Pontorson – Mont-Saint-Michel railway line
| Pontorson – Mont-Saint-Michel | |
|---|---|
 Train of the Compagnie des chemins de fer de l'Ouest with a
type 120T locomotive on the embankment to Mont-Saint-Michel | |
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) |
The Pontorson – Mont-Saint-Michel railway was a regular-gauge railway in the French department of Manche in Normandy .
The railway existed from 1901 to 1938 and was operated successively by two railway companies. It was mainly used to transport tourists and pilgrims to the island of Mont-Saint-Michel with the abbey there . The island, located in the Wadden Sea , had been connected to the mainland since 1897 by a dam on which the tracks were laid.
The starting point of the train was the Pontorson station on the regular -gauge Lison – Lamballe railway line .
prehistory
On October 1, 1872, the Compagnie des chemins de fer de Vitré à Fougères opened a regular- gauge railway from Fougères via Pontorson to Moidrey , which was extended four years later to La Caserne near Mont-Saint-Michel. In 1882 the railway company was bought by the state, which in 1883 transferred the operation to the Compagnie des chemins de fer de l'Ouest (Ouest). The last train was already on the route in 1886, which was finally shut down in two stages in 1897 and 1905.
history
In order to make it easier for pilgrims and tourists to access the island, the General Council of the Département decided to build a new railway from Pontorson station on the Lison – Lamballe line, which opened in 1878. The Declaration d'utilité publique required for the construction of the railway was published on October 4, 1899. On the following September 8th, François Baërt and the brothers Paul and Edmond Beldant, contractors from Le Mans , received approval to build the route. The specifications stipulated that initially the route of the former railway was mainly used, then the towpath on Couesnon and finally the dam to the island built in 1878-79.
The three entrepreneurs founded the Compagnie des tramways normands (TN) and built a 10 km long, again regular-gauge line with the intermediate stops Moidrey and Beauvoir . They undertook to offer at least five daily train pairs between June 1st and October 1st and at least three outside this time .
The railway was opened on September 8, 1901. In the high season there were up to six pairs of trains every day, plus special trains for pilgrims. If necessary, freight trains ran, for example to supply the island with coal. The traffic initially ended on August 2, 1914, the eve of the First World War . On August 1, 1915, he was resumed , now through the state Chemins de fer de l'État (ETAT). The new operator also provided the vehicles and staff.
In 1938 the General Council closed the line, but the final cessation of traffic did not take place until 1939. In 1944 the tracks were dismantled by the German occupying forces . The line was officially closed on July 26, 1949.
route
The starting point of the route was the Pontorson station on the Lison – Lamballe line, which had a platform track for the small railroad on its south side. From there it led on the route of a connection built after 1880 to the former railway to La Caserne to its former Pontorson station, on the site of which a small depot was built. After a narrow curve lying on a slope with a radius of only 150 m, which limited the length of the trains, it crossed under the main line almost at right angles. It followed the old route northwards via Pontorson-Ville, Moidrey and Beauvoir to La Caserne and then ran on the 2 km long dam, widened for this reason, to Mont-Saint-Michel. On it was the double-track terminus with a turntable for turning the locomotives. A stump track , which was used via the turntable, reached right up to the Porte du Roi city gate, built around 1435 , the only access to the interior of the island.
vehicles
Originally there were two tank locomotives with the wheel arrangement C (030T) that had been built at Corpet-Louvet . A similar machine was used, which came from the Valognes - Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue route operated by the Compagnie de chemins de fer départementaux (CFD). The five passenger cars were two-axled with open platforms, including a 1st class car , a 1st and 2nd class car and three 3rd class cars. A van , two covered freight wagons and four flat cars completed the car park.
Additional vehicles came from the Ouest as reinforcement if necessary: tank locomotives with the axle order C and 1'B (120T) and two-axle passenger cars in compartment design with side access doors . With the SCF-1 and SCF-2 built by SCF Verney in 1934 and 1935 , railcars also came onto the line.
Mont-Saint-Michel terminus with baggage car in front of the city gate
Mont-Saint-Michel with train departing for Pontorson
Two trains with compartment cars from Ouest with side entry doors and baggage cars
Train with different types of passenger cars
Remarks
- ↑ The Déclaration d'utilité publique (declaration of non-profit status) was the prerequisite for land expropriations
literature
- Michel Harouy: Le petit train du Mont Saint-Michel. 1901-1944 . Cheminements, 1999, ISBN 978-2-909757-94-0 .
Web links
- Ligne ferroviaire Pontorson-Le-Mont-Saint-Michel at wikimanche.fr
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bulletin des lois de la République française at gallica.bnf.fr. accessed on July 7, 2019
- ↑ a b c d Ligne ferroviaire Pontorson-Le-Mont-Saint-Michel at wikimanche.fr, accessed on July 5, 2019
- ↑ Reports et délibérations du conseil général de la Manche at gallica.bnf.fr. accessed on July 7, 2019