Le Cheylard train station
| Le Cheylard | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Data | |||
| Location in the network | Separation station | ||
| Platform tracks | 3 | ||
| opening | 1893 | ||
| Conveyance | 1968 | ||
| location | |||
| City / municipality | Le Cheylard | ||
| Department | Ardèche department | ||
| region | Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes | ||
| Country | France | ||
| Coordinates | 44 ° 54 '49 " N , 4 ° 25' 42" E | ||
| Height ( SO ) | 430.35 m | ||
| Railway lines | |||
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| List of train stations in France | |||
The station Le Cheylard was from 1893 to the cessation of operations in 1968, the train station of the municipality Le Cheylard in the Ardèche department in France . From here meter-gauge routes of the Chemin de Fer Departementaux (CFD) led to La Voulte , Tournon and Dunières .
history
The connection of the place Le Cheylard to the railway network was proposed in 1878 in the Freycinet plan, which provided for a branch line from La Voulte via Le Cheylard to Yssingeaux and a connection of this line to Tournon-sur-Rhône . A year later, a law was passed by parliament that set Le Cheylard as the end point of the route from Tournon and a further link between the route to Yssingeaux and the main railway network in Dunières. In 1883 a contract was signed between the French state and CFD for the construction and operation of the railways.
Two years later the construction of the difficult stretch from Le Cheylard to Dunières and Lamastre was postponed , so that a 47.5 km long branch line from La Voulte through the river valley of the Eyrieux to Le Cheylard was built and put into operation on September 10, 1893 . On September 21, 1902, with the completion of the line to Dunières, the station became a through station. The line over the Col de Nonières to Lamastre was opened on July 11, 1903, and since then most of the trains from Tournon have ended in Le Cheylard.
In the following years, Le Cheylard developed into the center of the now connected route network. A new depot and a central workshop with responsibility for the maintenance of the rolling stock in the entire network were built between the existing facilities and the river bank. The administration was also centralized here. The station district of Le Cheylard developed around the station, in which mainly railway workers lived during the CFD era.
In 1913 the CFD received the concession for a 55 km long route from Le Cheylard to Aubenas via Mézilhac and Vals-des-Bains. The First World War prevented construction; after the war the project was abandoned.
The Second World War and the occupation by German troops led to increasing difficulties and restrictions in rail operations. In April 1944, operations from Le Cheylard to Tournon were closed. On July 5th and 6th, the site and the railway facilities of Le Cheylard were the target of German bombing, in which 101 people died and more than 200 were injured. Further bombing raids on July 17 and August 5 destroyed a steam locomotive and damaged several locomotives, 7 railcars and 19 passenger and freight cars. Due to the destruction of the access tracks, the workshops became partially unusable.
On October 31, 1968, operations on the entire meter gauge network in Vivarais were discontinued and closed in the following months. The tracks in Le Cheylard were dismantled in early 1970.
On the site of the former train station, businesses settled, some of which continue to use the railway building. Today, the railway area is largely built over. Some buildings such as the engine shed from the early days, operations office, reception building and water tower are still standing today. The newer locomotive shed is now part of a larger building complex. The street leading to the former train station is still called "Avenue de la Gare" today.
Railway systems
The station was on the left bank of the Eyrieux at the level of the confluence of the Dorne about a kilometer from the old town center on the Dorne. From the beginning, the station was designed as a through station and the location was chosen so that it could be continued to Dunières and the route from Tournon could be introduced without any problems. The tracks from Tournon and La Voulte met one kilometer downstream and ran parallel to the station from there. The track to Dunières left the station in a left curve towards the river and then crossed under the street of Le Cheylard in a right curve, which in turn leads past the station building and along the freight facilities to Lamastre.
passenger traffic
The station building was originally a two-storey type building with short single-storey extensions on each side (CFD type 1 as in Lamastre and Issingeaux). In the vicinity of the main building there were several kiosks to supply the travelers. Three tracks were equipped with raised side platforms. The trains to Tournon departed from the house platform, the other two platforms were used for the trains to La Voulte and Dunières.
Freight transport
The facilities for freight traffic were located next to the station building in the direction of La Voulte and consisted of a loading yard with two loading tracks, a large freight hall, a covered and an open side ramp and - in later years - a mobile gantry crane.
Depot and central workshop
At the beginning there was a double-track locomotive shed at the end of the line and a water tower with a water crane for operating machinery service . With the expansion of Le Cheylard to become the center of operations, a new, much more extensive facility with a three-track locomotive shed, pulsometer system, workshop, coal bunker, coal store, investigation pit, 8 m locomotive turntable, administration building, sanitary facilities and storage facility was built. After the delivery of the diesel railcars in the 1930s, a double-track railcar shed was added.
In addition to the locomotive shed, there were other systems for major work on the vehicles. A painting workshop was set up in the old locomotive shed, the two-track wagon repair workshop stood between the locomotive shed and the main line to Dunières, and the boiler shop and a warehouse building stood at the other head of the station.
Security technology
The entrances from the main tracks were secured with fixed signal discs ("disques vertes"), from which the trains were allowed to walk at walking speed. There was no signal box - more than 30 points were set in place.
literature
- Guy Dürrenmatt, Roger Dugua: Trains à vapeur et Autorails en Ardèche et Haute-Loire, Tome I. Editions Dolmazon, Le Cheylard 1998, ISBN 2-911584-14-7 .
- Guy Dürrenmatt, Roger Dugua: Trains à vapeur et Autorails en Ardèche et Haute-Loire, Tome II. Editions Dolmazon, Le Cheylard 2000, ISBN 2-911584-09-0 .
- Pascal Bejui, Christophe Étiévant, Wincent Piotti: Le Réseau du Vivarais au temps des CFD. La Regordane, La Roche Blanche, ISBN 2-906984-82-5 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Complete collection of laws, decrees, ordinances, regulations and notices of the government council, year 1878 p. 271 ff (in French)