JAMIE'S RANDOM FRENCH RAILWAY PHOTOS

[phil-b259]

Keep the pictures coming, they bring back happy memories.  Though not staying in places near railways, our family holidays in 84, 85 and then 90-94 involved Motorail from Boulogne / Calais to the south of France. Many a happy memory of observing French trains on route and seeing how long I could stay awake.

Edited April 11, 2021 by phil-b259

[JeffP]

That was an experience I wanted.

My wife was put off because someone she knew had their belongings stolen when the train was stopped by thieves somewhere in the Paris suburbs and most of the cars were broken into.

[jamie92208]

Good evening again. Frost this morning but sunshine and sitting out weather this afternoon.   We are still in Cannes on 19th June 2002. By now I was in the process of retiring and had actually finished work in April but had saved up a lot of owed leave and overtime so was still on full pay and enjoying the south of France.  I had no conscience at all.  Here is 26191 heading west one afternoon along the bay towards La Bocca. Sybics were becoming more common. 

1TGV's were a common sight.  I think this is one of the repainted PSE sets.

We were in the same block of flats as the year before and i was able to get this shot of Y8078 heading up the Grasse branch with a loaded train of new cars.

There aren't many places where you can swim in the sea, sunbathe and trainspot at the same time but this is one of them.

We now move on to 2003 and If my memory hasn't failed me we had a short break in Paris where I got this picture of two 672XX's that had been converted to work maintenance trains on the High speed lines.  I think these are at Gare de Lyon.

And another shot of what I am fairly sure is Charolais depot.

 

That's it for today.

 

Jamie

 

 

Edited August 11, 2022 by jamie92208

[brushman47544]

31 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Good evening again. Frost this morning but sunshine and sitting out weather this afternoon.   We are still in Cannes on 19th June 2002. By now I was in the process of retiring and had actually finished work in April but had saved up a lot of owed leave and overtime so was still on full pay and enjoying the south of France.  I had no conscience at all.  Here is 26191 heading west one afternoon along the bay towards La Bocca. Sybics were becoming more common. 

I don’t think the Sybics were ever that common on the line between Marseille and Nice. In the 2000s one of the Nice - Bordeaux trains was diagrammed one, but most trains were and still are 22200s. However, it seems that the Sybics displaced from Paris St Lazare - Le Havre 200km/h services are moving south to take over the Bordeaux - Marseille/Nice TET(?) trains from 7200s and 22200s. Will be interesting to seek what works the reinstated Paris Austerlitz - Nice sleeper (from 16 April now apparently) as the loco works throughout, the train calling at Blancarde to avoid a reversal at St Charles.

Edited April 12, 2021 by brushman47544

[jamie92208]

Good evening again.   As to Sybics at Cannes, I seem to have seen a lot of them there from 2000 onwards.  Anyway it's still 21st June 2003 at the Gare de Lyon.   There were definite signs of the new order with double deckers appearing.

There were still Sybics around, I think this one is 26019, as well as some al fresco entertainment.

We may have travelled all the way down by train from the dates, I can't remember exactly.  However this was the view from our apartment window, looking out over the bay as a 63XXX went past with the empty car flats.

I usually had a walk up past the sidings on an afternoon and there were the usual collection sleeping cars. Here a Belgian Slaapwagen.  With it's dark colour and forbidding appearance, I expected to see someone like Irma Bunt standing in the doorway. 

On the 30th June I was allowed a day out and headed out early to Nice to get to the Chemin de Fer de Provence, the narrow gauge line north from Nice to Digne.  Here is the old and rather nice looking terminus.

The new station is behind where I was standing and these were in the running shed at the terminus.

I think that this was X 303.

 

Jamie

 

Edited August 12, 2022 by jamie92208

[JeffP]

Cannes 2002.

Somewhat disappointing.

My French Railways platform 5 book had a similar shot taken across the beach, with  a topless dolly bird in front.

[jamie92208]

22 hours ago, JeffP said:

Cannes 2002.

Somewhat disappointing.

My French Railways platform 5 book had a similar shot taken across the beach, with  a topless dolly bird in front.

Look carefully at one of my shots in my moves at Limoges thread. 

 

Jamie

Edited April 14, 2021 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

Good evening again.   It's still 30th June 2003 and I am at the Nice terminus of the Chemin de fer de Provence, (CFP). The first shot is one of the rather nice looking metre gauge Henschel locos. T66 had been transferred from the Jura line.

Then a shot of the terminus with our train on the left.

Our train was X350/351 which apparently was a bit underpowered.

After setting off through the city streets and a tunnel we came out into the valley of the river Var and then went past the works. This unit was outside and I've no idea what it is. 

We then followed to Var to St Martin du Var where we crossed an inbound commuter service.

The two types of units can be compared here.

That's it for today.

 

Jamie

Edited August 12, 2022 by jamie92208

[brushman47544]

11 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Look carefully at one of my shots in my moves at Limoges thread. 

 

Jamie

Can you give us a couple of pointers...

[Joseph_Pestell]

On 13/04/2021 at 17:07, jamie92208 said:

Good evening again.   As to Sybics at Cannes, I seem to have seen a lot of them there from 2000 onwards.  Anyway it's still 21st June 2003 at the Gare de Lyon.   There were definite signs of the new order with double deckers appearing.

There were still Sybics around, I tink this one is 26019, as well as some al fresco entertainment.

We may have travelled all the way down by train from the dates, I can't remember exactly.  However this was the view from our apartment window, looking out over the bay as a 63XXX went past with the empty car flats.

I usually had a walk up past the sidings on an afternoon and there were the usual collection sleeping cars. Here a Belgian Slaapwagen.  With it's dark colour and forbidding appearance, I expected to see someone like Irma Bunt standing in the doorway. 

On the 30th June I was allowed a day out and headed out early to Nice to get to the Chemin de Fer de Provence, the narrow gauge line north from Nice to Digne.  Here is the old and rather nice looking terminus.

The new station is behind where I was standing and these were in the running shed at the terminus.

I think that this was X 303.

 

Jamie

 

 

Still plenty of Sybics here (St Sulpice Lauriere) although today more 22200 on passenger trains.

[jamie92208]

On 14/04/2021 at 20:35, brushman47544 said:

Can you give us a couple of pointers...

Duff gen from me. You'll have to wait till I get to 2018. I also remember that shot taken at La Napoule plage

 

Jamie

Edited August 12, 2022 by jamie92208

[BernardTPM]

2 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

This unit was outside and I've no idea what it is. The uploader is up to it's tricks again.

Looks like a Billiard. (Possibly not that exact one as they did lots over the years).

[jamie92208]

Good afternoon, hopefully the forum software will now allow me to upload a few pictures. The Tardis is still on the 30th of June 2003 on the CfP. As we pulled away from the previous stop the driver invited me into the cab. I stayed with him all the way to Digne Les Bains.  He was very pleasant wand we chatted away.  The line is spectacular.  To begin with it follows the Var valley.

It swaps sides every so often.

Certainly for part of the way there was a tramway from Nice and there were a few traces of it.  Some interesting modelling prototypes were on display.

Then another passing place at a small station.

Where X301 was waiting to head south.

At some points it was parallel and very close to the road.

At about the mid point the line heads steeply upwards through spiral tunnels into an alpine setting.

 

Jamie

Edited August 12, 2022 by jamie92208

[Chris116]

Around 2003 to 2005 my wife and I went to Nice. Eurostar from Waterloo to Paris then TGV to Nice. Our hotel almost backed onto the old station for the line to Digne Les Bains and we spent a very nice day travelling the length of it. Found the ride very rough with my wife complaining of neck ache for some days afterwards. I wish I could find a book in English that had details of the line and the branches that no longer exist. 

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, Chris116 said:

Around 2003 to 2005 my wife and I went to Nice. Eurostar from Waterloo to Paris then TGV to Nice. Our hotel almost backed onto the old station for the line to Digne Les Bains and we spent a very nice day travelling the length of it. Found the ride very rough with my wife complaining of neck ache for some days afterwards. I wish I could find a book in English that had details of the line and the branches that no longer exist. 

It is a long ride Chris.  I've never seen an English language book about the line. There is a website in English about the closed tramways in the area but I haven't got a link.  It would be worth doi g some googling.

 

Jamie

[Chris116]

1 minute ago, jamie92208 said:

It is a long ride Chris.  I've never seen an English language book about the line. There is a website in English about the closed tramways in the area but I haven't got a link.  It would be worth doi g some googling.

 

Jamie

Yes, it was a very long ride and so many tantalising glimpses of what looked like disused links and old track beds. Googling going to be done.

 

Edited April 16, 2021 by Chris116

[jamie92208]

1 minute ago, Chris116 said:

Yes, it was a very long ride and so many tantalising glimpses of what looked like disused links and old track beds. Googling going to be done.

 

Yes the website is very good but I just can't re who did it. I do have a recently published French rail atlas that covers that area and has a gazeteer of all the closed lines. I'll haveca look.

 

Jamie

[Chris116]

12 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Yes the website is very good but I just can't re who did it. I do have a recently published French rail atlas that covers that area and has a gazeteer of all the closed lines. I'll haveca look.

 

Jamie

I have a book "A guide to Narrow Gauge Railways on the continent - France, Switzerland and Benelux Countries" which gives a small amount of detail of what was running in 1987 when it was published. I would be interested to see an atlas showing past and present lines, libraries just don't have that sort of thing these days. Just looked at Wikipedia and they have a full map of the system as it was!

 

Edited April 16, 2021 by Chris116

[Northroader]

No books needed. There’s a priest called Roger Farnworth whose research ability is truly amazing. Just step on this link and associated parts.

https://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/04/06/nice-to-digne-les-bains-part-1-nice-chemins-de-fer-de-provence-57/

[jamie92208]

7 minutes ago, Northroader said:

No books needed. There’s a priest called Roger Farnworth whose research ability is truly amazing. Just step on this link and associated parts.

https://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/04/06/nice-to-digne-les-bains-part-1-nice-chemins-de-fer-de-provence-57/

That's the guy whose name I couldn't remember.

 

Thanks

 

Jamie

[Chris116]

25 minutes ago, Northroader said:

No books needed. There’s a priest called Roger Farnworth whose research ability is truly amazing. Just step on this link and associated parts.

https://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/04/06/nice-to-digne-les-bains-part-1-nice-chemins-de-fer-de-provence-57/

Very interesting. Thank you for posting that. 

[JeffP]

Roger has used a couple of my shots of the CFP in one of his articles.

They have a couple of steam locos, kept at Puget Theniers. One of them comes out on Sundays in high season.

When I went to Lingostiere there was a lot of interesting stock about including two B-B locos, (one in bits, similar locos are to be found on Corsica), a D loco, (0-8-0, derelict), a handsome diesel (1200?), and some very old railcars.

The one Jamie pictured is an old Billard trailer, used at one time for parcels. Used to trundle along behind the units.

I was lucky enough to see two of the locos in use later on trackwork.

Edited April 16, 2021 by JeffP

[jamie92208]

Good evening from the Charente.  The Tardis is still firmly near Digne on 30th June 2003. Here we are in Digne station and one of the Billard trailers, XR 1337 in use as a parcels van.

A view of the station with the mothballed standard gauge line from Chateau Arnoux, St-Auban on the left.

For the return journey I thought that I better leave the drive in peace but he insisted that I ride back to Nice with him.  Here we are entering one of the passing points with a lady and her daughter doing the signalling honours.

At another station there was the equivalent of a GP Tram parked in the siding.

And another one had a water tank and a plough parked up.

That's it for tonight as I hit my upload limit early.

 

Jamie

 

Edited August 12, 2022 by jamie92208

[DIW]

On 16/04/2021 at 17:30, Chris116 said:

Around 2003 to 2005 my wife and I went to Nice. Eurostar from Waterloo to Paris then TGV to Nice. Our hotel almost backed onto the old station for the line to Digne Les Bains and we spent a very nice day travelling the length of it. Found the ride very rough with my wife complaining of neck ache for some days afterwards. I wish I could find a book in English that had details of the line and the branches that no longer exist. 

 

On 16/04/2021 at 18:41, jamie92208 said:

It is a long ride Chris.  I've never seen an English language book about the line. There is a website in English about the closed tramways in the area but I haven't got a link.  It would be worth doi g some googling.

 

Jamie

There is a small section on this railway in the Région Mediterranée chapter of French Minor Railways by W. J. K. Davies, Published by David & Charles in 1965 (so no ISBN number!). You just need to track down a copy....

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, DIW said:

 

There is a small section on this railway in the Région Mediterranée chapter of French Minor Railways by W. J. K. Davies, Published by David & Charles in 1965 (so no ISBN number!). You just need to track down a copy....

I've read some of Roger Farnsworths blog. It's very detailed but not very well indexed so you've no links to the next part  of the blog. The links, such as they are, are a bit random.

Jamie

Edited April 18, 2021 by jamie92208