JAMIE'S RANDOM FRENCH RAILWAY PHOTOS

[brushman47544]

The Italians name their modern Units after musical terms, the Unit at Ventimiglia being a Minuetto. This looks like the diesel version as I can’t see a pantograph so would normally be working towards Tende and Limone. Looking at the departure screen though it’s heading past San Remo to Taggia Arma and is already late!
 

If you went to Ventimiglia now you wouldn’t see most of the Trenitalia trains in those photos as they have been replaced by more modern vehicles. The E.633 “Tigre” locos have been replaced by the ubiquitous single cabbed E.464 locos and the “piano ribassato” and UIC X coaches have also largely been replaced by modern units, many being the newer version of the Minuetto, named Jazz.

Edited April 29, 2021 by brushman47544

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, brushman47544 said:

The Italians name their modern Units after musical terms, the Unit at Ventimiglia being a Minuetto. This looks like the diesel version as I can’t see a pantograph so would normally be working towards Tende and Limone. Looking at the departure screen though it’s heading past San Remo to Taggia Arma and is already late!
 

If you went to Ventimiglia now you wouldn’t see most of the Trenitalia trains in those photos as they have been replaced by more modern vehicles. The E.633 “Tigre” locos have been replaced by the ubiquitous single cabbed E.464 locos and the “piano ribassato” and UIC X coaches have also largely been replaced by modern units, many being the newer version of the Minuetto, named Jazz.

From memory the Minuetto was heading off along the coast towards San Remo. The service up to Tende was in the hands of the older units like the one that I saw at St Roch.

[jamie92208]

Good afternoon from a cool and slightly damper Charente. The Tardis is still in the Nice area in July 2007 but is getting ready to move.  On my day out I was on a day rover and had some time in hand so went up to Breil sur Roya and got a rather better shot of the CC7100nthat was there.

Then it was back to Nice time and this FS DMU arrived to take us.

One evening during that holiday there was a bad wildfire along the bay near La Napoule and the motorway behind La Bocca.  From out balcony we were treated to a spectacular display of flying by the fire bombers in their Canadairs.  Here is one reloading with water as it flew along the bay.  We were able to watch then dropping the water and returning time and time again.

The Tardis di move after that and we didn't go back to France till 2011.  We had various trips, which for me included El Salvador and  California, then we went to Portugal a couple of times. However in 2011 we did a cruise round the Med and one of our ports of call was Monaco.  I was allowed off the leash and went to Nice on the train.  What should I see but this old friend.

By this time the first line of the tram system was operational and this is one of the sections in the city centre where they run on batteries to avoid having wires across the square.

This is the main street with the railway bridge just east of the station in the background.

The system was very impressive and it was fascinating to stand behind the driver and watch the battery meter going down then recharging when we got back under the wires.

 

More tomorrow all being well.

 

Jamie

Edited August 13, 2022 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

Good evening, just, from the Charente.   A few more for you. We start with the Tardis in 2013 still the 22nd June at Nice.  This is the north eastern terminus of line 1 which s close to St Roch depot.

Obviously after riding the tramway I called at the depot and Duplex 747 was on the depot.

A French DMU was on the service from Tende into Nice.

Where I found a rather nice looking 22351 in the En Voyage livery.

And 25669sitting in the siding with a push pull set.

Then it was back to the ship and on with the cruise where I managed to see Spanish, Tunisian, Italian and Greek trains before we finished.  2012, I went to the US so in 2013 my good lady decided that we would go to France and she booked a Gite in Charente Maritime.  Little did we know what that would set in train but while we were there I managed a trip to Poitiers where B 81748 was heading into the station.

All being well some more tomorrow.

 

Jamie

 

 

[jamie92208]

Bon Apres Midi as the neighbours say or Bon Dimanche as the market traders said this morning.   The Tardis is still in 2013 and I'm still at Poitiers or to be more precise, heading back from Poitiers to the Gite. Alongside the road, which had two speed cameras on it, as I found to my cost, was one of the construction bases for the new High Speed Line to Bordeaux. This was outside a shed. I think it's a former DB class 211.

A few days later we went south to visit some friends near Dax and on the way home on 4th July, called in at the station at Mont de Marsan This bi mode was there.

And another one at the back of the station.

A locotracteur was in the yard but as you can see a lamp post jumped in front of the camera.

The unit in the station was rather heavily graffittied.

Here the driving car. Not a pretty site.  I thought I was in Italy.

That's it for today.

 

Jamie

 

 

[jamie92208]

Good afternoon from a sunny but windy place.  Yesterdays were the last from 2013.  2014 we went to Portugal but came back to France in 2015. Photos from that trip where we decided to move to France and found our house are in my Moves at Limoges thread.  I use that thread now to post my current French photos but discovered that I didn't post any of my photos from 2016 to 2018in it. I decided to post those in here for completeness.  Here it's the 25th April 2016 and myself and my mate Keith were driving back to the UK with an empty trailer, having put our respective wives on the plane.  We headed for Normandy and the D day beaches before driving up to Cherbourg as our ferry had been diverted. Here we see Cherbourg station where a locotracteur is shunting a Sybic,

The Sybic was exceptionally grubby.

There was an article in the latest Rail Passion to say that the Last Sybic hauled services have just run from Cherbourg.

We now move forward to July and we were back at the house.  I had a major task to perform.  the deal with my wife was that if I had a shed for my layout she wanted a pool, so we were busy putting up an above ground pool.  We did manage a day out to La Rochelle and here a Sybic hauled freight is coming into the station before taking the branch to the docks.

And here 26104 comes through the platforms.

Those were the 8th July.

 

We came back again in December to see how the house was in the colder months and spent al of December over here.  On the 13th December we were staying with a friend near Limoges.  I was given a pass out and headed down there for the day.  These were taken from the overbridge just north of the station and works. There is a servicing depot there which sees DMU's EMU's bi modes and locos.

An Infra 66 was also there.

That's all for now.

 

Jamie

 

 

[Joseph_Pestell]

25 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Good afternoon from a sunny but windy place.  Yesterdays were the last from 2013.  2014 we went to Portugal but came back to France in 2015. Photos from that trip where we decided to move to France and found our house are in my Moves at Limoges thread.  I use that thread now to post my current French photos but discovered that I didn't post any of my photos from 2016 to 2018in it. I decided to post those in here for completeness.  Here it's the 25th April 2016 and myself and my mate Keith were driving back to the UK with an empty trailer, having put our respective wives on the plane.  We headed for Normandy and the D day beaches before driving up to Cherbourg as our ferry had been diverted. Here we see Cherbourg station where a locotracteur is shunting a Sybic,

The Sybic was exceptionally grubby.

There was an article in the latest Rail Passion to say that the Last Sybic hauled services have just run from Cherbourg.

We now move forward to July and we were back at the house.  I had a major task to perform.  the deal with my wife was that if I had a shed for my layout she wanted a pool, so we were busy putting up an above ground pool.  We did manage a day out to La Rochelle and here a Sybic hauled freight is coming into the station before taking the branch to the docks.

And here 26104 comes through the platforms.

Those were the 8th July.

 

We came back again in December to see how the house was in the colder months and spent al of December over here.  On the 13th December we were staying with a friend near Limoges.  I was given a pass out and headed down there for the day.  These were taken from the overbridge just north of the station and works. There is a servicing depot there which sees DMU's EMU's bi modes and locos.

An Infra 66 was also there.

That's all for now.

 

Jamie

 

 

 

Not quite sure what was going on yesterday, but I only saw up passenger trains at St Sulpice. Must have been getting crowded in Paris.

 

Two Sybic hauled and then a 7200 which was a surprise.

[brushman47544]

Further to my my previous comments about the appearance of Sybics between Marseille and Nice, you may be interested in the Trains du Sud/Ouest website https://trainsso.pagesperso-orange.fr/, which includes pages about current and withdrawn SNCF locos and units including their sector/service allocations. Very reliable - the authors have been published in Todays Railways Europe. You will see for example that the Sybics you recorded in your photos on that line are pretty much entirely from the STF Alsace and Grand Est allocation (Strasbourg depot).

 

You will also see that there are far more Midi catenary adapted 27000s than the early batch that you mention regularly.

 

Hope you find it interesting.

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, brushman47544 said:

Further to my my previous comments about the appearance of Sybics between Marseille and Nice, you may be interested in the Trains du Sud/Ouest website https://trainsso.pagesperso-orange.fr/, which includes pages about current and withdrawn SNCF locos and units including their sector/service allocations. Very reliable - the authors have been published in Todays Railways Europe. You will see for example that the Sybics you recorded in your photos on that line are pretty much entirely from the STF Alsace and Grand Est allocation (Strasbourg depot).

 

You will also see that there are far more Midi catenary adapted 27000s than the early batch that you mention regularly.

 

Hope you find it interesting.

Thanks for that. I did notice that most of the Sybics that I saw down there were allocated  to Dijon .  Thanks for the tip about the Midi pantographs. I was aware that there were others. We tend to see thevones from that early batch, of which I only need 16 and 18 now, but there are others now and then from the other batches, particularly when double heading.

 

Jamie

 

[Andy Hayter]

On 24/04/2021 at 19:07, Andy Hayter said:

Checked this morning and the Lamastre wreck is 405.  

 

But there is a second loco, that I caught a glimpse of yesterday running down the line. Newly painted it did not seem to have any cabside markings.  I assume that this has been the beneficiary of the missing bit from 405.

[jamie92208]

Good  afternoon from a rather wet and windy Charente.  The Tardis however is still in Limoges in December 2016. In the refuelling shed was Infra liveried 67625.

The 26026 came south with an express.

I then walked down to the station and this Ferrotract Vossloh, a G1000 I think, was in the infra sidings east of the platforms near the car park.

Several of the suppositories were knocking about on various local workings.

Other locals were being covered by Bi Modes.

There was also a little track machine knocking around.

TTFN.

 

Jamie

 

[jamie92208]

Good afternoon. It's sunny but chilly.   The Tardis is still in Limoges in December 2016.

First a Sybic is setting off north towards Paris.

One of the new units with very strange numbering was in the station.

They seem to come in all sorts of lengths depending on which region orders them.

Then we headed back to our new house and after a quiet Christmas I headed over to Ruffec one chilly but bright afternoon. This was before the new TGV line opened so there were regular TGV's. Here an Atlantique set heads north.  Ruffec is the nearest station to our house, about 20 miles due east of us.

There is some local service, about three trains in the morning, 1 at lunchtime them another three in the evening.  He a Bi mode calls heading for Angouleme.

Then another Atlantique headed north into the evening sun.

Jamie

 

 

 

[jamie92208]

No photos yesterday as I was out watching trains. However the Tardis is still in France.  It's now 2017. We were back over on holiday. We went over to see my Wife's friend near Limoges and I was able to escape to sit at Le Souterraine on the Paris Toulouse line north of Limoges.  Sybics were still in charge of the expresses from and to Paris.  Here one heads north.

And a bimode heads south  these two are on the 22nd June.

5 days later I was at Niort and an Atlantique set was coming in from La Rochelle.

16th July our daughter and her finacee were staying with us and we went on a Velorail trip. This was from Confolens about 40 miles east of us along the river valley towards Roumaziers. Confolens is also a preservation site and they do do DMU trips as well.  Here one of the team were turning the railbikes and some of the stock is in the background.

This is one of the railcars that they have

Along with a 63XXX

More tomorrow.

 

Jamie

 

[caradoc]

13 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

It's now 2017. We were back over on holiday. We went over to see my Wife's friend near Limoges and I was able to escape to sit at Le Souterraine on the Paris Toulouse line north of Limoges. 

 

Many years ago myself and two friends stayed overnight in Limoges on the way back from Spain to the UK (taking full advantage of our Continental free passes courtesy of working for BR !). We passed through Le Souterraine and remarked on the name - Does it mean 'underground' ?!!

 

[Fat Controller]

12 minutes ago, caradoc said:

 

Many years ago myself and two friends stayed overnight in Limoges on the way back from Spain to the UK (taking full advantage of our Continental free passes courtesy of working for BR !). We passed through Le Souterraine and remarked on the name - Does it mean 'underground' ?!!

 

It does! Apparently named for the Roman crypt of the church

[jamie92208]

47 minutes ago, Fat Controller said:

It does! Apparently named for the Roman crypt of the church

I think it's a place of pilgrimage.

 

Jamie

[JeffP]

We did the velo rail from Chalus some years ago. There is also a Voie Verte north from the terminus.

I now walk it beside my wife on her mobility scooter. It goes to Oradour Sur Vayres

13 km.

[phil-b259]

3 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

 

 

16th July our daughter and her finacee were staying with us and we went on a Velorail trip. This was from Confolens about 40 miles east of us along the river valley towards Roumaziers. Confolens is also a preservation site and they do do DMU trips as well.  Here one of the team were turning the railbikes and some of the stock is in the background.

This is one of the railcars that they have

 

Along with a 63XXX

 

More tomorrow.

 

Jamie

 

 

I love the "100 yards" sign

 

From that I deduce a significant quantity on non-French customers.

[jamie92208]

Good afternoon from the Charente.  It's still the 16th July 2017. Here we are at Confolens. The bikes are pretty basic with no gears and no suspension and a rudimentary brake. We were set off in convoys spaced a couple of hundred yards apart. 2 pedalling and two sitting there for the ride.

It was gently uhill all the way to the terminus where the 'bikes were all turned and we set off back in the same order that we'd come in.

The journey back was a little faster than the outward trip but was very pleasant n a sort of green tunnel a lot of the way.

Back at Confolens the preserved stock was visible again.

A few days later we drove up to Paris to meet our eldest who was doing a charity bike ride from London to Paris.  We stayed on the outskirts and used the RER and Metro to get to the Eiffel Tower.

It's now 18th September and we are back at the house with another trailer load of stuff.  The New TGV line from Tours to Bordeaux had just opened so the TGV's no longer came through Ruffec. Here's one just north of there on the new line which is about 5 miles west of the old main line at that point.

Hopefully more tomorrow.

 

Jamie

 

[jamie92208]

Good afternoon.  A few more from 2017.  Here on 18th September a Duplex heads south on the LGV SEA towards Bordeaux.

3 days later Peter and I took our wives to the airport at Limoges ad were heading for Angouleme, however Peter asked if he could visit Oradour sur Glane, the martyred village,which is only a few miles from the airport.  We went and accessed it via the visitor centre.  The village was destroyed and  over 600 of it's inhabitants in June 1944 by member of the Das Reich division that were heading towards the D Day beaches.  After the war they inhabitants left the town as it was and rebuilt the village on new ground. The buildings and contents stand now just as they were.  Through the centre of the town runs the surviving track of the Tramways of the Haute Vienne, which was a large interurban system centered on Limoges. Entry is free and most people stay silent as they walk round the site.  Here is a stretch of the main street.

This was the tram station with the main line and platform loop with a siding behind the station building.

At the bottom of the village the tracks run through a gate, the village is walled now, towards the bridge over the river Glane.  During the massacre a tram full f workers arrived at this point but after discussions with the SS soldiers, the tram turned back with it's very lucky load of passengers, several of whom lived in Oradour.

The dead are all buried in the village cemetery, whish is still in use, many in a communal grave. Under a field is a small museum with artefacts from some of the buildings. This one choked me up, with the children's tinplate toys rusted after the fires.

If you ever get the chance to visit, i would say that it is well worth a visit, very moving.

 

Anyway, in a rather sombre mood Peter and I drove to Angouleme for a nice lunch in the old town and of course a visit to the station where this Atlantique set was pulling in heading south.

All being well more tomorrow.

 

Jamie

[Northroader]

There was a book in our local library, referred to in the attachment, giving a story about the events at Ouradour, which might be true, or might not.

https://www.detecting.org.uk/html/Gold_of_the_Oradour-sur-Glane_Massacre.html

[ianp]

On 08/05/2021 at 17:20, jamie92208 said:

Good afternoon from the Charente.  It's still the 16th July 2017. Here we are at Confolens. The bikes are pretty basic with no gears and no suspension and a rudimentary brake. We were set off in convoys spaced a couple of hundred yards apart. 2 pedalling and two sitting there for the ride.

It was gently uhill all the way to the terminus where the 'bikes were all turned and we set off back in the same order that we'd come in.

The journey back was a little faster than the outward trip but was very pleasant n a sort of green tunnel a lot of the way.

Back at Confolens the preserved stock was visible again.

A few days later we drove up to Paris to meet our eldest who was doing a charity bike ride from London to Paris.  We stayed on the outskirts and used the RER and Metro to get to the Eiffel Tower.

It's now 18th September and we are back at the house with another trailer load of stuff.  The New TGV line from Tours to Bordeaux had just opened so the TGV's no longer came through Ruffec. Here's one just north of there on the new line which is about 5 miles west of the old main line at that point.

Hopefully more tomorrow.

 

Jamie

 

That is an odd sort of road crossing.

[jamie92208]

39 minutes ago, ianp said:

That is an odd sort of road crossing.

I think it's maintenance  access, possibly for Road Rail vehicles.  No doubt someone will tryband usevit as a normal crossing.

 

Jamie

[beaumoc]

[beaumoc]

2019 Rail Trip from St. Pancras to Nice. Long way.....