Reims – Laon railway line

Reims-Laon
Guignicourt station, 2015
Route number (SNCF) :	082 000
Course book route (SNCF) :	114 ( north ), 10 ( SNCF )
Route length:	51.96 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Maximum slope :	5  ‰
Dual track :	Yes
Legend Soissons – Givet railway from Soissons Railway line Épernay – Reims from Épernay 171.9 0.0 Reims 83 m ~ 0.5 D 944 (formerly N 44 ) ~ 4.8 D 966 (formerly N 366 ) Railway line Châlons-en-Champagne – Reims-Cérès v. Châlons 1.3 Junction No. 1 (Bétheny) Railway Soissons – Givet to Givet 8.4 Courcy-Brimont 79 m 11.2 Loivre 81 m ~ 14.9 Marne / Aisne department 17.7 Suippe (12 m) 18.2 Aguilcourt-Variscourt 58 m ~ 19.4 Condé-sur-Suippe sugar refinery; to Berry-au-Bac (CGTVN) and Soissons (CBR) 20.5 Canal latéral à l'Aisne (23 m) 21.1 Aisne (75 m) 21.1 from Berry-au-Bac (CBR / CFS); D 925 (formerly N 325 ) to Asfeld and Rethel (CBR / RDTA) 21.3 Guignicourt 67 m 27.9 Amifontaine 74 m ~ 29.3 A 26 ~ 34.0 Military connection Camp de Sissonne 34.1 Saint-Erme 101 m 41.0 Coucy-lès-Eppes 86 m ~ 49.8 N 2 Laon – Liart railway from Liart Railway La Plaine Hirson Hirson 52.0 140.0 Laon 84 m Railway line Laon – Cateau (canceled) to Le Cateau 138.9 Amiens – Laon railway line (St-Marcel junction) to Amiens La Plaine – Hirson line to Paris-Nord

The Reims – Laon railway is a double-track , non-electrified railway line in the Marne and Aisne departments in northern and eastern France . It creates a large connection between the canal coast and the Lorraine industrial area. The Compagnie des chemins de fer du Nord (Nordbahn) was the concessionaire . This route belonged to the southwestern part of its supply area.

In the area of ​​this railway line there were a number of secondary lines , which were initially mostly designed in meter gauge. Connections existed in St. Erme-Ramecourt (CFDA), Guignicourt (SE) and in Reims (CBR). After the First World War, lines began to be converted to standard gauge. Some gauge changes did not take place until the mid-1960s, while other routes never took place before they were closed. To the right and left of the main line there was a diverse mix of norms and societies, all aligned with and dependent on the Reims – Laon axis.

history

Courcy -Brimont stop and level crossing , around 1910

On February 19, 1852, the company called Nordbahn became a concessionaire for this route, which was planned beyond Laon to La Fère an der Oise . The northern line was this section arm too far from their main area of ​​activity and they exchanged it even before the line was opened by contract of May 12, 1857 with the Compagnie des chemins de fer des Ardennes (CA) for the Creil – Beauvais railway line of about the same length . The entire length of the line was inaugurated on August 18, 1857, but initially only with one track.

On January 1, 1864, the Chemin de fer de l'Est (EST) took control of this as well as that of all other routes. She had concluded a merger agreement with the CA on May 12, 1857, which had been approved by the decree of June 11, 1859. As a result, the two companies merged in 1866 while maintaining the name of EST.

Alignment

The route is largely based on that of the old National Road 44 , which also connects the two cities and already followed an old Roman road. The A 26, also known as the Autoroute des Anglais , also runs largely parallel today . While the N 44 still grazes the foothills of the hill country around the Ailette River, the railway line takes a little further distance and leads from Reims initially in a northerly direction and only in the last third more in a westerly direction.

The largest single structure is the 75 meter long bridge over the Aisne in the municipality of Guignicourt . Three round arches, each 22 meters in diameter, span the entire river. The bridge was destroyed in both World War I and World War II and then rebuilt with concrete reinforcement. During the reconstruction, the structure was improved by designing the two driveways structurally independently, because previously there had been vibrations in the entire structure and premature damage. Remains of a structurally identical bridge that was destroyed in 1940 and subsequently not rebuilt can be found in Concevreux .

In Berry-au-Bac , the Compagnie Générale de Traction sur les Voies Navigabies (CGTVN) operated a kind of towing railway on canals that, instead of horses, mostly pulled barges with 6 km / h, i.e. rail-guided tow locomotives or tractors. At the end of the 19th century a network of canals had been created that stretched from the English Channel coast to Basel and was licensed for one company.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ SNCF Region de l'est. Carnet de Profils et Schémas. 1962, sheet 128
2. ↑ Annales des ponts et chaussées. Mémoires et documents relatif à l'art des constructions et au service de l'ingénieur, edition 22, part 2, 1852, pages 136-139
3. ↑ ^{a b} Matthieu Germain: Le pont ferroviaire. On: lespontsurlaisne
4. ↑ Collection complète des lois, décrets, ordonnances, règlemens avis… . Editors: Jean Baptiste Duvergier, A. Guyot et Scribe 1863, Volume 63, Pages 664–669
5. ↑ Photo from Google Streetview
6. ↑ Les ponts sur l'Aisne. On: homepage of the community.
7. ^ Claude Robin: La traction électrique sur les voies navigables . In: Chemins de fer secondaires . No. 81, 1967, Volume III, pages 2-20

Web links

Commons : Reims – Laon railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files