Brittany: A new Narrow Gauge 60cm line !!

Any news ?

 

Latest News - Working this week - Joel, Christian & Misha (Christian's Russian father-in-law)
Clearing trees toward east of site.
On Saturday, I surveyed one of the 60cm heavy rail Points, and created an AutoCAD drawing to convert to 1 metre gauge - may be done later this week. All of these 60cm Points are to be converted. This one will connect the 'Shed' road to the Carriage siding.
My wood-burner now has next winter's logs - possibly Autumn, Spring and Summer as well... nothing going to the Biomas Boiler at the School... In fact some limited burning of rubbish is taking place (with a hosepipe to hand - just in case).
Shed Electrics are now complete - light and power...
The area just outside the pedestrian access door has been cleared in preparation for the wall to be built higher - then to be filled with ballast and gravel to same level as new steps.
Some of the English supporters are not going anymore - if the French are not interested, then they are unwilling to carry on. Others are currently, or about to be in England

 

Three to build a railway....it's going to take a long time !!

 

Joel, Christian, and his father in law (Micha) will be in Bon Repos Saturday.Hopefully others will join them.
The plans for the day is to continue clearing the track bed in the direction of Caurel and painting the white (grounded) wagon body in RB color (something between red and maroon).
Work will also continue in clearing the space for the future central platform (between main line and runaround loop), also on Friday, Saturday and Sunday a kind of digger. This machine will trace the space were the future 60cm line will be built into the greenway toward Caurel.

 

How long is the 60cm line going to be and have the locomotives been moved over to Bon Repos yet ?

 

1/ No idea - I suppose it will be as long as the Pechot track panels allow - but won't cross the road to the east of the station.
2/ No - no point moving them until 60cm track is down is there?

 

In engineering terms, it should be 600mm, not 60cm. Unless it's 597mm.

What is the ultimate aim and how long will the line be?

 

Well the line was originally to be 60cm - that's what the French refer to it as, then it became Meter Gauge (or Metric as they say) As a Chartered engineer myself, I am happy with 600mm, having gone metric in 1973, as for Metric Gauge - anything could be Metric in France.
Meter Gauge from Bon Repos, westward to Gouarec is 4.1km.... The Pechot panel track (WW1 vintage) to be laid eastward is probably less than 1/2km. The Association has both Metric and 60cm items to display - see http://bonrepos.jimdo.com/ The Association owns the Trackbed eastward to Mur-de-Bretagne, so could be some 14km eventually. From Bon Repos to Mur it is a Cyle/footpath, and to the west, half of the dual carriageway into Gouarec is also owned by the Association,,,, However DIR (French Departmental Roads Authority is unhappy that they don't actually own the land that the road was built upon!!!! However the Association has the backing of the Conceuil General Dept 22, and the DIR have to make plans.
They have the Rail and some Sleepers to extend westward, what they don't have is 'The Black - Hand - Gang' to lay it. All the ex-pat brits are in their 60s and 70s with bad backs, and the young French are not interested...... Maybe the association could offer a week in Brittany????

 

The BHG would empty France of tea bags in a week. You need the Rest of the World Gang. I'll have a word...

 

There is little point to tea with milk in France unless you are in one of those rare places (e.g. part of the Cotentin) where you can get non-homogenised milk. A long way from Brittany alas. Best to stick to the characteristic weapons grade expresso!

 

There's no money and goodwill isn't enough apart from that the changeover from 600mm to metre gauge or even mixed gauge didn't do much to help. The 600mm railway could of been up and running by now at bon Repos if the money had been there at the start.

 

OK Baldwin, I know that you turned down the job that was then dumped on Joel...but can we please be a little bit more positive? Remember the Conseil General is putting up 14K Euros for various background issues. There is Rail and Sleepers on site at Bon Repos salvaged from the Vivarais. The situation with Christian has changed somewhat - he is now posted to operations within Metropolitan France (Paris) for at least the next 4 years - he says that he will be on site much more - being only 4 Hours away instead of being in Martinique.

Supplies for the Gangs.... Milk for tea - Bio whole Milk from a very nice lady at the Bon Repos Sunday Market is available, although my preference is real coffee - the sort that stops at the channel going north.
Tea Bags - you would be surprised how many we have to cart over to Brittany to keep the ex-pat community from going thirsty, so another 1cwt in the back of the Volvo should be manageable.
But what about the Bacon and White Sliced Bread you ask? Again there are contacts and suppliers IF you know where to find them....

Language? well I am advised that the lads from Pays de Galles could understand Bretton, and vica-versa if they spoke slow enough. The French on the project are well up to speed with Franglais 101...!

Lets see what happens.

 

Nothing to do with being positive or negative, just observation, if everyones going it must be for a reason ? Everything you needed to of set up the 60cm railway was available, it's down to money, making the right décisions and having a viable plan, motivation just isn't enough.

 

Well, the sun DID shine the other week - we had 5 days of sun, and no rain for 10 days!

 

How is the project coming along ?

 

Sorry, I have been away or very busy, so not visited for a while...

There has been some progress at Bon Repos during the last 12 months, the most visible being the removal of material dumped in the quays during the road improvements after the line closed.
Some of the edging stones are now visible to enable the tracks to be aligned.
Gate Pillars have been built on both entry roads to locate the security chains.
Electrics in the Shed have been completed.
A start has been made in painting the grounded Van body into RB colours (Maroon)

At the recent AGM on October 26th it was decided that the future work would be split into several work centers:

Bon Repos Station:
Static exhibition in the station with dual gauge (Metre and 60cm) heritage line.

Gouarec Station:
Laying a miniature railway (5” & 7 1/4”) as a flag flying excersise.
Taking over the whole shed at Gouarec and creating a workshop.

Museum: (Lead by Christian Labetoulle)
This will be created at the Halte de Bon Repose where the rails lay in place – unused until dismantled in 1971. The objective is to return the station to as it was in prior to 1967, with the low level platforms re-created.
A small museum will be created in the station building, to house original artifacts and memorabelia from the building of the line to present day.
Items of rolling stock will be displayed on the tracks in the station.

Museum Line: (Lead by Christian Labetoulle)
Initially ½ Mile in length, dual gauge, using the 20kg/m rail recovered from the abandoned section of the Vivarais network. The target date for completion is April 9th 2017 – 50 years after the closure of the RB.

Mineature Railway: (Lead to be defined)
The mineature railway is to be laid on the land owned by the ACBR alongside the preserved station (owned by CCKB). The tracks will be easily seen from the road and will be a flag waving excersise to raise interest. The adjacent Shed at the back of the Gouarec site will provide safe and secure storage for the rolling stock when not being used.

Workshop: (Lead to be defined)
With ACBR taking over the whole shed early next year, there will be room to create a workshop for the restoration and maintenance of Rolling Stock

Legal Issues:
Shortly battle will commence with the (Les directions interdépartementales des Routes) DIR, who are trying to ignore the fact that the ACBR owns the land under the road adjacent to the canal. The road was laid on land owned by the RB, and was not legally purchased – land parcels were still registered to RB until purchased by the ACBR. At the time of purchase, notice was given by the Notaire requiring comment by the DIR – no comments were fothcomming, so the sale was legally completed. If the DIR fail to give up the road, maybe ACBR can set up a toll booth to charge for access????

Next Work Day:
Saturday november 23rd will be the next organized "working day" at Bon Repos.
This is related to the 2 metric gauge points that should have been delivered from Le Mans during the week (they are already mounted on metal sleepers).
They will be the link with the small depot track and 2 two future platform tracks.
Once they have been laid, this will be the acces to the "main line". However, at the beginning , the main line will only be 24 m of track in order to be able to move rolling stock.
The switches will have been placed in the correct position on delivery and the work will be to lay them at the correct height and alignment.

 

Thanks for the information and taking time to put it onto the forum. The dual gauge line is a good idea .

 

More 60cm material arrived at Gouarec in the morning of 21st November

 

Tracklaying at Bon Repos in November - Points from Le Mans

 

I haven't had the chance to 'drop in' for a year or so but glad to know things are still progressing.

The 1st photo seems to show (about) 9 volunteers. Does this mean numbers have swelled?

I've seen that the Lac is due to be drained is it, this coming year, or the next? I can see this being an attraction in itself and bringing even more visitors to the area. Have you any plans to capitalize on the increased attendances with respect to fund raising/awareness?

At the Gouarec end. That Loco. Surely a few days could be spent making it look more presentable. I can see the potential but others - to them, it is surely little more than a rusting eyesore.

Joyeux Noël et bonne année.