Port-de-Piles – Argenton-sur-Creuse railway line

Port-de-Piles-Argenton-sur-Creuse
Argenton-sur-Creuse station, 2014
Route number (SNCF) :	598,000
Course book route (SNCF) :	84/86 ( PO ) / ( SNCF )
Route length:	102.2 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Maximum slope :	10  ‰
Top speed:	30 km / h
Dual track :	formerly yes
Legend Paris – Bordeaux line from Paris-Austerlitz Port-Boulet – Port-de-Piles railway from Port-Boulet 281.1 Port-de-Piles 50 m 281.5 Viaduc de Port-de-Piles ( Creuse ; 150 m) ~ 281.9 D 910 (formerly RN 10 ) ~ 281.9 Paris – Bordeaux line to Bordeaux-St-Jean 284.1 Creuse (146 m) ~ 285.6 Le Moulin Neuf (adjacent rail) 285.7 Esves (22 m) 289.2 Expanding Descartes industry 290.4 La Haye-Descartes 51 m D 725 (formerly RN 725) 295.4 Abilly 53 m Chemins de fer départementaux (CFD) n. Montbazon u. Loches 301.3 Le Grand-Pressigny 62 m 309.1 Chaumussay 68 m ~ 315.6 D 725 (formerly RN 725 ) 315.8 Preuilly-Claise 80 m 319.8 Bossay 76 m 328.6 (Abzw. Launay) Railway line Châtellerault – Launay v. Châtellerault Indre-et-Loire / Indre department 331.2 Tournon-Saint-Martin 81 m 331.7 Dedication begins 338.5 Fontgombault 102 m 342.7 Pouligny-Saint-Pierre 114 m Saint-Benoît au Blanc railway from Saint-Benoît D 975 (formerly RN 151 ) Connecting the two companies 347.7 Le Blanc 120 m Chemin de fer du Blanc-Argent ( meter gauge ) to Salbris Argenton-sur-Creuse – Blanc railway line ( Tramways de l'Indre ) Viaduc de La Villerie (113 m) 356.8 Ruffec-le-Château 87 m 362.5 Ciron 101 m 365.6 Scoury 92 m 371.9 Chitray 98 m 376.9 Creuse (145 m) 377.5 Saint-Gaultier 101 m 381.2 Creuse (96 m) 3830, End of deedication 383.8 292.5 Aubrais-Orléans – Montauban railway from Aubrais 295.0 Argenton-sur-Creuse 110 m Argenton-sur-Creuse – Blanc railway line (TI, meter gauge) Aubrais-Orléans – Montauban railway to Montauban

The Port-de-Piles – Argenton-sur-Creuse railway is a slightly more than 100 km long single-track , partly disused branch line in France . It connects Port-de-Piles on the Paris – Bordeaux railway in the Vienne department , New Aquitaine region , with Argenton-sur-Creuse on the Les Aubrais-Orléans – Montauban-Ville-Bourbon railway in the Indre / Center-Val de region Loire . The route runs from northwest to southeast in the valley of the Creuse . The construction and operation are closely related to other transport companies in the early years of the route's history.

history

Station Le Blanc , the station square with the train Tramways de l'Indre , about 1910

With the completion of the Paris – Toulouse railway via Limoges in 1856, discussions broke out as to which parts of the Indre département could still be networked with railway lines. Numerous proposals from various partnerships were submitted. There were advances in this direction as early as the first half of the 1850s, but it was only after the Franco-Prussian War that the Freycinet Plan became acute. This route is named therein, but it is divided into several routes, some of which continue in other directions.

The route Tours - Montluçon via Châteauroux , which was already approved in 1864, was parallel to the north and consisted of two parts. The north-western, 111 km long section Joué-lès-Tours-Châteauroux was initially built by the company Chemin de fer de Tours à Montluçon and went into operation in 1878. The south-western section, which is 103 km long , the Châteauroux – La Ville-Gozet railway , was put into operation between 1882 and 1884 by the Compagnie des chemins de fer de la Vendée . In 1883, ownership of both parts changed to Chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans (PO). However, the history of this railway line is only the framework for considering this railway line.

In the case of the connection between Port-de-Piles and Argenton-sur-Creuse, the partnership Compagnie Séguineau et Jackson , which shortly thereafter sold the concession granted on May 23, 1871 to the Compagnie de Bressuire à Poitiers . Litigation and the resulting inaction resulted in bankruptcy. The route went to the PO on June 28, 1883

The route opened in three sections: on June 14, 1885 the section Port-de-Piles-Preuilly-Claise , on May 16, 1886 Preuilly-Claise-Le Blanc and on April 8, 1889 between Le Blanc and Argenton-sur-Creuse . Due to the war, passenger traffic was discontinued in June 1940, the 13 km long route between Tournon-Saint-Martin and Le Blanc was closed to freight traffic in 1970 and the adjoining southeastern part of Le Blanc-Argenton-sur-Creuse on May 20, 1994. Am On October 17, 2001, the route was finally downgraded.

Today only the 8 km long remaining stretch to Descartes Industrie is open, where there is a grain silo of the Center Ouest Céréales cooperative with an annual turnover of 50,000 t of grain and which requires one train per week. In 2018, the engineering office Systra carried out an assessment of the route with time horizons for 10, 15 and 30 years. Accordingly, the route will be renovated for around 1 million euros and reopened in mid-2021.

In Le Blanc there were two narrow-gauge lines of a very extensive secondary railway network , which belonged to two companies whose concession borders collided here, the Tramways de l'Indre (TI), a subsidiary of the Compagnie Générale de Construction Saint-Denis and the Chemin de fer du Blanc- Argent (BA). While the TI had completed its route to Argenton-sur-Creuse in 1907, BA trains had been running since mid-November 1902.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Carnet de profils et schémas. SNCF. Région du sud-ouest, sheet 84/86
2. ↑ ^{a b c} B. Vieu: Port-de-Piles-Descartes: une ligne fret en quête d'avenir . On: railpassion.fr
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Marc du Pouget: La politique du conseil général de l'Indre en faveur du réseau ferré local (1852-1909) . In: Revue d'histoire des chemins de fer , issue 24-25, 2002, pages 176-179. ISSN 0996-9403
4. ↑ Décret du 17 octobre 2001 portant retranchement du réseau ferré national de sections de lignes de chemin de fer . Journal Officiel de la République Française Numéro 247, October 24, 2001, page 16754
5. ↑ Nicolas Bedin: Fret céréalier: Le rail a du soucis à se faire. France Bleu , October 19, 2019

Web links

Commons : Port-de-Piles – Argenton-sur-Creuse railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files