Moves at Limoges and other French Photos

[JeffP]

My thanks to you for a varied and interesting thread.

I hope 2022 is good for you and yours.

[jamie92208]

Happy New Year or Bon Nouvelle Annee from a grey and overcast Charente.  Andy and I had an afternoon out last Thursday and went to our usual spot at Juilie.  The weather wasn't as warm as the day before but we did see some trains. Nothing of great interest but this is becoming a regular occurrence.

60163 was dead in train behind 27007.  I am wondering if this is a method of providing last mile capability at either or both ends of the journey. These were the locos closer up.

The driver gave us a nice toot as we waved.  That is now regular as well.

The train was LPG tankers and steel carriers.   This was one of the tankers complete with Graffiti which is not a common sight..

 

 

Jamie

 

Edited April 8, 2022 by jamie92208

[EddieB]

Just a moment I was wondering what Tornado was doing in France!

[jamie92208]

Bon soir from a slightly grey and darkening part of France.  Andy and I got out yesterday and the previous Wednesday but the weather hasn't been too good for photography, very gloomy and grey.  It was also cold so we stayed in the car unless a train was seen. However, coffee and Stollen kept our spirits up.  There wasn't a lot of freight activity but the regular Infra train provided the high spot of the afternoon.  I hadn't even got the long lens on my camera but then we saw that there were no less than 4 locos on the train so I used the camera to record the numbers as it went by.   It was led by 22212,  regular.

Then a class 67XXX which became a bit of a mystery.

As you will see there are just 3 numerals, 5 7 and 0 with space for one numeral between the 5 and the 7 and 2 between the 7 and the 0.   Our best guess is that it's full number is 675XX0. There appears to be a plate where a nameplate would have been which leads us to think that it's 67580.   The two 75's were 018 and 084.

The train was a long rake of ballast hoppers.   Any comments on the ID of the 67 would be appreciated.

 

Jamie

Edited April 8, 2022 by jamie92208

[kintbury jon]

I reckon it's going to be 67510.  I reckon that whilst there is space for two numbers between the 7 and 0, there isn't space for two 'wide' numbers, so one must be a '1'.  There is a photo of 67510 on the page below.  Whilst it's not a good side on view, if you look closely it looks to have some numbers missing.

 

https://www.raileuropexpress.com/album/album-2019/mars-2019/

 

This one is better:

 

https://www.railpictures.net/photo/694559/

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, kintbury jon said:

I reckon it's going to be 67510.  I reckon that whilst there is space for two numbers between the 7 and 0, there isn't space for two 'wide' numbers, so one must be a '1'.  There is a photo of 67510 on the page below.  Whilst it's not a good side on view, if you look closely it looks to have some numbers missing.

 

https://www.raileuropexpress.com/album/album-2019/mars-2019/

 

This one is better:

 

https://www.railpictures.net/photo/694559/

Thanks very much indeed for that Jon.  It definitely  the right number. I wondered about one of the missing digits being a 1 as well for the same reason.  That grey patch to the left of the numerals clinches it. Sadly it's not a cop for me I sawvit just south of there at Luxé in July 2019.

 

Thanks

 

Jamie

 

 

[Mike Storey]

On 27/01/2022 at 18:36, jamie92208 said:

Bon soir from a slightly grey and darkening part of France.  Andy and I got out yesterday and the previous Wednesday but the weather hasn't been too good for photography, very gloomy and grey.  It was also cold so we stayed in the car unless a train was seen. However, coffee and Stollen kept our spirits up.  There wasn't a lot of freight activity but the regular Infra train provided the high spot of the afternoon.  I hadn't even got the long lens on my camera but then we saw that there were no less than 4 locos on the train so I used the camera to record the numbers as it went by.   It was led by 22212,  regular.

Then a class 67XXX which became a bit of a mystery.

As you will see there are just 3 numerals, 5 7 and 0 with space for one numeral between the 5 and the 7 and 2 between the 7 and the 0.   Our best guess is that it's full number is 675XX0. There appears to be a plate where a nameplate would have been which leads us to think that it's 67580.   The two 75's were 018 and 084.

The train was a long rake of ballast hoppers.   Any comments on the ID of the 67 would be appreciated.

 

Jamie

 

You still had some stollen left, this long after Christmas???

 

[jamie92208]

 

7 minutes ago, Mike Storey said:

 

You still had some stollen left, this long after Christmas???

 

Andy's wife is the guardian of the stollen. If it was me it would certainly have been finished. I provide the coffee and the transport. Andy brings cake and beer. We know how to live the high life.

 

Jamie

Edited January 29, 2022 by jamie92208

[brushman47544]

8 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Thanks very much indeed for that Jon.  It definitely  the right number. I wondered about one of the missing digits being a 1 as well for the same reason.  That grey patch to the left of the numerals clinches it. Sadly it's not a cop for me I sawvit just south of there at Luxé in July 2019.

 

Thanks

 

Jamie

 

 

67510 is an INFRA loco too, whereas 67580 is one of the few remaining in the TER pool working around Marseille. Don’t know if you are already familiar with it, but the website Trains du Sud Ouest https://trainsso.pagesperso-orange.fr has pages showing the current status of SNCF’s fleet. I’ve always found it to be accurate.

 

 

[jamie92208]

Good afternoon.   I escaped again and headed over to Ruffec yesterday. Shopping was shopped then I ate my sarnies just south of Ruffec.  I was surprised by a southbound.  two 674XX's hauling some Paris suburban stock possibly heading for Bagnierres de Biggorre for refurbishment by CAF at the works there.  The works rail connection is out of use so they have to be taken by road, possibly from Tarbes.  The leading loco was 67456 but I dodn't manage to get the number of the other one which was in En Voyage livery.   Then I picked Andy upand we headed for our usual spot at Juille.    Not too much around but this freight had no less than 3 locos on the front.  27002 leading then 7370 dead in train and 60043.

The usual TGV came north 886, here cresting the ramp onto the LGV SEA with the pantograph just raised onto 25Kv. They are coasting uphill for at least half a mile uphill and are down to about 40mph at this point.

The last freight was the regular infrastructure working with a 222XX on the front.

Jamie

Edited April 8, 2022 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

Whilst the Great Outage of 2022 was ongoing I posted a few pictures on the temporary Facebook site that  @PhilJ Wset up (The Diversion Line)   Thanks Phil.  On Tuesday 29th March  I went out with my pal Andy and we headed for our usual spot on the Paris to Bordeaux line a few miles south of Ruffec in the Charente region. As there is no proper equivalent of Real Time Trains for freight workings in France ,what we see is pot luck. It was obvious that there was some engineering work near our usual spot se we headed towards the next station called Luxe. On the way we saw a crane and some railway vehicles and went to have a nosey. This was at a point where the LGV(High Speed) line crosses the classic main line. To our surprise the redundant bridge that we normally stand on in summer months looks as if it is going to be demolished. The bounders. Whatever will they do next. Anyway we carried on to Luxe and when we got there someone had dumped a brand new point next to the car park.

There was an engineering train in the station with two Vossloh G1206 locos topping and tailing long string of bogie wagons with ballast and other things in them.

There was obviously much activity in the old goods yard and it looked as if some new sidings were being laid.

This ws the loco at the north end

We then headed a little further south to find a vantage point for the works in the goods yard.  There isn't a yard left as such just a running loop on the northbound line.Here we found a large gang of men who had obviously replaced the point that gives access to the brnch to the Villognon yard on the LGV SEA. 

There was about 3" height difference as there was no ballast under the new sleepers. It looked very reminiscent of some scenes on my layout as they jacked and manhandled a short stretch of track into position to connect up the headshunt.

Soon everything ws connected up and a freight of tanktainers appeared from the south behind a 27000 class electric.

5 minutes later another freight with steel carriers and LPG tankers came north but with 27074 dead in train behind the train engine.

We headed back to the station and soon the works train headed north via a crossover just north of the station. Presumably heading back to Ruffec to stable.

The old point, that had only been installed in 2016 was in the last 3 wagons. Then an northbound infrastructure train appeared with a 22299 in charge, 22383 was dead in train behind it.

Not long afterwards a rare southbound ECS working appeared of an X72000 class 2 car DMU.

then the northbound local train heading towards Poitiers and Chatellerault appeared.

Time to pack up and head home but an interesting afternoon. From chatting with an engineer who ws inspecting the new point, they are planning to replace the two crossovers north of the station in the next couple of weeks and all four new points are now on site in the old goods yard. Each unit is about 100m long. We speculated as to whether our summer trainspotting bridge would be removed at the same time.  The bridge has three spans with the main span over the tracks and the OHLE attached to it's underside.  

 

Jamie

[PhilJ W]

The pictures appear to be a lot clearer and sharper on here than they do on Farcebook.

[jamie92208]

3 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

The pictures appear to be a lot clearer and sharper on here than they do on Farcebook.

I'm not certain but I think that Farcebook automatically resizes photos to quite a low resolution level. I'm not sure what dpi they go to.  My modern ones are roundabout 3Mb when I download them from the camera Due to the 10 Mb upload limit per post I batch resize mine to 1000 by 600 pixels then post them.  The site appeara to upload at actual aize.

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

Good afternoon from a cool and damp Charente.  I have been a tad busy reloading my images that were lost in the great crash of 2022, 1bout 2100 in all but they got finished today when I found where the last stragglers were hiding. Anyway I have been out and about.

4th April I had to make a trip to the danglies of St Jean  and lo and behold there was a train in the sidings.  This G1206 was sitting there along with some grain hoppers for loading at the local elevator.

Then on 10th April Andy and I had a day out to Bordeaux.  We were hoping to get good views of the semi roundhouse area but it was rather tightly sealed off. There were some locos there though.

A few sybics and also rows f what looked like stored or withdrawn powere. A lot of the numbers were almost impossible to read.

We had some interesting ours of the shed surroundings but no more were seen.

We then headed back via the Medoc peninsula and the ferry to Royan.  We did try to get round the container docks at Pont du grave but the tracks looked rather rusty.  We then caught the ferry.

As we sailed out our thoughts turned to the Cockleshell Heroes and the lives that were so sadly cut short on this stretch of water.

Then over to Royan and we eventually found the station where a unit was waiting with a service to Angouleme via Santes.

This local  resident obviously felt safe to sunbathe alongside a platform.

Then on to Saintes and there were a good array of units around.

All in all a good day was had.

Then yesterday I had a trip up towards Partheney for a model railway group meeting. On my way there I crossed the Poitiers La Rochelle line and  also a line to a grain elevator at Maille.  On my way home I stopped at the elevator and found that they had this ittle internal shinter.

This was a view along the tracks.

The line is n the foreground.  It's a branch of the Bordeaux line from the marshalling yard just north of Poitiers.   Then I headed back home but stopped at Pamproux as this unit came through.

Jamie

 

Edited April 23, 2022 by jamie92208

[PhilJ W]

7 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Then yesterday I had a trip up towards Partheney for a model railway group meeting. On my way there I crossed the Poitiers La Rochelle line and  also a line to a grain elevator at Maille.  On my way home I stopped at the elevator and found that they had this little internal shinter.

This was a view along the tracks.

The line is n the foreground.  It's a branch of the Bordeaux line from the marshalling yard just north of Poitiers. Jamie

A touch of the Officer Crabtree there.😆

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from a sunny Charente.   Just before our latest trip to the UK I had an hour or so on Niort station. Nothing of great interest but these were all seen. An 81XXX bi mode coming in from Saintes.

Passengers were able to connect into this, a double deck TGV heading for Paris Montparnasse.

Then one of the reliveried Atlantique sets came in heading to La Rochelle.

Jamie

 

 

[jamie92208]

Yesterday I had another few hours at Niort whilst my good lady was having a physio session. A very pleasant way to pass the time watching the trains go by and marking up my new UK Combined volume that arrived when we were in the UK earlier this month.  I got to the station in time to see the 08.53 local from Poitiers to La Rochelle an 84XXX b mode.

 

This was followed a few minutes later by two TGV's at 09.06 with a Paris bound one and  710 en route to la Rochelle. The station then went quiet for over an hour then the tannoy announced a non stop train on track B.

This appeared.

66236 on a long cereal train, obviously bound for the docks for export.

It was moving at a fair pace as well.

Then all went quiet until the local from Saintes via St Jean D'Angely arrived at 11.15. This gives a connection for passengers to Paris who then joined TGV 710 on it's return working.

They parked in a good spot for this photo of differing noses.

Then it was time to head back to pick up the boss.   It did give me the idea of possibly doing a quick return trip to La Rochelle next week.

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

I got to see a couple of trains yesterday as part of a shopping expedition that the boss wanted me to undertake.  As it involved going to Ruffec it would have been rude not to sit on the station for an hour or so.  The station rebuild is complete and there is a nice new seat next to the signal cabin on the down platform.  Very helpfully a bell rings when a train is approaching and there is a short alarm sound when a northbound passes a CCTV camera 10 minutes away.  Unusually for an afternoon the first train was a southbound so I decided to find out if the new footbridge provided any new photographic angles.  This was the first shot.

And a slightly closer one.

As it passed me I tried to get  a view of the whole long van train as it headed south.  This was the best that I could do.

All the OHLE does make things a tad awkward.   Then 20 minutes later a northbound Infra train appeared behind 22367.

The usual eclectic mix of rolling stock with a couple of ballast hoppers on the rear.

 

My initial verdict on the bridge as a  vantage point.   Useless apart from a couple of head on shots.

 

Jamie

 

[Stephen Freeman]

Have you tried this location? https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@46.1255418,0.2138892,3a,75y,270h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sejrkkuWoYP6FvCl1LLG1GQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DejrkkuWoYP6FvCl1LLG1GQ%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D108.0952%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192

 

Not far from Saint Saviol, You have to think that there was a level crossing there, once upon a time and possibly a station too, in fact I think there used to be a building there, which looked railwayesque but appears to have gone now.

Edited May 19, 2022 by Stephen Freeman
addition

[jamie92208]

Thanks.  I'll try to work out the easiest way to get there.  The advantage of the station is that the Chef du Gare lets me know when trains are coming.  As it's now got warmer Andy and I may well get back to our usual spot where the LGV and classic lines cross.

 

Jamie

 

[Stephen Freeman]

18 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Thanks.  I'll try to work out the easiest way to get there.  The advantage of the station is that the Chef du Gare lets me know when trains are coming.  As it's now got warmer Andy and I may well get back to our usual spot where the LGV and classic lines cross.

 

Jamie

 

There are several ways to get there of course, all involve French country roads and driving habits of locals! Easiest is probably from Maison Blanches on N10, at the roundabout turn right past the truckstop, turn left at end, follow lane until you go over railway, turn left by the Discobox (is it still there?) then left again. Or from Saint Saviol, at the roundabout turn down past the Mairie and school, turn right down lane, continue though hamlet, go under railway turn left.

[jamie92208]

2 days after my last post we definitely set out to look for new photo locations.  Andy and I had got permission from the various domestic authorities to beggar off trainspotting for a week.  Thus had started out as a plan to look at trains in the French Alps.  Andy is a Swiss fan and a joint plan emerged of  week's trip with three days driving across and trainspotting in France and 4 days on an interail pass in Switzerland.  As a result we se off on the morning of the 22nd May heading east.  My 18 yr old Volvo behaved well, and returned 50mpg. After picking Andy up at Ruffec we headed off and crossed the Paris-Limoges line near La Souteranne.   Our first stop was at Montlucon, not far from Vichy Here a pair of, what the French call Suppositores, were waiting to head toward Clermont-Ferrand.

There were more units stationed beyond the platforms.

Then we headed east and a bit south.   Our next stop was at Gerzat, just north of Clermont on the main line from Paris. This had a big factory behind it with this very small shunter visible.

There was another shunter parked under a canopy.

The Platform 5 book identifies this as Y6259  A Paris bound express behind a Sybic 26036 surprised me so there's no photo.

Then we headed on for Lyon. We had planned to head for a suburban station north of the city on the main line but the sat nag took us past the large complex at Lyon Vaise so we stopped there. As well as lots of units we were rewarded by this 27XXX headed north on a tanktainer train.

No other freight but lots of suburban traffic.

Hopefully more travels tomorrow.

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

Good morning from a coolish Charente.  We are still in the Lyon area on 22nd may 2022. On our walk back across the bridge to the car park there were trolleybus wires but no actual vehicles to see.

Then it was on towards Vennesieux depot but with a quick stop to photograph a Lyon tram

The depot was very well secured and there weren't many locos visible.  This ancient shunter, now a LOCMA was around.

And a nice memorial to earlier inhabitants of the depot.

Then it was back in the car and head up to Chambery, where we booked into the hotel.  This was right across the road from the station so guess where we headed.  There was a lot of activity, mainly passenger trains including a large number of push pull sets powered by 222XX locos.

These were in various liveries.  Here a train heads in from the Lyon direction.

More tomorrow.

 

Jamie

 

[jamie92208]

Good evening from a rather dark Charente.  Other things have stopped me uploading earlier but here goes.  It's still 22nd may 2022 and we're on the platform at Chambery.  Here is one of the two designs of DVT used on the sets of Corail coaches in this area.

A TGV arrived from the Lyon direction.

Then my first sight of a 363XX.  heading down the hill from Modane with a 7200,presumably after a banking turn.

Despite the grime we were eventually able to read the number.

And off they headed, who know where.

Jamie

 

[Re6/6]

Good stuff as ever Jamie!

 

Interesting to see all that platform edge (Buddleia?) vegetation!