Ten minutes at Gare de Lyon

[Focalplane]

Walk across Gare de Lyon in about ten minutes and this is what you might see on an average daytime visit.

 

Two hybrid duplexes, side by side.  The platform is for train preparation and the lone passenger will have found the doors locked!

 

 

 

700 series Duplex:

 

 

Joined by another, just arrived:

 

 

International TGV going to Switzerland:

 

 

Another 700 series next to the "Swiss" TGV:

 

 

A 200 series TGV Duplex:

 

 

And finally, a third Hybrid TGV.  To see three in one station must be very rare indeed:

 

 

There were probably four of five more trainsets at the time, but I had a train to catch!

 

EDIT:  Incidentally, these pictures were all taken with an iPad Mini on a very gloomy day - strange to hold but the results are not bad for a piece of slate. . .

[JeffP]

Interesting, thanks for posting.

 

Phone/pad cameras have come on apace

[eastwestdivide]

Are the "hybrid" TGVs new power cars with old trailers or vice versa? The power car design looks older to me.

[Focalplane]

Are the "hybrid" TGVs new power cars with old trailers or vice versa? The power car design looks older to me.

The Hybrid TGVs consist of Reseau (system) locomotives, typically seen at each end of single deck TGV coaches, coupled to Duplex coaches.  They were introduced in the early 2000s out of necessity to beef up the already saturated LGV from Paris to Lyon.  19 sets were produced, number 601-619.  The locomotives have a different paint scheme to better match the duplex coaches.

 

So the answer is indeed older power cars with newer trailers.

[Rich Papper]

The hybrids came about as a bit of a swap for the new LGV Est. New duplex trailers were built along with new power cars. Some of the existing Reseau sets were split so that the overcrowded Paris-Lyon got increased capacity with the new duplex trailers and old power cars, while the new LGV Est to Germany got the old Reseau set of trailers with the new build power cars that could be more easily tweaked for cross-border use.