Narrow-gauge railway Saint-Just – Vaugneray

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disused tram
Narrow-gauge railway Saint-Just – Vaugneray
image
Train in the terminus Vaugneray-Bourg
Basic information
Country France
city Lyon , Tassin-la-Demi-Lune , Francheville , Vaugneray
opening 1886/1906 (change of operator)
Shutdown 1954
operator Compagnie Fouvière Ouest-Lyonnais / Omnibus et Tramways de Lyon
Infrastructure
Route length 14.874 km
Gauge 1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Power system 550 volts =
Stops 18th
business
Lines 1

The narrow-gauge railway Saint-Just-Vaugneray was a meter-gauge light railway in France , the Vaugneray with the mountain station Saint-Just the Funicular Funiculaire de Saint-just in Lyon - Saint-Just joined. Operations started on April 19, 1886 and stopped again on November 2, 1954. The railway was operated by the company Fouvière Ouest-Lyonnais and switched to Omnibus et Tramways de Lyon (OTL) in 1911 .

The railway was part of a network that connected the plains of West Lyon with Vaugneray and Mornant.

The beginnings

In 1872 Claude Bourget had delivered a first draft of the project. As an engineer , he had drafted several plans for mountain railways in Lyon: the funiculars of Croix-Rousse , Saint-Just and Fourvière . In addition, a draft for a standard-gauge railway that was to connect Lyon with Rive-de-Gier via Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon , Francheville , Chaponost and Brindas . However, this project lacked funding and was rejected.

In 1879, the Lyon engineer M. Devos applied for a concession for a line that roughly corresponded to the 1872 project. The owners of the Saint-Jean – Saint-Just funicular, opened in 1878, contradicted the proposal and suggested a connection ( single-track and meter-gauge) between Saint-Just station and Mornant with a connection to Vaugneray. The Conseil général du Rhône approved this project in 1880.

The project was declared "generally necessary" in 1882. The Compagnie du chemin de fer de Fourvière et de l'Ouest lyonnais (FOL) received the operating license. Work began in April 1884 and ended in Vaugneray in spring 1886; the connection to Mornant was completed in 1887.

Infrastructure

The railway operated largely on its own route on a solid surface corresponding to the possibilities of the late 19th century. The single-track route had steep gradients of up to 25 ‰, in the last ascent to Vaugneray even 32 ‰, as there was a difference in altitude of 213.50 m in Étoile d'Alaï to 411 m in Vaugneray-Bourg. The curves had radii of at least 200 m. There were 26 level crossings on the route .

An important structure was the Alaï viaduct over the Charbonnières river near Francheville. Its metal girders rested on four brick bridge piers, the bridge was 207 m long and 28 m high. The pillars were sunk 17 m deep and can still be seen today.

Routing

The FOL line connected the Saint-Just and Saint-Jean districts with a funicular that was converted into a rack railway in 1901 . The Saint-Just station was next to that of the rack railway, whose depot was located on the site of the Saint-Just station. The route followed the Loyasse range of hills, led along the Champvert mountain slope and finally reached the Massues station. The route led steadily downhill and reached the lowest point of the route in La Demi Lune . On the way there, the train drove through a tunnel and over three bridges. A short branch line (used between 1900 and 1901) branched off from the line between Grange-Blanche and the Demi-Lune stop in order to reach the Place de la Demi-Lune and make a transfer to the tram . A second route (two kilometers long and from 1916 by the OTL electrified) chain in the station of the FOL in Demi-Lune ( "La Pomme" called) off to after a wide curve to Écully-la-Demi-Lune the station PLM to Achieve, which primarily enabled the sending and receiving of freight over the rail network. That worked from 1895 to June 1935.

In the further course the route followed the course of the Charbonnières, which it crossed with a viaduct at Alaï. After incision of "Bel Air" they went through the valley of Yzeron upriver to a stop La Pillardière that is still recognizable. Then it went along the left bank of the Yzeron, in Craponne the Lyonnais plateau was reached. After the train station there, the line crossed the plateau to get to Le Tupinier and Grézieu-la-Varenne .

The turnoff to Mornant was in the train station at Le Tupinier . Behind Grézieu, a stone viaduct crossed a depression and led to the Maison Blanche station in Vaugneray, the terminus from 1886 to 1906. The line was later extended to Vaugneray-Bourg. It first led along the roadside and changed to the middle of the road before reaching the terminus in the center of Vaugneray. Since this section had a gradient of up to 32 ‰, only electric railcars could drive there.

Stations and stops

Vaugneray station, around 1906
Vaugneray-Bourg terminus
  • Saint-Just ( km 0.0)
  • Les Massues (stopping point; km 1.77)
    • Place de la Demi-Lune (train station; 3.0 km; branch line in operation from 1900 to 1901)
  • La Demi-Lune (stopping point; km 2.73)
  • La Demi-Lune (train station; km 3.32)
    • Tassin-Écully-la-Demi-Lune (station on branch line; km 5.3)
  • Francheville (Alaï stop; km 4.47)
  • Francheville (Étoile d'Alaï train station; km 4.91)
  • La Patelière (stopping point; km 6.72)
  • Craponne (stopping point; km 7.60)
  • Craponne Center (train station; km 8.66)
  • Le Tupinier (train station; km 9.84; branch line to Mornant)
  • Grézieu-la-Varenne (train station; km 11.26)
  • La Chanconche (stopping point; km 12.55)
  • Vaugneray-Maison blanche (terminus from 1886 to 1906; km 13.50)
  • Vaugneray-Bourg (terminus in the town center; km 14.9)

electrification

The line was electrified in 1899 with 550 V direct current , which was generated in a power station near the Saint-Just depot with the support of another plant in Tupinier.

business

Timetables of the line in May 1914

vehicles

Steam operation

When the line opened in 1886:

In 1895, Fives delivered two more type 031T tank locomotives.

In order to cope with the volume of traffic, two used machines with the numbers 15 and 16 were acquired from the Voies ferrées du Dauphiné . These are tram locomotives of the type 030T bicabine built by Blanc-Misseron in 1893 .

Electric vehicles

FOL vehicles

When the electric drive was introduced, the following vehicles were delivered:

  • four “Buire” multiple units, which were built by the La Buire company on the basis of passenger cars
  • five “Vierzon” railcars with a bogie , manufactured by Hanquet & Hautfort
Support from the Lyon Tramway (OTL)

After the merger of FOL and OTL, the latter put the following material into service:

  • ten railcars NLT, called "Chemin de fer" (railway) - these were bogie locomotives that had been converted to the FOL standard.
  • In 1914, OTL in Belgium ordered 26 railcars from La Construction in Manage , Hainaut - these railcars were called “Manage” and operated for 40 years until the line was closed in 1954

End of operation

On November 2, 1954, the railway line was closed and replaced by Renault buses of the type R 4211 of the OTL (line 37).

The bus line continued to be operated on February 28, 1957 by the Lafond company with Chausson buses. In 1974 the company was taken over by Transports en commun lyonnais (TCL; Quai de la Pêcherie – Tassin – Craponne – Vaugneray line). The route has been served by route 73 since 1976.

Relics

There are still some remains to see, which testify to the effort that was required to make the train run.

Railway line
  • The course of the railway still exists as a footpath between Saint Just and La Demi Lune, with the Massues tunnel being crossed
  • The pillars of the Alaï Viaduct are still visible
  • The route can still be seen in the valley of the Yzeron downstream at Craponne
  • The route between Craponne and Vaugneray can still be seen
building
  • The former train station of La Demi Lune is used as a pub
  • The former train station in Vaugneray is now used by the DDE

Projects

There are various studies examining whether parts of the infrastructure can be used for bus routes, especially on the section between Craponne and Vaugneray. The SYTRAL transport association provides for a quick connection to the west of Lyon by two lines: Gorge-de-Loup- Vaugneray and Gorge-de-Loup- Brindas , which will use part of the old route from 2013 onwards.

See also

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Claude Bourget was the grandfather of the writer Paul Bourget
  2. ↑ The line Saint-Jean – Saint-Just rack railway existed from 1901 to 1958 and was then again replaced by a funicular.
  3. ↑ It concerns the material depot of the administration of the department ( cf. fr )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Marc Daniel, bibliography
  2. ↑ cf. on the FOL Saint-Just site (after the Anciennes lignes "FOL" site )
  3. ^ Georges Barriol: Vaugneray Lyon bus lane. April 21, 2007, accessed April 3, 2011 .
  4. ↑ Report on the presentation and information regarding the idea of ​​establishing a link between Gorge de Loup (Lyon 9ème) and Vaugneray. Conseil général du Rhône, 2004, accessed April 3, 2011 .
  5. ^ Synthèse du Comité syndical du SYTRAL du jeudi 4 mars 2010. Retrieved on August 2, 2015 .