Is-sur-Tille – Culmont-Chalindrey railway line

Is-sur-Tille-Culmont-Chalindrey
Heuilley-Cotton, train station; still with points between the through tracks. Colored black and white photo; 1912 or earlier.
Route number (SNCF) :	843,000
Course book route (SNCF) :	15 5
Route length:	44 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	25 kV - 50 Hz  ~
Maximum slope :	10  ‰
Top speed:	120 km / h
Dual track :	Yes
Legend Dijon-Ville – Is-sur-Tille railway from Dijon-Ville 346.5 Saint-Julien – Gray railway line by Gray 346.8 Is-sur-Tille 273 m 347.2 Ignon (20 m) Railway Saint-Julien – Gray to Troyes 349.1 Tille (13 m) 355.4 Venelle (8 m) 355.7 Selongey 293 m 356.1 A 31 359.2 Côte-d'Or / Haute-Marne department 360.4 Occey 303 m 367.6 Vaux-sous-Aubigny 276 m 371.7 Prauthoy 307 m 377.3 Villegusien 308 m 378.7 Canal de la Marne à la Saône (21 m) 383.3 Heuilley cotton 332 m 387.9 Le Pailly 328 m 390.4 Culmont-Chalindrey-Gray railway from Gray Paris – Mulhouse railway line from / to Mulhouse Dépôt de Chalindrey 390.8 Culmont-Chalindrey 332 m Paris – Mulhouse line to Paris-Est

The Is-sur-Tille – Culmont-Chalindrey railway is a double-track railway in France . This line can be seen as a unit together with the 32.6 km long Dijon-Ville – Is-sur-Tille railway , which was intended as a main line between Dijon and Belfort . In Is-sur-Tille , the two networks of the Chemin de fer de l'Est (CE) in the north and the Compagnie des chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM) collided.

history

The construction of the line begins in Is-sur-Tille to the north. The Saint-Julien – Gray line had already been completed by this time. It was first licensed to PLM in 1863 and also built by it and went into operation between Is-sur-Tille and Vaux-sous-Aubigny on May 18, 1874, the remaining section on July 16, 1877, but then went into operation by decree At the end of 1875 owned by (CE), which also took over the further management. Because of the heavy use of the line, a second track was laid from 1878. This work dragged on gradually over eleven years.

During the First World War, this route was of particular importance, as it was used to quickly pull troops from southern and central France to the front of the Argonne and near Verdun . In 1919 the American Military Administration built the Camp US William storage facility in Is-sur-Tille with several tracks. The route of the railway line was relocated during the First World War by the US Sixteenth Engineers (Railway) and 800 German prisoners of war under French supervision. To do this, they made two deep cuts with the simplest of tools from September 26, 1917 to March 15, 1918, for which they broke 25,000 m³ of stones and moved 60,000 m³ of earth with the aid of a Decauville railway and raised 45,000 m³ of gravel railway embankments.

A large bakery was part of the warehouse and could bake up to a million rations of bread a day. It has been called "the world's largest bakery". There had already been a military station here at a sufficiently large distance from the front. During the war, a total of over two million soldiers were transported over this route. In order to keep this current affairs in memory 100 years after the events, the French Postal Administration issued four special stamps in 2017 that addressed this camp.

In 1935 the storage facility for locomotives was closed because it was no longer necessary to change the machine of freight trains between the two networks. Until the Second World War, the connections to this route were made free of crossings through various high - rise buildings . The strategic importance of this railway line was still correspondingly high.

Between May 15, 1940 and the night of July 12th to 13th 1944, this line was in the zone occupied by the Germans and was administered by the Deutsche Reichsbahn , which was also responsible for transporting the Wehrmacht . When the Wehrmacht withdrew, the railway infrastructure was destroyed many times, as the Allies carried out massive air raids to cut off the possibility of retreat.

The kilometrage continues from the Paris – Marseille railway line .

Individual evidence

1. ^ John T. Jans, Sixteenth engineers veterans association: History of the Sixteenth Engineers (Railway) American Expeditionary Forces 1917-1919 ... Detroit, La Salle press, 1939. p. 66.
2. ↑ Photos of the construction work on the Is-sur-Tille cut.
3. ↑ Is-sur-Tille, le camp américain . Memorialgenweb.org
4. ↑ Is-sur-Tille: 15 jours d'animations en mémoire de la gare régulatrice et du camp US William (French), Franceinfo, Société d'Histoire
5. ↑ Bernard Collardey: Dijon-Chalindrey, un ax de transit agricole entre Bourgogne et Champagne . In: Rail Passion , No. 120, October 1, 2007, page 40