Interesting

[Calimero]

Anyone know more?

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24655733

[doctor quinn]

Hi Calimero,

 

Check the Paris in HO thread in this topic.

 

Nick

[steve1]

Pity it can't be turned into a preserved line or even a 'working' railway.

 

steve

[Fat Controller]

Pity it can't be turned into a preserved line or even a 'working' railway.

 

steve

Parts, around Porte de Versailles in particular, were proposed to be used as part of a tramway route, I believe. I don't know what became of this. Other bits, around Le Landy, were used until recently to serve scrapyards. The station at Tolbiac also lasted until quite late, serving as a TAA ('Motorail') station. Looking at Google Earth, there's still quite a lot of track left, though there are significant bits missing, such as the bridge over the Seine between Austerlitz and Bercy.

[Robert Davies]

A propelled move around part of it:

 

[shortliner]

Anyone know more?

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24655733

 

Google is your friend

[Calimero]

Google is your friend

Certainly is but the tales and anecdotes from you people makes the thought of these lines more enjoyable. :-)

[Pacific231G]

The Petite Ceinture has been haunting Parisian enthusiasts-and me!- for decades but don't believe everything - such as it being disused since 1934- that you'll find through Google.

 

When railways first arrived, Paris didn't want them in the heart of the city so, as in London,  they formed a ring just outside the centre. The PC was built between 1852 and 1869, just inside the ring of fortifications that had protected the city since the 1840s. It was a double track line that connected the various main lines, acted as a strategic railway for the military, operated a regular passenger service and served a number of goods depots including the main abbatoirs near La Vilette and a large coal depot at Les Gobelins .

 

 

Struggling with competition from buses, trams and the Metro the regular passenger service round the whole circle closed in 1934 though the section on the western side from a connection with the main line out of Gare St. Lazare at Ponr Cardinet to Auteuil remained open until 1985 having been electrified on third rail in 1925. That section was built by the CF de l'Ouest rather than by the CF The section from Auteuil anti-clockwise to the Seine which ran on a viaduct was eventually demolished in the 1950s. The rest of the line remained intact and was used to serve the goods yards, for transfer freight trains and for through coaches including Wagons Lits between certain Paris Termini.

 

The southern section closed to all but special workings when the last goods yard at Les Gobelins- now used for general goods rather than coal-  closed to rail at the end of 1991. However this part of the line though singled was not dismantled. At that time the Eastern side of the PC was still seeing about 30 trains a day on transfer runs though that traffic did gradually decline until it closed in about 1993. The passenger only Auteuil line closed in 1985 in order for most of that part of the PC to be used for the new RER C which does make it still possible to travel on part of the PC today.

 

There have been endless attempts to revive the PC for everything from local freight distribution to using part of it as the route for tramway T3 . That though was built on the boulevards des maréchaux that replaced the fortifications that had effectively defined the edlge of Paris after these were demolished in the 1920s.

 

Until 2004 occasional special trains did still run on the closed but not abandoned sections. In 1989 during a rail tour of Paris I managed to get a cab ride for about a third of the original PC on the same steam loco that appeared in the movie version of Murder on the Orient Express.  This was an incredible experience and I've been intrigued by the line ever since! 

 

L49's "Paris in HO" layout does capture the atmosphere of the PC in its latter days really well.