Metre-Gauge Railways in Provence

After a detour up the tramway to Guillaumes we continue on our way towards Digne and travel as far as Annot.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/2018/07/27/nice-to-digne-les-bains-part-6-saint-benoit-pont-de-gueydan-to-annot-chemins-de-fer-de-provence-70

The line has left the River Var behind and now wends its way along a number of different watercourses.

 

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/2018/08/04/nice-to-digne-les-bains-part-7-annot-to-meailles-chemins-de-fer-de-provence-71

We are close to the highest point on the route by the time we complete this section of the journey. Soon, after a long tunnel we will be on a downward ruling grade.

 

This is an aside from the string of posts about the Nice to Digne Line. The valley of the River Var has been prone to flooding over many years. A friend mentioned landslips which occurred at Annot in 1994 and 1996 as a result of heavy rains. The 1994 incident was part of a much wider catastrophic event affecting the whole River Var catchment area. The link below provides some details of the 1994 floods:

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.co...-and-landslides-chemins-de-fer-de-provence-72

The volumes of water involved in the 1994 floods were unbelieveable!

 

The next stage of our journey takes us out of the catchment of the River Var and into the Valley of the River Verdon. ....

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/2018/08/10/nice-to-digne-les-bains-part-8-meailles-to-thorame-haute-chemins-de-fer-de-provence-73

The centre piece of this section of the line is the 3.5 kilometre long tunnel which links the valleys of the Verdon and the Vaire together - the Tunnel de la Colle Saint Michel.

 

Its been highlighted to me that in my last post in this series I did not provide details of Thorame-Haute Viaduct. In that post, I provided rail-level images and then rushed on to the site of Thorame-Haute Station. This short blog is an attempt to rectify that mistake! I guess you could also see it as a bonus for patiently bearing with me as I meander along the line between Nice and Digne-les-Bains!

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/2018/08/13/nice-to-digne-les-bains-part-10-thorame-haute-viaduct-chemins-de-fer-de-provence-74

 

This next post focusses first on the Station and buildings close to it at Thorame-Haute. It highlights a local festival and the importance of the chapel adjacent to the railway station.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com/2018/08/13/nice-to-digne-les-bains-part-11-thorame-haute-to-saint-andre-les-alpes-chemins-de-fer-de-provence-75

The blog then takes us on from Thorame-Haute to Saint Andre les Alpes.

In a number of these posts I have been picking up some images from 'www.railsim-fr.com' as there is now a rail simulator version of the Nice to Digne line.

 

The next step along the Nice to Digne railway line takes us from Saint-Andre-les-Alpes into the next valley - the valley of L'Asse.

https://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/08/17/nice-to-digne-les-bains-part-12-saint-andre-les-alpes-to-barreme-chemins-de-fer-de-provence-76

 

The next post in the series on the line from Nice to Digne covers the length of the route from Barreme to the station at Mezel.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/08/18/nice-to-digne-les-bains-part-13-barreme-to-mezel-chemins-de-fer-de-provence-77

Barreme Station has been used as the source for a model by Aubertrain (http://aubertrain.com/modules.html). The diorama is 602 x 400 x 250 mm in size and costs 875 euros.

 

I've travelled over the Nice - Digne line twice; 1983 when the Renault railcars and the delightful original terminus at Nice were in operation, and again in 2007. Can someone please update me on motive power, both regular and tourist operations?

John

 

Hello John

I hope to get round to posting about the locomotives and rolling stock after I get through to Digne on the posts about the line. There is some very modern rolling stock on the line now, combined with traditional autorails.

I have not yet started to pull together the research but will do in due course.

Roger

 

This is the final post covering the length of the Nice to Digne line. I hope to cover the motive power and rolling stock on the line in one or more additional posts.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/08/22/nice-to-digne-les-bains-part-14-mezel-to-digne-chemins-de-fer-de-provence-78

 

In November 2018, my wife and I visited a number of the perched villages in the area around Fayence. As a result, I have updated one or two posts on my blog which relate to parts of the Central Var metre-gauge line. The changes to the post below relate to a visit to the perched village of Tanneron which sits high in the hills above the line. The village is a staggering 11 kilometres from the old station which bore its name.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2017/12/03/ligne-de-central-var-part-6-chemin-de-fer-de-provence-26

 

On the same journey on 15th November 2018, Jo and I were also fortunate enough to follow the line of the D94 linking Tanneron to the site of its station, and then to travel along the D562 and the Avenue de Narbonne before visiting the village of Montauroux The result of these visits has been some minor additions to the post below, particularly some photographs.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2017/12/03/ligne-de-central-var-part-7-chemin-de-fer-de-provence-27

 

In November 2018 my wife and I stayed in St. Raphael for 10 days. On a couple of those days, Jo and I were able to visit the old Chemin de Fer du Sud de La France station site alongside the old PLM station. The modern SNCF station seems to me to be just as ugly as I thought it would be. The site of the old metre-gauge station is now covered by the Gare Routiere. The structures which supported the old line alongside the main PLM line remain and are now in use by small retail outlets.

As far as we could tell the details given in the original version of the post below are all correct.

I have just added a postcript and some photos.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/01/1...to-saint-raphael-chemin-de-fer-de-provence-48

 

On Sunday 18th November, Jo and I travelled from St. Raphael via the Sunday Market in Le Muy to Hyeres. We enjoyed an hour or so on the spit of land extending out from Hyeres towards Iles d'Hyeres and we had lunch next to La Tour Fondue. We spent the rest of the day following Le Macaron from Hyeres to Sainte-Maxime. Nothing I saw on the journey caused me concern about the text of the series of blog posts I have written about the route and that I have already provided links to on this thread. I was able to take a few pictures while on the journey, although there was little time to stop if the full journey was to be completed in daylight! I will post a link to the photographs in due course. On the journey we were also able to make two detours. The first, to Les Bormettes and the site of the old torpedo factory at what is now known as Miramar. The second to St. Tropez.

The relevant links to my blog are:

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2017/12/30/ligne-du-littoral-toulon-to-st-raphael-part-6-hyeres-to-bormes-les-mimosas-chemin-de-fer-de-provence-41

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2017/12/29/ligne-du-littoral-toulon-to-st-raphael-part-7-la-londe-les-bormettes-chemin-de-fer-de-provence-42

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/01/08/ligne-du-littoral-toulon-to-st-raphael-part-6-bormes-les-mimosas-to-cavalaire-chemin-de-fer-de-provence-41

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/01/08/ligne-du-littoral-toulon-to-st-raphael-part-9-cavalaire-to-la-foux-les-pins-chemin-de-fer-de-provence-44

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/01/08/ligne-du-littoral-toulon-to-st-raphael-part-10-la-foux-les-pins-to-saint-tropez-chemin-de-fer-de-provence-45

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/01/08/ligne-du-littoral-toulon-to-st-raphael-part-11-la-foux-les-pins-to-cogolin-chemin-de-fer-de-provence-46

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/01/08/ligne-du-littoral-toulon-to-st-raphael-part-12-la-foux-les-pins-to-sainte-maxime-chemin-de-fer-de-provence-47

 

This link contains, among other things, pictures taken on 18th November 2018 on and around the line of Le Macaron:

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/11/18/ligne-du-littoral-toulon-to-st-raphael-part-15-november-2018-visits-to-the-line-chemins-de-fer-de-provence-81

It was a bright but blowy day on the Mediterranean Coast!

 

One final PostScript on Le Macaron from our holiday in St. Raphael ....

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/11/19/ligne-du-littoral-toulon-to-st-raphael-part-15a-november-2018-visits-to-the-line-chemins-de-fer-de-provence-81a​

 

This time, a PostScript on the Central Var Line which covers a short walk along the line close to Seillans Station ....

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/11/2...-near-seillans-chemins-de-fer-de-provence-28a

 

In order to complete this series of posts on the Metre Gauge Railways of the Cote d'Azur and Var in Provence I have been working on a series of posts about the locomotives and rolling stock on the Nice to Digne-les-Bains Line. I have just posted the first of these:

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/12/1...ing-stock-steam-chemins-de-fer-de-provence-79

This post focusses on the Steam locomotives used on the line between Nice and Digne-le-Bains. It is unlikely to be comprehensive and I'd be grateful of any contributions by others which will add to my knowledge. I am hampered particularly by not having access to the seminal work on the network by Jose Banaudo, "Le Siecle du Train des Pignes." [25] The text of this book is in french and as it is out of print a good copy will cost well over 50 euros. If anyone has access to this book and is prepared to add to the text of the blog, please feel free to do so, or email me direct and I will update the post.

I would be particularly interested in details of locomotives which ran on the Nice to Digne Line throughout its life and which are nor properly covered within the text below.

As part of studies on the two other main-lines which made up the network of the Chemins de Fer du Sud de la France - the Central Var line and Le Macaron - we covered a lot of ground investigating early traction and steam power on the lines of the whole network and provided as much information as possible about rolling stock on the system.

The relevant posts are:

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/02/2...entral-var-line-chemins-de-fer-de-provence-50

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/03/0...entral-var-line-chemins-de-fer-de-provence-52

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/03/0...entral-var-line-chemins-de-fer-de-provence-54

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/01/2...nd-rolling-stock-chemin-de-fer-de-provence-49

These posts are as comprehensive as possible for the era of operation of those lines and cover the period up to their closure after the Second World War. However, they are focussed on the two lines which closed. It make sense, therefore to review those posts in the light of a focus on the Nice to Digne Line. This blog sets out to do just that. I need also to acknowledge the support I have received in collating this information from 242TE66

 

This next post on the locomotives and rolling stock on the Nice to Digne line focusses on the diesel locomotives in use on the line at different times during its development - shunters, locotracteurs, draisines, etc.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/12/2...diesel-traction-chemins-de-fer-de-provence-82

The next post will consider the various railcars (autorails) in use on the line.