Chemins de fer du Calvados

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Saint-Pierre train station in Caen with the CFC train

The Chemins de fer du Calvados (CFC or CFC) were a narrow-gauge railway starting from Caen in the French department of Calvados . It led, with steam trains on 600 mm track , first via Bénouville to Luc-sur-Mer and Dives-sur-Mer , and later to other places in Normandy .

prehistory

Decauville track made from prefabricated elements
Decauville train with Tubize locomotive at the Paris World's Fair , 1889

The farmer Paul Decauville developed a narrow-gauge track system in 1875 to bring in his sugar beet harvest . The prefabricated, easy-to-transport track elements could easily be transported to their destination, quickly laid and easily joined together. The thresholds were like the bars of iron produced. For this purpose, Decauville had freight truck chassis built for variable superstructures.

Two years later, he had largely perfected the system and began industrial production. In 1878 he had already sold his track material to 202 French companies, but also to 38 companies abroad. At the world exhibition in Paris in 1889 , he was able to present his track system to a broad public. The line with a track width of 600 mm was 3 km long, the trains used were used by 6,342,446 passengers within six months. The railway's locomotives came from Couillet, Péchot-Bourdon and Tubize , but are commonly referred to as Decauville locomotives.

In the early 1890s, Decauville was commissioned to build the narrow-gauge railway from Pithiviers to Toury ( Tramway de Pithiviers à Toury ). This track was mainly used to remove sugar beets. But it noted a passenger, first with locomotive-hauled trains until its cessation in 1952 then Crochat - rail buses on.

In 1864, the General Council of the Calvados department had decided to build eleven local railways , which were to serve places in the interior of Lower Normandy and on the north coast of the Paris – Cherbourg line . The first normal-gauge lines laid out in the 1870s quickly turned out to be in deficit. For this reason, the more cost-effective construction of narrow-gauge lines with a gauge of 750 mm or 1000 mm was also considered for other railways.

History and description

CFC network
Station Dives of the CFC
Junction at the Bénouville train station
Three- rail track and regular-gauge train in Langrune station
Narrow gauge train on the three-rail track in Langrune station
Two gauges in Courseulles station , on the left a regular- gauge train
Arromanches train station

Paul Decauville suggested in 1887, initially in vain, that a narrow-gauge railway with a gauge of 600 mm be built on a trial basis between Port-en-Bessin and Bayeux . On August 20, 1890, his company Société anonyme des Établissements Decauville Aîné was granted the concession to build such a railway.

On August 15, 1891, a provisional first line was put into operation between Ouistreham and Luc-sur-Mer . Three weeks later, the declaration of public benefit for the Grandcamp - Isigny line and in September 1892 for Dives - Cabourg - Luc-sur-Mer. The following were finally opened:

  • January 1, 1892: Ouistreham – Luc
  • July 15, 1892: Bénouville –Dives
  • August 13, 1892: Bénouville – Ouistreham
  • 4th July 1893: Caen – Bénouville

The total length of this first network was 38.3 km.

At first, however, the relationship between the General Council and Decauville deteriorated, whose company stopped building the railway from Grandcamp to Isigny in August 1892. That year, Decauville's shares fell sharply in value. 1894 suggested Decauville that concession to the corporation des Tramways Société Caennaise cede, from his company held, however, 2/3 of the shares.

The engineer and entrepreneur Édouard Louis Joseph Empain had already received the concession for the construction of meter-gauge railways in 1888 - this gauge was favored by the military - but the General Council of the Département wanted a gauge of 600 or 750 mm. In 1890 , War Minister Charles de Freycinet changed his mind on Decauville, given the positive impression of the Paris World Exhibition . In February 1894, Empain, whose Compagnie générale des railways à voie étroite already operated narrow-gauge railways, and his business partner Edmond Caze founded the Société anonyme des Chemins de Fer du Calvados (CFC). They succeeded in obtaining the concession for the routes already built by Decauville as well as for the planned routes. So it was they who completed the narrow-gauge network in the Calvados, albeit ultimately with the gauge of Decauville.

When Empain took over, only the railway from Dives to Luc was in operation. The line from Caen (Saint-Pierre station) to Bénouville was added again on December 16, 1895. On July 27, 1896, the 10.4 km long Grandcamp – Isigny line was opened to traffic.
Additional routes were opened in the following years:

  • July 1, 1899 Bayeux – Port-en-Bessin (10.9 km), Bayeux– Courseulles-sur-Mer with branch line Ryes - Arromanches (together 26.1 km)
  • July 1, 1900 Luc-sur-Mer – Courseulles-sur-Mer (connection of the Caen and Bayeux networks by means of a three-rail narrow-gauge / standard gauge ; 8 km)
September 1, 1900 Grand Camp - Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer
  • 1 August 1901 Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer– Le Molay-Littry (Grandcamp – Le Molay-Littry: 32.3 km)
  • September 20, 1902 Caen-Gare de l'Ouest - Falaise -Château
  • January 1, 1904: Balleroy -Le Molay-Littry (9.4 km)
January 18, 1904: Falaise-Château – Falaise-Gare (Caen-Gare de l'Ouest – Falaise-Gare: 46 km)
July 9, 1804: Bayeux – Balleroy (connection of the Grandcamp – Isigny line to the rest of the network)
December 20, 1904: Caen-Saint-Pierre – Caen-Gare de l'Ouest (connection of the north and south routes in Caen; 1.3 km)

In its final expansion, the network had a route length of 223.2 km.

On the line to Falaise, two connecting railways from mines were built:

The tracks were, with the exception of the independently routed section Caen-Riva-Bella, usually on the side of or in the road area. Separate routes also existed for some bypasses and in difficult terrain with steep gradients. Initially, Decauville tracks were laid, later Vignole rails on wooden sleepers , which allowed the maximum axle load to be doubled to 7 t . Grooved rails were sometimes used in urban areas. The minimum curve radii were 30 m, the maximum gradients 40 ‰. In Bénouville the railway crossing on moving bridges the Orne and the Canal de Caen à la Mer .

In 1911 the construction of further routes was considered, but the outbreak of World War I prevented them from being realized . Due to the requisition of locomotives and wagons and the mobilization of personnel, only very limited traffic was possible after the outbreak of war. In addition, special trains had to transport the wounded to temporary hospitals and soldiers to training camps. In the absence of adequate maintenance, the infrastructure and vehicles suffered.

The network expansion project was abandoned in 1919. In October 1920, the General Council decided instead to set up an omnibus network , the first lines of which went into operation in 1922. On the Caen – Falaise and Ryes – Arromanches routes, rail traffic was first restricted. From 1923 the last still profitable connections from Caen to Dives and Luc were in the red. Therefore, in 1925, the first railcars were procured to replace steam-hauled trains ; corresponding attempts had already been made two years earlier. The small two-axle vehicles from the manufacturer Crochat promised a more cost-effective operation, but the deficit continued to grow. In places like Vierville the replacement of the train service with buses was demanded, in Grandcamp and Isigny they wanted to keep the train in vain. In 1929, passenger traffic was suspended between Isigny and Balleroy, and the following year also between Bayeux and Saint-Martin-des-Besaces and between Ryes and Arromanches. In 1931 travel between Bayeux and Luc ended, including on the three-rail section from Luc to Courseulles. On May 19, 1932, the General Council decided to stop operating steam locomotives on the entire CFC network - with the exception of the Caen – Luc route.

Combat on the line at Riva-Bella during Operation Overlord

By 1933 almost all other passenger trains were also replaced by buses, most routes were shut down and canceled. Trains only remained on the section from Caen to Luc-sur-Mer, where there was strong tourist demand in the summer season. This traffic went to the Société des Courriers Normands in 1937 , which took over the vehicles of the CFC, but initially handled passenger transport by road in winter. After the beginning of the Second World War , like the remaining freight traffic, it was again carried out year-round by rail.

As a result of the landing of the Allied troops in Normandy in June 1944, the route was used as a traffic route for military convoys and was destroyed in the process. That was the end of the history of the Chemins de fer du Calvados. The "Courriers Normands" remained as a bus company.

Special features of the route

Three-rail section

Since January 1, 1876, the Compagnie du Chemin de Fer de Caen à la Mer (CM) operated a regular-gauge railway line between the coastal towns of Luc and Courseulles. In order to connect their two networks around Caen and Bayeux, the CFC wanted their own line to run parallel to it, but the department wanted to avoid competition between the two railway companies. Instead, the CFC were approved to lay a third rail in the standard gauge track at their own expense, which allowed the operation of trains of both gauges.

Additional stations were not allowed to be created, but the existing ones could be used. Management remained with CM, which received the total revenue from passenger traffic on this section, plus 55% of that from continuous CFC freight traffic. Operations started there on July 1, 1900.

Engineering structures

  • Pont de Ranville: The swing bridge over the Orne, built in 1870, was a 66.3 m long lattice girder bridge that rotated around a central pillar in the river . The structure, also known as the Horsabrücke after the Second World War , was replaced by a new bridge in 1971.
  • Pont de Bénouville: The successor to the bascule bridge over the Canal de Caen à la Mer is known today as the Pegasus Bridge . In April 1903 the locomotive “Falaise” crashed into the water with the bridge open.
  • At Cabourg, the railway crossed the river Dives on a five-arched stone bridge .

Track construction

The rails had a height of 90 mm and a foot width of 70 mm. The head was 39 mm wide and the bridge 10 mm thick. The rails of the track bays were inseparable on 6 steel sleepers 1 m long and 170 mm wide. 45 mm high and 6 mm thick with a weight of 11 kg. The distance from the end of the rail to the center of the first traverse was 200 mm. The steel angle brackets including the 4 connecting screws weighed 3.7 kg per pair. The entire superstructure weight was 44.7 kg per running meter.

Mittheilungen des Verein für the Promotion Local- und Strassenbahnwesens, Vienna, 1893, p. 126 (The arrangement of the track on the street, cross-section) .jpg
Arrangement of the track on the street
Communications from the Association for the Promotion of Local and Tramways, Vienna, 1893, p. 126 (tracks on the street banquet, cross-section) .jpg
Tracks on the street shoulder


The greatest width of the track, which was mostly on the street shoulder , was 3.58 m. The banquet was bordered by a pounded, turf-covered body of earth at least 12 cm high. The road zone remaining for carriage traffic was in no case allowed to be less than 5 m. The bedding had a crown 1.6 m and 20-25 cm thick. It consisted of drifting sand and was covered with a 10 cm thick layer of gravel so that it could not be blown away by the wind.

Notifications of the association for the promotion of local and tramway systems, Vienna, 1893, p. 127 (tracks embedded in the road near Cabourg, cross-section) .jpg
Tracks embedded in the street near Cabourg
Notifications of the association for the promotion of local and tramway systems, Vienna, 1893, p. 127 (Street translation at Sallenelles, cross section) .jpg
Narrow point at the Sallenelles bridge
Notifications of the association for the promotion of local and tramways, Vienna, 1893, p. 127 (street translation at Lion-sur-Mer, cross-section) .jpg
Track in the middle of the street at Lion-sur-Mer


On the bridges of Cabourg and Sallenelles , the track at the edge of the road was embedded in the road structure. The distance between the outermost projection of the rail vehicles and the sidewalk was 30 cm, so that 4.52 m remained for carts on the Cabourg bridge and 3.32 m on that of Sallenelles.

At the bridge of Lion-sur-Mer , where the track was also embedded in the road structure, there was still 2.6 m left for wagons on both sides of the largest extension of the rail vehicles.

Experience has shown that the tracks made of 15 kg heavy steel rails, which led through the towns, did not require any constrained or guard rails, which offered a double advantage, namely cost savings and the avoidance of derailments by forcing stones in the space between the driving and constrained rails.

vehicles

The Mallet - tank locomotive No. 2 came from the Paris Exhibition of the CFC
Weidknecht locomotive in Riva-Bella
Tubize locomotive with two driver's cabs in Courseulles-sur-Mer
Crochat rail bus in the Musée des transports de Pithiviers
CFC horse transport wagon with lowered floor

The first seven machines (Delivery year 1891/92) were Mallet - tank locomotives 020-020T of Decauville with the wheel arrangement BB and a curb weight of 9.5 t, they were similar to the path of the Paris World's Fair of 1889 and had run there before. They were used in the Caen – Dives and Caen – Luc routes, each locomotive had the name of a station on these routes: Cabourg, Sallenelles, Ouistreham, Falaise, Bénouville and Varaville, the Luc locomotive was later renamed Grandcamp. There were also 16 closed and 17 open passenger cars, around 50 two- and four-axle freight cars and two cattle cars.

Used tank locomotives (020T, 030T) from various companies were soon added, some of which were converted (031T from Weidknecht Frères & Cie. To 032T).

  • 1893: 2 Weidknecht 031T No. 7 and 8, curb weight 10 t, converted into 032T in 1909, called Hermanville and Ville de Caen
  • 1895: 1 ANF ​​Blanc-Misseron 030T No. 135, curb weight 15 t, initially Brèche d'Hermanville, later called Isigny
  • 1900:. 1 Weidknecht 020T # 9, built in 1893 empty weight 10 tons, used by the company in Fernand Thébault. Marly acquired

All Decauville and Weidknecht locomotives were used in the Caen – Dives – Luc network.

After the takeover by Empain, machines with two driver's cabs (so-called “bicabines”) were purchased, which resembled tram locomotives and were all built by the Belgian company Ateliers de Tubize as licensed buildings by ANF Blanc-Misseron. From then on, Tubize also supplied the cars.

  • 1899–1900: 6 Tubize 030T No. 222–225 and 231–232, curb weight 15.5 t, with the names Bayeux, Port-en-Bessin, Arromanches, Courseulles, Ryes and Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer
  • 1901: 2 Tubize 032T No. 233 and 234, curb weight 18 t, called Formigny and Trévières
  • 1902–1909: 10 Tubize 230T No. 100–109, empty weight 18 t
  • 1913: 3 Tubize 031T No. 301–303, empty weight 18 t

Tubize's locomotives were used on the Bayeux network and the Caen – Falaise line. There was also a 021T, the origin of which is unclear. It operated on the branch line to Arromanches. A 020T (No. 101) of unknown date from the Belgian manufacturer Guillaume was probably used mainly as a construction locomotive and was sold to the Mines de fer de Barbery in 1905 .

In 1925 three railcars (numbers AU-1 to 3) from the manufacturer Crochat came to the CFC. The two axes of the vehicles were of 10  PS paid electric motors driven, the relative electricity from a 30 hp gasoline motor. In 1936 the Tramways de Savoie added two used four-axle bogie railcars (numbers DC-11 and 12) with the same drive principle.

Remarks

  1. ↑ The Déclaration d'utilité publique (declaration of non-profit status) was the prerequisite for land expropriations
  2. ↑ The locomotives No. 1 (Cabourg), 2 (Sallenelles) and 6 (Varaville) came from the Paris World Exhibition via the Tramway de Royan
  3. ↑ The French designation of the wheel arrangement usually consists of three digits: z. B. 130 means a front axle , three coupling axles , no rear axle, so 1'C

literature

  • Alain de Dieuleveult: Calvados pour les Petits Trains . Éditions Cénomane, Le Mans 1997, ISBN 2-902808-74-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alain de Dieuleveult: Calvados pour les petits trains . La Vie du Rail, Paris 1997, ISBN 2-902808-74-7 , p. 46 ff .
  2. ↑ Repertoire de la législation des chemins de fer français. Réseaux secondaires d'intérêt général, chemins de fer d'intérêt local et tramways , Imprimerie nationale, Paris 1901, p. 184., accessed on April 8, 2019
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Alain de Dieuleveult: Calvados pour les Petits Trains , p. 165 ff.
  4. ↑ a b c Alain de Dieuleveult: Calvados pour les Petits Trains , p. 41.
  5. ↑ Saint-Germain-le-Vasson at villesducalvados.free.fr, accessed on April 9, 2019
  6. ↑ a b c Le carnet du CFC at cfchanteraines.fr, accessed on April 26, 2019
  7. ↑ Alain de Dieuleveult: Calvados pour les Petits Trains , p. 42.
  8. ↑ Alain de Dieuleveult: Calvados pour les Petits Trains , p. 59.
  9. ↑ Pegasus Bridge at tabletopdeutschland.com, accessed on May 12, 2019
  10. ↑ Bénouville at merienne.jy.free.fr, accessed on May 11, 2019
  11. ^ EA number: About narrow-gauge vicinal railways in France. Fifth association meeting on April 24th, 1893. In: Communications of the association for the promotion of local and tramway systems. Vienna, 1893, pp. 124-134.
  12. ↑ a b c Alain de Dieuleveult: Calvados pour les Petits Trains , p. 145.