Help with a French micro

[jhock]

I am in the process of planning and building a micro layout.

 

I have picked a few items of SNCF stock and rather fancy building something to utilise the grain wagons I have bought.  I have also picked up a Rees Locotracture.

 

I could do with some help finding a few key words to help with image searches.  

 

I am thinking about maybe a brewery or flour mill.  I have tried Google translate but I am not getting any relevant results from the searches I have tried. 

 

Any help of links would be most welcome. 

[Moxy]

The French Railway Society might be able to help http://frenchrailwayssociety.org/

 

When I was looking for info on French narrow gauge lines, I found it produced more results if I searched in French, rather than in English.  Even if you don't put the relevant accent over a letter, that still produces more results than trying in English.  Try searching for 'brasserie industrielle' or 'minoterie.'

 

Hope this helps.

[Oldddudders]

Google minifer.fr. Other companies producing French structure kits include Regions & Companies and Architecture & Passion. 

[doctor quinn]

Carl Arendt's micro site has a suggestion based on a grain depot in Valmont that  you may find helpful https://www.carendt.com/micro-layout-design-gallery/standard-gauge-lines/

[SimonHMT]

I can't remember whether the French magazine Voie Libre has an online index; the sort of thing you're doing has sometimes featured in the past. It may also be worth asking on NGRM (I am Spitfiregoggles on there, and I'm pretty sure we've met) as there are several members who may have knowledge of suitable prototypes for inspiration. Also, some back issues of Chris Ellis' Model Trains International  may have info/ideas. 

What sort of era are you intending to portray?

I'll follow this with interest, as one of the subjects I'm thinking about for the future is a standard gauge French Secondaire.

Cheers, 

Simon. 

Edited March 22 by SimonHMT

[Andy Hayter]

Farine - flour

Moulin - mill

Brasserie - brewery

 

You will tend to get a whole lot of hits of small scale artisan equipment and not full sized industrial units.

 

As Ian has suggested, Minifer offer suitable models.

 

 

[Pacific231G]

On 22/03/2024 at 14:38, doctor quinn said:

Carl Arendt's micro site has a suggestion based on a grain depot in Valmont that  you may find helpful https://www.carendt.com/micro-layout-design-gallery/standard-gauge-lines/

I'm glad to see that's still on the late Carl Arendt's site. It was I who sent it to him having discovered it while exploring the remains of the line that ran between Fecamp and Dieppe.  

These are the photos I took of it at the time (a couple of which are on the carendt site) 

The former level crossing keeper's cottage the line ran across the road here but had been tarmacced pver. 

This was the view from the other end  

the yard was shunted using a powered capstan - quite common around small rail connected silos- with a couple of unpowered ones - including this one - for  directing or reversing the hauilage cable. 

 

 

This was my plan of the site  (scaled in feet for 1:87 scale) 

 

 

This is the same but with dimensions added from the rough sketch and pacing out of the yard I did when I visited it  and measurements taken from Google Earth and IGN . The line marked as dismantled was the start of the station's passing loop. 

 

Finally, this was my suggested Microlayout based on it 

 

The yard was shunted using an electric capstan but I've seen similar silos - perhaps a little larger- with an old locotracteur, often a Moyse, apparently rotting away but actully used in the brief periods when the silos got busy. There used to be a lot of these small local silos in France and they kept a lot of secondary lines in business until the 1990s, decades after they lost their passenger services. They did though have a nasty habit of blowing up (grain dust, like many other small particles in aerosol, can be explosive) so were replaced with fewer much larger silos.  

The way this was worked would have been that the two points connecting the yard to the SNCF line were opened by the crew of the SNCF pick-up goods who picked up and dropped wagons as apprpriate. The points were then padlocked shut and the silo staff could shunt their private sidings to their hearts content  as wagons were loaded or unloaded one by one. 

The station's LM (Limite de Manouevres - shunt limit) sign was just before the level crossing but that must have been passed when shunting  to or from the private sidings. 

Edited March 25 by Pacific231G
typos

[brushman47544]

The line from Dieppe used to pass close to my aunt and uncle’s house near Gueures. In the late 60s there was still a goods train most days from Dieppe that went at least as far as Luneray. One day my cousin and I were offered a cab ride in what I suspect was a 63000 but we turned it down. We were only about 7 or 8 though.