Royan tram

Royan steam tram on the Grande-Côte , 1904

Train of the Royan steam tram in the seaside resort of Pontaillac

Tram train in Royan, 1930s

The former Royan tram was a narrow-gauge railway that initially served inner-city traffic in the port city of Royan in western France and was later extended to some suburbs.

In Royan, the Société Générale de Tramway de Royan (SGTR), a subsidiary of the Société Centrale des Chemins de fer et des Tramways , had a 600-mm-gauge steam tram built by the Société Decauville on behalf of the city and had it operated until 1894 . The trains ran on the first sections of the city from 1890; the branch to the station was only used until 1893. At the beginning of the bathing season in 1891, the line extended southeast to Saint-Georges-de-Didonne and northwest to the suburb of Pontaillac. In the main season the trains, which were mainly used by the numerous tourists, ran every half hour.

First built in 1889 came Mallet - tank locomotives 020-020T with the wheel arrangement BB and a curb weight of 9.5 t are used, which in that year in the Decauville train the Paris Exposition had run. They were named Kairouan, Australie and Madagascar and were passed on to the Chemins de fer du Calvados in 1892 .

The Compagnie du Tramway de La Grande-Côte à Royan received a concession for the six-kilometer continuation to the La Grande-Côte coastal area in the municipality of Saint-Palais-sur-Mer , which opened in 1897. The SGTR ran the business here from the beginning and also became the owner from 1903. In 1905 the network had a length of 15 with the La Grande-Côte-Saint Palais-Royan-Didonne route, which ran mostly along the coast, with the new branch from Royan-Paradou to the port of Saint-Georges-de-Didonne Kilometers reached.

At the La Grande-Côte station, the 27-kilometer forest railway line operated by the Tramway de Grande-Côte à Ronce-les-Bains (GCR) company along the so-called Côte Sauvage (Wild Coast) began. It was opened in 1892 by the forest administration as a horse-drawn tram in meter gauge and in 1913 it was re-gauged to 600 mm. In 1925 the SGTR took over the operation, so that its network now comprised a total of 42 kilometers.

In 1933, the Charente-Maritime department replaced the city of Royan. Instead of forest railway trains , the route from La Grande-Côte was served by buses from 1939 . The entire operation, which suffered severe damage in World War II , was finally closed in 1945.

Remarks

↑ 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

Henri Domengie: Les petits trains de jadis - Volume 8: Ouest de la France. Editions du Cabri, Breil-sur-Roya 1990, ISBN 2-903310-87-4

Web links

Commons : Royan Steam Tram - Collection of images, videos and audio files

[1] 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