European Railroad Discussion > A Journey to France

Last week I was in France to visit family and while there was no intent of doing any railfanning I did not however hesitate to point the camera at some rail subjects as they presented themselves.

Photos 1 & 2:

The Petite Ceinture was a belt line around the City of Paris and is now a fascinating piece of abandoned but in place rail infrastructure. Most of it was abandoned about 1934 while other parts were in service up until about 10 - 15 years ago. I'm not any sort of expert on this and anyone having information and more detail please chime in.

Photo 1 is at a wonderful restaurant called La Recyclerie in the former Gare du boulevard Ornano built in 1869 and closed in 1934. As the name implies they recycled the abandoned depot but did not really renovate it. Super good brunch overlooking the abandoned tracks !

The 2nd photo is of the Petite Ceinture near Parc de la Villette a fascinating area along the Canal St. Martin where was found a great brew pub (Paname Brewing Company) with floating deck. A great area of Paris largely away from the tourist crowds.

Photo 3: A tram at Porte de Vincennes station stop in the east of Paris.

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Photo 4: An SNCF BB 7200 electric #7395 - 1500V dc, 5420HP built by Alsthom is at Gare d'Austerlitz in Paris

Photo 5: Train station at Amboise France in the Loire Valley south of Orleans and Blois - a quiet interlude beneath the evening sky.

Photo 6: A look at the track structure at Amboise. I could not tell what size rail, but it seems to have a rather large head area but overall not that heavy of a section. This is on the Orleans - Tours line.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/05/17 13:08 by train1275.

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Photo 7: An EMU (21534) leaving Amboise northbound for Orleans. This is the TER (Transport express regional) service.

Photo 8: Street side view of Amboise station.

Photo 9: A southbound BB 26000 class (26070) arrives at Amboise. These were built by Alsthom and are a dual voltage 25KV ac or 1500v dc locomotive good for 7500 hp.

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Photo 10: An intercity train arriving at Amboise for Orleans on a pleasant summer evening.

Photo 11: Electric locos at Orleans including #7206 a BB 7200 class 1500V dc in the "en voyage" livery sits next to a unit in the older orange and gray.

Photo 12: The 21:28 departure from Orleans to Paris Gare d' Austerlitz awaits its' call under the moonlit platform at Orleans.

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Very interesting photos.
Have made a number of trips to Europe (business) but never made it to France.
Thanks for your posting.
ALLEN

We see so little from France, these are good. My dad and I spent two days in France at the end of our month in the UK. Quite a contrast to about anywhere we had been or have been since. The food at the Creperie in Le Mans was some of the best we have ever ate.

Jim

Very nice set. Sad that the loco hauled trains you saw will be history in a few years time.

Still beats a bus! wag216

Actually France has very few intercity buses compared to the rest of the World. SNCF has very, very few buses to connect between trains so for the most part getting around France requires driving yourself or taking the train in between cities. There are some longer distance local buses but they do not connect like the ones in Britain do. Amazingly enough there is no bus service to the Normandy Beaches.

Jim

Great photos. I seemed to have bad luck taking photos in French stations with the police questioning me on several occasions.