European Railroad Discussion > La Belle France

Had a most enjoyable, if occasionally wet, few days in France last week. I based myself in Narbonne, an old town on the Canal de la Robine, in the Occitanie region. There's plenty of traffic through Narbonne, freight and passenger, including one of only three remaining loco hauled Intercités on SNCF, the service from Bordeaux to Marseille and vv. They run every two hours in each direction, each train usually consisting of 11 1970s Corail cars, with either nez cassé BB7200 or BB22200 or the more modern Sybic BB26000 up front. Sadly they are not very punctual. Running a relatively high speed (100 mph) service with 50 year old stock and 40 & 50 year old locomotives is not a recipe for a reliable service. Whilst railfans will definitely mourn the passing of the loco hauled trains, the fare paying passengers probably will not, despite the replacements being EMUs.

Freight traffic is quite varied and relatively heavy; intermodal and wagonload services, modalohr trailer trains from La Boulou (near Perpignan) and Bayonne (on the Atlantic coast) to Calais, Bettembourg or Woippy, cars both too and from Spain and petro-chemicals. Power for the services operated by Hexafret (formerly Fret SNCF) is either Alsthom Sybic BB26000 or Alstom Prima BB27000 (dual-voltage) or BB37000 (tri-voltage) and  those operated by DB Cargo France are usually in the hands of Bombardier Traxx Eurocargorail E 186s, although class 66s do turn up occasionally!

TGVs and RENFE AVE S100 high speed trains are also common, whilst regional TER services (under the liO brand) are in the hands of various types of EMU.

One last train to mention, and the reason I was there over a weekend, that's the FSuO Intercités Nuit from Paris Austerlitz to Cerbere, which at this time of year can be photographed in daylight south of Narbonne.

Some pictures

1: A pair of SNCF Z27500 AGC (Autorail á Grand Capacité) EMUs on a local service to Port Bou (the border with Spain) south of Port la Nouvelle. This section of track runs on a causeway between lagoons on both side of the railway, some of which were former salt pans. SW France, like parts of Spain, Portugal the West of England and South Wales has endured one of the wettest winters on record, there's standing water everywhere, vineyards being turned into paddy fields. 
2: A RENFE AVE service approaching grade crossing PN407 across the Chemin de Pignes, one of the few roads that actually crosses the lagoons towards the coast.
3; First freight train, a rather empty mixed intermodal & Modalohr trailer train service behind a Prima BB27000 owned by leasing company Akiem.

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7: from Douzens I retraced my steps to PN273 between Narbonne and Béziers, where I shot this Hexafret intermodal behind BB27062. The OHLE equipment on this section is interesting. Originally it would have looked like Douzens and Nevian with a single mast cantilevered over both tracks, a design going back to Chemin de fer du Midi days in the 1920s and 30s. SNCF have decided for whatever reason to reduce the load on the older support by erecting new masts on the opposite side of the track.
8: Sunday dawned grey and damp. Heading west through the vineyards at Villedaigne Intercités no.4756 07:19 ex-Marseille (the first train on a Sunday) behind BB22246
9: Further west at Conhilac-Corbières Marseille bound No.4657 behind Sybic BB26138

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10. The weather did improve as I drove back towards the coast, here at PN407 again a train of Kia cars heading for Spain behind DB Cargo France Eurocargorail E 186
11. Crossing the causeway between the lagoons TGV 6206 15:02 SuO Perpignan to Paris Gare de Lyon
12. Monday started in splendid style, this is the Intercités Nuit service from Paris Austerlitz to Cerbere. It starts out as a 14 car train in Paris but separates into seven cars for Cerbere and seven cars to Nice.

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13: Crossing the Orb into Béziers no.4655 06:10 Bordeaux to Marseille behind BB7252. The overall 'stealth' grey that many of the BB7200 and BB22200 wear is supposedly temporary, French railfans have dubbed it livreé fantôme
14: Later in the afternoon approaching Port la Nouvelle a La Boulou bound intermodal / Modalohr service with containers and trailers. The longest train I saw was 49 platforms.
15: An Alstom Regiolis Z54900 EMU on a Toulouse to Perpignan liO TER service, pulling in to Port la Nouvelle

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16: Tuesday was very wet for most of the day, I spent the first part of the day looking at the very lightly used Béziers to Nuessargues line, which the CF du Midi electrified and which still uses not only the former Midi OHLE supports but also the catenary suspension, which the Midi called the Westinghouse method. This is the daily through train from Béziers to Clermont Ferrand, a journey of just over six and a half hours. It's classed as Intercités but uses a liO Z27500 AGC
17: Near Sète a northbound intermodal behind tri-voltage BB37049
18: Yes it was very wet indeed

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19: Last day and I had to be back in Toulouse for my flight home at 17:05. The weather was supposed to be better in the morning so I dawdled, firstly at Coursan where the mainline running in a north easterly direction from Narbonne crosses the River Aude. Akiem BB 27113M on a northbound intermodal train of containers. The suffix M incidentally means the loco has been modified to operate under Midi-style catenary.
20: At Villedaigne the Intercités no.4655 with BB22232
21: And finally, along the Garonne Canal at Pompignan, just west of Toulouse, BB27133M on a Bayonne to Woippy Trailer / container intermodal. 

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Nice shots!  I see you made it to Pompignan - that's a great photo location.  Yeah too bad SNCF seems to be running the IC services into the ground, and then the replacement trainsets will be less comfortable and lower capacity.  

dwatry Wrote:
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> Nice shots!  I see you made it to Pompignan -
> that's a great photo location. 

Definitely want to go back in better weather, but I doubt I'll be quite as lucky, three loco hauled trains in 40 minutes. Admittedly that was down to a signal failure!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/15/26 10:56 by 86235.

Thanks, Nick, for the great show.  Gerry

GPutz Wrote:
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> Thanks, Nick, for the great show.  Gerry

Thank you Gerry

4: At Nevian, west of Narbonne on the line to Toulouse, a liO Z56300 Bombardier EMU on a TER services from Toulouse to Narbonne. A cheery wave and a fusillade on the horn from the driver.
5: Intercités no.4758 running about 45 minutes late behind BB7390.
6: I drove further west along the line to Carcassonne and Toulouse, stopping at Douzens for the next Bordeaux bound Intercités no.4760. Dual voltage BB22232 was in charge. Douzens chateau is now a B&B.

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Wonderful set, thank you!