against such gates because of the danger of trains hitting them or their operators.

In that regard the advantages of rolling gates for the safety of crossing keepers from both road and rail vehicles are fairly obvious and I suspect that the later adoption of lifting gates may have been partly because they both separated crossing operators from the dangers of impatient motorists and meant they didn't have to cross the tracks to close the barriers. It doesn't seem that there was a general legal requirement on this though local police requirements might apply so there was probably never a general requirement to gate off the tracks when the crossing was open to road traffic.

 

There were and undoubtedly still are a complex set of rules for different classes of crossing. Some were normally open to the road while others were opened by the guardien on demand and this depended on the number of road vehicles crossing each day and whether trains were particularly infrequent and there were differences between day and night.

 

Most useful for modellig it also gives the minimum widths of level crossings which were laid down by law

Route nationale 8 metres, Route départementale 7 metres, Chemin de grande communication (C.G.) 5 metres, vicinal ordinaire or rural (V.O. 4 metres. private road 3 metres.

 

I'm thinking of writing a short article for the SNCFS Journal on this but it's a suprisingly complicated topic so too short an article may be misleading. Level crossings are though always a popular subject for dioramas and in France they often doubled up as halts with or without some kind of protection for passengers.