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bbishop
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This is the first time that I've posted on the French forum.  My knowledge is mainly LSWR and DB.  Anyway I'm curating a photographic collection and these were taken in or around Carhaix.  But what are they of?  Should I be thinking "Pempoul"?  Bill

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An interesting era for those photos with the line to Guingamp converted to standard gauge but the rest of the network still operating.

 

I'm seriously contemplating a retirement move to Brittany (big layout room with house below) and exploring the network by bike would certainly be on the to-do list.

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Sorry, realised that I have not answered the question.

 

The two loco shots, a 230T (which DJH did as an HOm kit) and a 0330T Mallet are both pictured at the large depot/works at Carhaix. One of these 230Ts can be seen on the CP (Nice-Digne). I think that the Mallet, E416, is on the Vivarais (Tournon-Lamastre).

 

The shot with a Renault ABJ3 "Bigouden" railcar and trailer (Billard?) is also at Carhaix.

 

Not enough detail to identify the location of the other photo.

 

Edit: In that photo, I am fairly sure that they are all Brits. So a railtour which may help you date it.

Edited by Joseph_Pestell
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8 hours ago, bbishop said:

This is the first time that I've posted on the French forum.  My knowledge is mainly LSWR and DB.  Anyway I'm curating a photographic collection and these were taken in or around Carhaix.  But what are they of?  Should I be thinking "Pempoul"?  Bill

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Well I can tell you what that is. It's this

950205675_E332CFBSftevap2016.jpg.6bf31f77258415b0ff64cdb1a60e995b.jpg

 

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E332 was one of 25 4-6-0Ts built by Fives-Lille in 1904 and 1909 for the Reseau Breton.  Two of them were preserved, E332 by the Blonay-Chamby in Switzerland and sold to the Chemin de Fer du Baie de Somme (CFBS) in 2003. My photos were taken at the CFBS Fête de la Vapeur in 2016. The lcocomotives' ten year boiler certificate expired in 2018 so is now in store at the CFBS St. Valery Canal workshops awaiting its turn for restoration. One other of the same class E327 worked on the preserved Vivarais for some years but now operates the Train des Pignes service on the CP in Provence. E415 is plinthed on a short piece of track at Carhaix as a memorial to the RB but though cosmetically restored has never been restored mechanically- well not yet!

 

I'd hazard a guess that the photos were taken on one of the RCTS railtours of the Reseau Breton, possibly in 1957 .  E332 is definitely at Carhaix MPD, the building is very distinctive, and so almost certainly is E415.

 

Sorry Joseph but the station with the Reseau Breton autorail is Chateaulin-Embranchement. the position of the water tower on the platform and the horizontal pattern of brickwork is very distinctive. The metre gauge autorail is a Decauville, one of three, X231-X233, built in 1939 that were supposed to be going to Yunan, then in French Indo-China, but were bought by the RB in 1951.  The trailer is one of the Billard A150D autorails bought by the RB from the Tramways d'Ile et Vilaine and demotorised. I think all that would date the photos to  before the regauging of the Guingamp-Carhaix line which came close to if not at the end of the metre gauge network (though Guingamp-Paimpol was converted earlier) and some of the party do look very similar to those on the 1957 RCTS tour.

Edited by Pacific231G
update on autorail trailer
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Thanks.  I can confirm the photos were taken on 29/8/65.   Alan was a prolific(*) if not inspiring photographer.  But he did keep a record of the date and often the time of each photograph.  It seems to have been a very short tour because he was photographing SNCF steam the previous and succeeding days and was photographing a Bulleid pacific two days later.  But thanks for confirming it was the Reseau Breton, that wasn't in Alan's notes.

 

(*) I've extracted Alan's notebook into a spreadsheet.  Over 2000 photographs!

 

Bill

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Hi Bill

The RCTS mounted a number of visits to the RB in its final years and one of my great regrets is being a bit too young to have gone on one of them. There's an account of one of them in one of Pat Whitehouse's books where they "did" the railway in a single day using the overnight ferries to and from St. Malo- he commented that most of the party brought their own sandwiches- to France! It seems to have been quite easy to arrange special trains for such tours as both the RCTS and the French FACS had several.

The French Wikipedia article on the Reseau Breton is excellent and very thorough and, though I got my own information from other sources, it confirms most of it. The article includes details of all the RB's stock

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Réseau_breton

Following its closure as a metre gauge railway in 1967, which was when the line from Guingamp to Carhaix was regauged,  a lot of its rolling stock, especially the autorails, found their way to other surviving metre gauge railways,  including early preservations, and about fifty items of RB rolling stock still exist

http://bretagne-ferroviaire.org/RB/preservation.php

I've ridden on or behind some of them on the Baie de Somme and the Bas Berry!

 

You've probably already noted that the RB's metre gauge track was chaired bullhead and you're right about Pempoul, Gordon Gravett also wrote a book about the RB and it is referenced several times in the French Wikipedia article. 

 

Did Alan take many more photos of the Reseau Breton that day?

 

 

 

 

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There is a new 2 part book(s) about the Reseau Breton coming out this year. First part takes story up to 1940s so probably does include any railcar detail. It is from the Loco Revue team, and the sample pages shown online suggest the drawings may be same as the ones published in Voie Libre over the years.

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One of these locos stood on a roundabout outside Carhaix-Plouguer until the road was redeveloped. I understand it still exists but the owner just wants it to rust away.

However, if you are near that area then head towards Bon Repos on the D2164. Follow signs for the Abbaye, which is a tourist attraction and has good parking and and a Cafe. On the opposite side of the road not too far away is Bon Repos station which is being restored and is the the home to a restoration project of the RB or at least part of it. they do have big plans.

They have secured the trackbed from Bon Repos to Gourec. 

I spent a little time there back in 2015, the leader of the project has high ambitions but admits that the French are not very enthusiastic about old things. When I mentioned Gordon Gravitt, his face lit up as his book is the only source material that they had for restoration.

I put Gordon in touch and he and Maggie visited a couple of years ago.

Hopefully there should have been some progress over the five years since I was there as they had just started to clear the overgrown trackbed and started to lay Meter Gauge track.

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Alan's photographs are owned by The South Western Circle.  I am making a business case to the committee that should make them available for research.  Looking at my spreadsheet, Alan visited France briefly in 1963, then made this trip in 1965.  The first day he photographed about 18 SNCF locomotives, the second day about 30 RB photographs and the third day another 6 SNCF, before finishing the roll with some Bulleid Pacifics.  Bill

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On 24/10/2020 at 19:50, brightspark said:

Hopefully there should have been some progress over the five years since I was there as they had just started to clear the overgrown trackbed and started to lay Meter Gauge track.

Oh yes. This is about 10km from where I live and I drive past the entire line on my way to and from my haircut. The line has been reinstated from Gouraec station to a new station at Bon Repos. It is dual gauge (600/1000mm) throughout. One of the joys of my trip to the haidressers is "what is new at Gouraec this time?" Almost every time I go past there is something new there. My trip a couple of weeks ago did not disappoint as a 1000mm gauge Schoma has arrived a couple of days previously.  The line was supposed to be open to the public this summer but unsurprisingly it has been postponed until next year. A rail bike has operated the last two summers.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 23/10/2020 at 17:28, Joseph_Pestell said:

An interesting era for those photos with the line to Guingamp converted to standard gauge but the rest of the network still operating.

 

I'm seriously contemplating a retirement move to Brittany (big layout room with house below) and exploring the network by bike would certainly be on the to-do list.

Done a bit of that myself. You'1894622836_IMG_0373stgurenoppdir15.JPG.72ea429de17c579aadc8ca34afdd897a.JPGIMG_0501.JPG.e51f7bc5d157bf96215f5774d6992072.JPGIMG_0381.JPG.39e4539c7f46534aa42795ad3dec9ebe.JPGll have a great time

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I went to Brittany in 1964 and again in 2002.

 

The 1964 pictures are here:

 

France - Brittany, 1964

 

and the 2002 pictures are here:

 

France - Brittany and Normandy, 2002

 

I tried to re-create some of my 1964 pictures in 2002, so there are some before and after comparisons.  You may prefer the befores!

 

 

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