Baroncourt – Audun-le-Roman railway line

Baroncourt – Audun-le-Roman
Maintenance of the X 4719 at the station of Audun-le-Roman during a field trip to the tourist train in the southern Ardennes (CFTSA).
Route number (SNCF) :	218,000
Course book route (SNCF) :	29 (1935)
Route length:	21.78 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Maximum slope :	10  ‰
Minimum radius :	500 m
Dual track :	formerly yes
Legend Longuyon – Pagny-sur-Moselle railway line from / to Longuyon 43.4 Marcq-Saint-Juvin – Baroncourt railway from Marcq-St-Juvin 22.3 0.0 Baroncourt 241 m 23.2 Longuyon – Pagny-sur-Moselle railway line to Pagny / Moselle End of expansion 1.2 Othain (14 m) Amermont-Dommary Mine 4.3 Bouligny 270 m Joudreville mine 7.7 Joudreville North Est Mine Mourière mine 8.8 Piennes 305 m ~ 11.0 D 643 (formerly RN 381 ) ~ 11.1 Landres mine 11.7 Landres 320 m Murville mine ~ 13.7 D 952 (formerly RN 52bis ) 14.9 Meurthe-et-Moselle / Meuse department 16.8 Viaduc de Beaufontaine (180 m) 17.1 Anderny 326 m ~ 20.0 Valleroy-Moineville – Villerupt-Micheville v. Valleroy-M. D 906 (formerly RN 406 ) Mohon – Thionville railway from Thionville ~ 254.1 D 906 (formerly RN 406) 21.8 252.9 Audun-le-Roman 336 m Railway line Valleroy-Moineville – Villerupt-Micheville n. Villerupt-M. Railway Mohon – Thionville to Mohon

The Baroncourt – Audun-le-Roman railway is an electrified, formerly double-track , slightly over 20 km long railway line operated by the SNCF in Lorraine , north-east France. It has not been in operation since 1987, but is still maintained and has not been redesigned .

history

The concession for this route was granted on May 15, 1899 to the regional railway company Chemin de fer de l'Est (EST). It was opened on January 25, 1907 between Baroncourt and Piennes and on December 1 of the same year between Piennes and Audun-le-Roman, initially only as a single track. A second track between Baroncourt and Landres was added in the summer of 1911. The second track was later extended to Audun-le-Roman and stayed until 1980.

The route essentially lived off the iron ore mines that connected it. It was the only way of transporting this bulk cargo . Due to the collapse of the Central European ore market due to higher quality ores from all over the world and the improvement in transport performance from the North Sea ports - including the Moselle canalization between Metz and Koblenz , which was completed in 1964 - the mines became unprofitable within a few years and had to close. Accordingly, the line was no longer needed and the SNCF gradually ceased its traffic between 1984 and 1987. Passenger traffic had ceased shortly before the start of World War II.

Iron ore - mine mine Micheville in Landres , 1930

At the beginning of the 1950s, the importance of the line and its operation in this industrial region was so great that it was decided to electrify it with 25  kV , 50  Hz . On June 29, 1955, a test was carried out in Audun-le-Roman with a CC 14100 electric locomotive that pulled an ore train weighing 2,700 t. It turned out that the operation with electricity for the large loads to be transported here was much more economical than with steam. The electricity is fed into the Joudreville substation , which is still in operation, for a radius of approx. 60 km and is required beyond the two ends of the line for the main lines of the neighboring lines. So the overhead line is still under power. That is the reason why the route has not yet been redesigned and continues to be maintained with tree pruning and the like.

Railway line

The route is very winding, although this would not be necessary due to the terrain . During the alignment, EST tried to be able to connect all ore mines located here as closely as possible. The gradients do not exceed 10 ‰ and there is only one noteworthy engineering structure, the 180 meter long Beaufontaine viaduct with 11 arches and 12 meter wide openings.

See also

• Minette (ore)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Chemins de fer de l'est. Materiel et traction . In: Carnet de Marches-Types pour trains spéciaux , 1935
2. ↑ Inventaire des lignes oubliées. Historic railway lines (French)
3. ^ Service de contrôle de travaux de chemins de fer 39 3 "e. Ligne de Baroncourt à Audun-le-Roman . In: Rapports et délibérations / Conseil général du Département de la Meurthe et Moselle. Nancy, August 1913, page 39
4. ^ Situation of the chemins de fer d'intérêt Général. In: Rapports et délibérations / Conseil général du Département de la Meurthe et Moselle . Nancy, Aug 1913, 48.
5. ^ Paul Thomes, Marc Engels: Iron and steel production in the Lorraine Minette basin. GR-Atlas of the Université du Luxembourg
6. ^ Ligne de Baroncourt à Audun-le-Roman. On: Histoire de lignes oubliées.
7. ^ Electrification du premier nord-est . In: electrification25kv.skyrock , June 21, 2007
8. ↑ Picture on Google Maps with a view of the Joudreville substation.