Compagnie du Jura industriel

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The trains make a hairpin in Chambrelia to overcome the difference in altitude between Neuchâtel and Convers.

The Compagnie du Jura industriel (JI) is a former Swiss railway company. It existed from 1857 to 1875 and operated the Neuchâtel – La Chaux-de-Fonds – Le Locle railway .

The aim of the Jura industriel was to connect the watchmaking area of ​​the Neuchâtel Jura to the canton's capital Neuchâtel by a railway line.

history

The train that arrived in Convers is on its way to Neuchâtel. On the right, a Jura – Bern – Lucerne locomotive is waiting for the group of wagons from La Chaux-de-Fonds to start the journey to Biel.

In 1853 it became apparent that the canton of Neuchâtel would like to connect to the French network via the Compagnie Franco-Suisse route . The Compagnie du Jura industriel received the cantonal license in 1854 to also connect Le Locle and La Chaux-de-Fonds in Neuchâtel to the Swiss network.

Niklaus Riggenbach was called in as a consultant for the construction of the 40-kilometer route . The route from Neuchâtel follows a steady gradient of 27 ‰ to the hairpin in Chambrelien and then along the slope of the Val de Ruz and through two tunnels up to La Chaux-de-Fonds . From there the line rises with 25 ‰ to Le Locle .

Construction of the railway began in 1854, and on July 2, 1857, the 7-kilometer stretch from La-Chaux-de-Fonds to Le Locle was opened as the first stage.

On November 27, 1859, the route from La Chaux-de-Fonds to Convers followed at the north portal of the 3,259-meter-long Loges tunnel. Four days later, on December 1st, the line from Neuchâtel to Les Hauts-Geneveys was opened at the south portal of the tunnel. When leaving Neuchâtel, the JI was able to use a route that had already been built, which was intended for the line to Pontarlier . However, due to changes in the Franco-Suisse lines during construction, this section was not used as intended. The whole route from Neuchâtel to Le Locle was opened on July 15, 1860.

The station buildings were all made of wood, with the exception of that of La Chaux-de-Fonds, which was also built of stone as the headquarters of the JI.

Shortly after the opening of the entire route, the company ran into financial difficulties, not least due to high interest charges, and on January 3, 1861, bankruptcy began . The canton continued to operate the railway and in January 1865 a new Jura industriel took over. Ten years later, the Neuchâtel voters refused to buy back the railway and the company decided to sell it on May 1, 1875 to Chemins de fer du Jura bernois (JB), which was founded on April 30, 1874 , later Jura-Bern-Lucerne ( JBL).

In 1884 the continuation of the route from Le Locle to the Col des Roches and on to Besançon was opened. In 1890 the Régional des Brenets (RdB) started traffic on its narrow-gauge line between Le Locle and Les Brenets .

The JBL was apparently unable to meet local expectations and so a new referendum on June 29, 1884 led to the decision to buy back the railway through the canton. On January 1, 1886, operations were transferred to the Neuchâtel Jura Railway .

Rolling stock

The Jura industriel machine park consisted exclusively of Engerth locomotives that had proven themselves elsewhere on steep lines. Since the first three locomotives did not meet the requirements due to their low tractive power, they were later used on other lines and from 1877 in shunting service and were scrapped early.

designation JI no. Surname JBL no.
from 1875		 JN no.
from 1886		 SBB no.
from 1913		 Manufacturer Construction year discarded image
A
from 1875: AI
from 1887: B2E
(from 1902: Ec 2/5)		 1 Le Père Fritz 41 - - Esslingen 1856 1883 Ed 2/5
2 Le Jura 42 42 - 1888
3 Jean Richard 43 - - 1858 1883
B
from 1875: CI
from 1887: D3E
from 1902: Ed 3/5		 4th Père vielle 141 141 - SCB workshop 1859 1905 E 3/5
5 Montagnarde 142 142 - 1898
7th Vignoble 143 143 - 1904
6th Chaux-de-Fonds 144 144 8799 Esslingen 1873 1914 Ed 3/5
8th Locle 145 145 - 1912

Due to financial difficulties of the JI, the ordered locomotives B numbers 4 to 7 could not be paid for in full, which is why the SCB retained locomotive number 6 and used it itself.

Individual evidence

  • A century of Swiss railways 1847–1947 . Verlag Huber & Co. AG, Frauenfeld 1947; Volume I, p. 80
  • 3x50 years - Swiss railways in the past, present and future . Pharos-Verlag, Basel 1997, pp. 74-77
  • Hans G. Wägli: Swiss Rail Network . General Secretariat SBB, Bern 1980.
  • Bernard Renaud: L'histoire du chemin de fer à Neuchâtel , in: Eisenbahn-Amateur 4/2012, ISSN  0013-2764
  • Alfred Moser: The steam operation of the Swiss railways 1847-1966 . Birkhäuser Verlag Basel and Stuttgart 1967
  • Pascal Siegfried: International railway lines in the Jura. (PDF 3.2 MB) September 25, 2007, accessed April 2, 2014 .
  1. ^ Boillat, Johann .: Une ligne à travers les montagnes: la première compagnie de chemin de fer du Locle à Neuchâtel: le Jura industriel (1857-1865) . Editions Alphil, Neuchâtel 2007, ISBN 978-2-940235-36-0 .
  2. ^ Alfred Moser, page 305