Challerange – Apremont-sur-Aire railway line

Challerange – Apremont-sur-Aire railway line
American soldiers of the 78th Division after taking Grandpré station in 1918
Route number (SNCF) :	208,000
Course book route (SNCF) :	29 3 (formerly 22)
Route length:	25.0 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Maximum slope :	7  ‰
Dual track :	Yes
Legend Bazancourt – Challerange railway from Bazancourt Amagne-Lucquy – Revigny railway from Amagne-Lucquy 52.4 Challerange 106 m Amagne-Lucquy – Revigny line to Revigny ~ 55.4 Vaux-lès-Mouron 106 m ~ 57.6 Aire ~ 590, Aisne ~ 59.2 Senuc / Termes ~ 109 m ~ 62.9 Grandpré 113 m ~ 68.2 Ardennes Railway to Autrecourt (March 1916–1924) Military station with depot ~ 68.4 Railway line Marcq-Saint-Juvin-Baroncourt to Dun-Doulcon / Baroncourt ~ 68.5 Marcq / Saint-Juvin (wedge station) 131 m ~ 72.1 Cornay / Fléville 130 m ~ 57.6 Aire ~ 74.8 Châtel-Chéhéry 136 m 77.4 Apremont-sur-Aire ~ 144 m American military railroad to Aubréville (1918–1937)

The Challerange – Apremont-sur-Aire railway was a double-track , west-east-directed railway line in France , which was mainly of regional importance, but was also of military interest in the first half of the 20th century. The American armed forces even rated the route as an “important German communication line”. It was the direct extension of the Bazancourt – Challerange railway line , which continued to connect to Baroncourt in Marcq / Saint-Juvin . The connection was thus an alternative route to the Saint-Hilaire-au-Temple-Hagondange railway line, which ran about 30 km further north .

history

Autumn / winter 1909 timetable

Front line on September 26, 1918

The Bazancourt – Challerange railway was not yet fully completed when the request arose to extend it. The applicant was the engineer Paul Desroches, who was to develop the Paris metro network together with Hippolyte Barreau in the 1880s . At the same time, the Amagne-Lucquy-Revigny railway line was licensed and promoted. The operating company of both routes was the Compagnie des chemins de fer de l'Argonne . On July 12, 1880, both lines were bought by the state, but three years later they were sold to the Chemin de fer de l'Est (EST).

After the Franco-Prussian War , the line came under German railway administration and was operated by the Reichseisenbahnen in Alsace-Lorraine . During the First World War, the military massively expanded the infrastructure along the route. Numerous loading ramps, ammunition depots, workshops and field stations were created. To the west of Marcq, a triangle was built to the north leading Ardennes Railway. This route became increasingly important as French and later American troops formed the front from the south. In just three months, the Bavarian Reserve Railway Construction Company built this strategic railway with 2000 men with the help of Russian prisoners in 1915 . Numerous train stations, engineering structures and infrastructure facilities were also built here.

With the takeover of this area by the American troops by the IV Corps under Major General Joseph T. Dickman in the autumn of 1918 they built a connection to the Saint-Hilaire railway line from Apremont-sur Aire with the Aubréville – Apremont-sur-Ardennes railway line. au-Temple – Hagondange , which coincided with this about 26 kilometers west of Verdun by rail . The first trains started running on October 2nd. The expansion of the Americans was carried out according to strategic aspects and German standards and was aimed at establishing a fast north-south connection.

The route was also of strategic interest later. It is noteworthy that up to the Second World War all lines in this region were laid out on two tracks. At the train station in the village of Challerange, which had barely 400 inhabitants in the second half of the 19th century, trains on the two intersecting lines could be cleared through junction structures on four platform tracks. From 1938 - after passenger traffic had ceased from July 1, 1922 to February 1, 1930 - there was no more traffic, according to other sources in 1969; a little later the tracks were dismantled.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Inventaire des lignes oubliées. Historic railway lines (French)
2. ↑ ^{a b} Les gares de la ligne stratégiqued'Autrecourt à Marcq . Horizon d'Argonne, No. 95, June 2018, pages 81-90
3. ↑ Cies de l'Est et du Nord: les trains militaires 1914-1918 June 24, 2012
4. ^ Index card with photo of the captured Grandpré station, 1918. War Department. Army War College. Historical Section. World War I Branch. approx. 1918-approx. 1948, photo 26654
5. ↑ Revigny - Liart: la ligne 6 de la Région Est . Forum LR Presse, September 21, 2017
6. ^ ^{A b} Jean-Marc Dupuy: Gares et tortillards de Lorraine. Editions Cheminements 2009, ISBN 978-23603-7001-6 , p. 299
7. ^ Plan of Employment of Engineer Troops. Supply of Engineer Material, and Water Service. Annex No. 5 of the Battle Instructions of October 22, 1918. Center of Military History, US Army: United States Army in the World War, 1917-1919: Military operations of the American Expeditionary Forces , Washington 1990, Volume 9 (Meuse-Argonne Operation. September 26 - November 11, 1918), p. 343
8. ↑ Le nombre d'habitants . Cassini
9. ↑ Challerange Apremont-sur-Aire . Archeology ferroviaire. Atlas des lignes de chemins de fer disparues on http://archeoferroviaire.free.fr , 22 April 2019