Tramways de l'Aude

My wife and I are spending a week or so in a village to the southwest of Carcassonne in France during September 2018. A little bit of research highlighted the existence of a network of metre-gauge tramways in the Aude. These tramways were only in operation for a few decades in the early part of 20th Century. Other matters will take priority during much of the time that we are in the department but I am interested in these lines and have pulled together a blog which gives an overview of the lines and which is based around a French Wikipedia article about the lines.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/08/27/tramways-de-laude-overview-part-1

The plan is to look at the different lines in turn in future posts.

 

Here is the first of a promised series of blog posts about the Tramways de l'Aude. It covers half of the line between Belpech and Castelnaudary.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/08/29/tramways-de-laude-belpech-to-castelnaudary-part-a

 

This next post follows up the first overview of the Tramways with information which comes from the first of a series articles from 1961 .....

https://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/08/31/tramways-de-laude-overview-part-2

 

This is the third part part of the overview and covers much about the locomotives and rolling stock on the line.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/08/31/tramways-de-laude-overview-part-3

 

This post completes the story of one of the lines of the Tramways de l'Aude. The journey from Belpech to Castelnaudary is completed by a run from Salles-sur-l'Hers to Castelnaudary.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/08/29/tramways-de-laude-belpech-to-castelnaudary-part-b

 

On 6th September 2018, my wife and I visited a series of towns and villages in the Aude before visiting the Citadel in Carcassonne. We managed to combine an interest in ecclesiastical history (Saint Dominic and the Cathars) with some visits to spectacular castles and churches and two of the tramway routes serves by the Tramways de l'Aude.

I have been working on the post below with a view to publishing it after travelling the route, which we did today. First thing in the morning, we walked the first 3 kilometres of the tramway which left Fanjeaux heading for Bram. We then drove the route of the tramway from Fanjeaux to Saint-Denis in our little hire car.

We went on to follow another of the tramway routes, but more of that on another occasion!

I hope you enjoy this post.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/09/06/tramways-de-laude-fanjeaux-to-st-denis/

 

Just back now from 6 days in France. We were able to travel along parts of, or along full length s of the lines I have been looking at in this series of posts up to now. On 6the September 2018 we travelled along the line from Fanjeaux to St. Denis and then crossed over to Lastours and followed the line from Lastours to Carcassonne. On 10th September we were able to travel along part of the line from Belpech to Castelnaudary.

This post covers the line from Lastours to Carcassonne.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/09/11/tramways-de-laude-lastours-to-carcassonne

This line passed through areas of significant industry in the early 20th Century. Areas which are now essentially rural but which in those days were primarily wealth generating. The decline of this industries and that of the tramway seemed to go hand in hand.

 

In this post we travel along the tramway from Carcassonne to Caunes-Minervois.

This is a pleasant meander through he countryside encountering small historic villages.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/09/19/tramways-de-laude-carcassonne-to-caunes-minervois.

 

It has been a few weeks since my last post on the Tramways de l'Aude This next section is the length from Caunes-Minervois in the Aude to Siran in Herault.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/10/09/tramways-de-laude-caunes-minervois-to-siran

Topography in this area means that road gradients and curvature at the time of the building of the tramway were such that at times the tramway had to find its own route. There are two such significant lengths on the tramway in the first part of its journey with the Departement of Herault.

 

This next length of Les Tramways de l'Aude takes us south of Lezignan-Corbieres. Some assumptions have had to be made about the route followed based on what appears to be the route in Michelin Maps of the 1930s.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/10/16/tramways-de-laude-lezignan-corbieres-to-st-pierre-des-champs

Should anyone have better evidence of the route, I'd be delighted to hear from them.

 

This post carries a bonus! Two lengths of the Tramways de l'Aude in one post! Each is dealt with separately in the posts below. I hope you enjoy them.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/10/19/tramways-de-laude-fabrezan-to-mouthoumet

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/10/19/tramways-de-laude-les-palais-to-ripaud

There is still a significant amount of the network to investigate!

 

Tuchan is the terminus of one of the branches of the Tramways de l'Aude. The line travels from Tuchan to Ripaud where it forms a junction with the line from Les Palais.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/10/25/tramways-de-laude-tuchan-to-ripaud-via-durban

The onward route will take us on towards the coast!

 

As a result of some kind help from a number of people I have been able to establish the actual route of the tramway leaving Lezignan for the south-eastern part of the network. I have updated my blog accordingly. The revised text and additional aerial image have been included today (26th October 2018) in the original post:

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/10/16/tramways-de-laude-lezignan-corbieres-to-st-pierre-des-champs

 

The Tramways de l'Aude finally reached the Mediterranean coast at the popular resort of Port La Nouvelle .........

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/10/25/tramways-de-laude-ripaud-to-port-la-nouvelle-via-portel

 

Just catching up with this epic piece of work that you have produced here Roger, absolutely superb and I must thank you for posting all of the well researched instalments here in Nash Prez. Of course, you're on-the-ground detective work and photography certainly evokes a system that must have been the epitome of the typical French rural line with all of it's attendant slow-World Gallic charm and what a beautiful part of the Planet to visit, thankfully, even today, there is more than a hint of the rural France of the past.

I shall set aside a few dark winter evenings to deep-dive from the first post, thanks again Roger and I hope that you enjoy further visits to the continent for the very satisfying pursuit of railway archaeology.

Cheers,

Alan

 

This post has us arriving in Narbonne .....

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/11/02/tramways-de-laude-thezan-to-narbonne

 

This next post focusses on the three tramways which served the city of Narbonne.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/11/03/tramways-de-laude-tramways-in-narbonne

 

We are nearing the end of a long journey through the countryside of the Departement de l'Aude. This is the penultimate post covering the Tramways of the Departement and covers the line between Narbonne and Ouveillan.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/11/26/tramways-de-laude-narbonne-to-ouveillan

The last post that I have planned covers the line between Narbonne and Fluery d'Aude.

 

This is the final planned post on the Tramways de l'Aude.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/12/03/tramways-de-laude-narbonne-to-fleury-daude