Tramway de Grenoble à Chapareillan
| Tramway de Grenoble à Chapareillan | |
|---|---|
 Two railcars and a baggage car with a 1st class compartment of the TGC
in Crolles station , 1901 | |
| Route length: | 42.8 km |
| Gauge : | 1000 mm ( meter gauge ) |
| Power system : | 1200 V = |
| Maximum slope : | 40 ‰ |
| Minimum radius : | 35 m |
| Top speed: | 25 km / h |
| Region (FR): | Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes |
The Tramway de Grenoble à Chapareillan (TGC) was a meter-gauge , single-track narrow - gauge railway in the French department of Isère, originating from Grenoble . It was driven on by tram-like electric multiple units and had a two-pole overhead line as a special feature .
The wide Grésivaudan valley between the Chartreuse and Belledonne massifs is a main artery. In addition to the formerly navigable river Isère , it now includes a motorway, two main roads and a double-track railway line. There were also two small railways: the TGC and the Tramway de Grenoble à Domène of the Voies ferrées du Dauphiné (VFD).
prehistory
The main line of the Compagnie des chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM) and the VFD line opened in 1898 opened up the south-eastern bank of the Isère. Residents of the places northwest of the river had to cross the river to get to a train station, often more than 4 km away. That is why it was decided at the end of the 19th century to build a railway for passenger and goods traffic on this side as well. You should open up themselves in economic difficulties distant places whose vines by the phylloxera had been destroyed, as well as the suburbs, between Grenoble and Saint-Ismier . In addition, it gained an inner-city significance through serving the Île Verte district . In 1893, the Tramway à vapeur de Grenoble au Touvet project, a 26.44 km long steam-powered small train, was launched. Grenoble requested the route to be routed to the PLM long-distance train station, and at the instigation of the municipalities in the valley, the departmental administration requested the extension beyond Le Touvet to Chapareillan . On February 24, 1894, the competent authorities were asked to approve this railway. The necessary notification regarding the non-profit status of the undertaking was delayed by December 31, 1895. The entrepreneurs Claret and THOUVARD received against the payment of a sum of 213.00 francs permission to build the railway and to operate for 75 years. The money was earmarked for the straightening of Route nationale 90 to Montbonnot , in the planum of which the railway should run, and the construction of a bridge over the Isère. The operators undertook to refrain from subsidies, only use French rolling stock and only employ French staff.
Building history
In 1896 a stock company was set up with a capital of 2 million francs. Since the construction of an electric train seemed possible in the meantime, the future operators applied to be allowed to implement a more extensive network. In addition to the line to Chapareillan, a line was to be built from Grenoble to Voreppe with another branch line. However, this project was not approved, and an 18 km extension from Chapareillan to Chambéry did not come about.
On August 5, 1896, the preliminary draft of the route was submitted, subject to minor changes, and the plans were completed on the following December 18. The various sections were approved between March 23 and October 5, 1897. With regard to the rolling stock, a cost estimate was received on January 1, 1898, and the purchase agreement was signed with the Schneider company on February 3 . In mid-February the decision was made regarding the necessary expropriation of the land, and on August 28, electrical operation of the railway was permitted.
In line with the progress of the construction work, the railway was opened in four stages. From the Place Notre-Dame in the northeastern old town of Grenoble, the first train ran on December 13, 1899, initially to Crolles, 17 km away . On January 6, 1900, the extension to Le Touvet followed, the eastern end point of Chapareillan was reached for the first time by a passenger train on March 12, 1900. Freight traffic on the entire route began eight days later on March 20th.
An agreement with Société Grenobloise de Tramways Electriques (SGTE), the operator of the city's tram, was required to be able to carry trains coming from Île Verte to the long-distance station of the PLM. It included u. a. the waiver of half of the income generated within the urban area and a direct tour to the train station through the city center. Instead, the route to be built between the Isère bridge Pont de la Citadel and the Place de la Bastille (today: Place Hubert Dubedout) had to be led along the southern bank streets. On March 14, 1901, passenger and freight traffic began on this section. It branched off to the north shortly before the previous endpoint, Place Notre-Dame, and reached the river bank via Place Lavalette - the track there was shared with SGTE. The trains ran on Rue Casimir Brenier between Place de la Bastille and Place de la Gare.
In Grenoble, the wall of the military prison had to be moved. The construction costs for the line - apart from the land purchase costs - amounted to 85.00 francs / km.
route
The track with a gauge of 1000 mm met the requirements of the specifications for trams. Grooved rails of the type "Broca" with a mass of 40 kg / m, otherwise 25 kg / m heavy Vignole rails with a length of 10 m each were laid in the street area . The minimum radius was 40 m outside and 35 m inside, the gradients were up to 40 ‰.
The route was a single track throughout with crossing options in the stations. Wherever it could be realized, existing roads or their edges were used, which resulted in not inconsiderable inclines. The lowest point was the Place Notre Dame with 211.56 m, the highest the Col de La Flachère with 424.78 m. The Chapareillan terminus was at a height of 277.00 m. The proportion of straight stretches was 75.33% between Place de la Gare and Place Notre-Dame and 72.24% from there to Chapareillan. The most important engineering structures were a 15 m long iron viaduct between Saint-Ismier and Saint-Nazaire and a 12 m long brick arch bridge east of Le Touvet station. The majority of the stations had only one house platform, the second track was reserved for freight trains and was only used in exceptional cases to cross passenger trains. The station buildings were largely standardized. Some municipalities subsequently built buildings or extensions at their own expense, such as Pontalieu a shelter for passengers and Saint-Nazaire in 1923 a covered freight platform. East of the Île Verte station, the Grenoble freight station and the depot (Dépôt-Marchandises) were laid off the route .
The kilometrage started at Place Notre-Dame, there were other train stations
- Île Verte (km 0.930, double-track with a branch to the depot and freight yard Dépôt-Marchandises),
- Meylan (km 4.576, second track only for freight traffic, station restaurant),
- Montbonnot-Saint-Martin (km 7.223, second track only for freight traffic),
- Saint-Ismier (km 10.059, initially the second track only for freight traffic, no platform roofing),
- Saint-Nazaire (km 12.110, second track for goods traffic only),
- Bernin (km 14,898),
- Crolles (km 16,937),
- Lumbin (km 20.702, second track only for freight traffic),
- La Terrasse (km 22.884, second track only for freight traffic),
- Le Touvet (km 27.503, initially the second track only for goods traffic),
- Saint-Vincent-de-Mercuze (km 29.930, second track only for freight traffic),
- La Flachère (km 33.053, second track only for freight traffic),
- Barraux (km 37.095) and
- Chapareillan (km 41,180).
The distance from Place Notre-Dame to Grenoble-Postes station, which can only be reached via foreign tracks, was 1.635 km, where freight wagons could switch between the narrow-gauge railways. Tremendous freight trains were able to reach the transshipment station with the PLM, initially Grenoble-Abattoirs, later called Grenoble-Polygone, from Place de la Gare via a track on the Voies Ferrées du Dauphiné (VFD) in Rue Emile Gueymard. The station, 1.386 km away from Place Notre-Dame, also served the three other meter-gauge companies VFD as well as GVL and CEN (or their successors SGTE) as a goods transfer station.
There were four private sidings on the line:
- 19.170 km: to the Saint-Hilaire du Touvet funicular
- km 21.100: to an iron foundry
- km 24,800: to the hamlet of La Frette for the sugar beet collection
- km 39.955: to the tobacco factory in La Servette, where from 1916 blanks for grenades were made
The stations were available for both passenger and freight traffic. Grenoble-Ville and - as the only stopping point - La Tronche handled a limited amount (up to 200 kg) of goods traffic, while urban trains from Grenoble did not carry any goods.
The most important station was the three-track terminus at Chapareillan, which had a small depot with a two-tier locomotive shed with two pits. It had a turntable , an open loading siding and several sidings. The stations Barraux, Le Touvet (after renovation), Crolles (with two-tier shed), Bernin and Saint-Ismier (after expansion) also had three through tracks.
Coming from the Île Verte, some of the trains ended at the Grenoble-Ville station on Place Notre-Dame, a double-track terminus with a pull-out siding . Shortly before, other trains turned onto Place Lavalette and ended in front of the PLM long-distance train station on Place de la Gare. With a similar track plan as Grenoble-Ville there was an additional siding and a track connection to the VFD for freight traffic.
On the short section between Grenoble-Ville and Île Verte, there was one stop and two demand stops . Outside the city there were four breakpoints and twenty on-demand breakpoints. The Montfort-Funiculaire stop at the valley station of the Saint-Hilaire du Touvet funicular, which opened in 1924 and led to a sanatorium for tuberculosis sufferers on the Plateau des Petites Roches, was of touristic importance .
The Dépôt-Marchandises station had a five-length shed with extensions as well as an administration building with a canteen and goods shed , shunting, storage and loading tracks.
history
Initially it was planned to electrify the railway only to Saint-Ismier and to operate the trains on the Grenoble - Chapareillan route with steam trains. Ultimately, however, the decision was made to run the system entirely on electricity.
Until then, corresponding railways in France were supplied with a direct voltage of 600 V via an overhead line . The paper- and cotton-based insulating material did not permit higher voltages. For the relatively long route of the TGC, a solution was sought to avoid having to compensate for voltage drops by increasing the number of feed-in points excessively.
For the power supply, a system of two parallel contact wires was developed for the first time, as was soon also used in trolleybuses . The wires of the two-pole overhead contact line carried +600 V and −600 V across the track, which meant a voltage difference of 1200 V between them. In addition, feed lines running in parallel were installed. This enabled the railcars to be moved by two 600 V electric motors connected in series . The two copper wires of the overhead line had a diameter of 9 mm, their distance from one another was consistently 70 cm.
A hydroelectric power station owned by the railway near Lancey on the south bank of the Isère supplied the TGC with electricity. It produced 1.5 times the maximum required output and could supply electricity to third parties. In December 1910, the facility was badly damaged by a landslide, which affected rail traffic for two months.
As part of the construction of the railway, the Pont de l'Île-Verte road bridge was built over the Isère. The route was changed in 1909 east of Barraux and in 1933 in Bernin. In 1931 crossing tracks were laid in La Tronche and Aiguinards. In 1937 the previous stop at Montbonnot received a second track and in the following year a station building.
On January 1, 1931, the TCG, which not only had to struggle with financial difficulties, was taken over by the VFD. A second track connection was created between the two networks in Grenoble via Boulevard Edouard Rey, which made it easier for VFD trains to reach the Île Verte depot and also brought passengers from the direction of La Tronche directly to the city center. VFD railcars use only one of the two contact wires under the TCG overhead contact line. Conversely, former TCG railcars, which from then on also came to Aiguinards - under VFD catenary - in this case only put on one pantograph and ran at half power.
A short circuit in the engine repair shop set the plant on fire on July 14, 1932. In doing so, u. a. two railcars and two sidecars destroyed, numerous vehicles damaged. On May 15, 1933 all traffic between Le Touvet and Chapareillan was discontinued and the trains were replaced by buses and trucks. From October 8th of that year, a passenger train went via Montfort-Funiculaire on Sundays and public holidays. Further stages of withdrawal were:
- January 1, 1937 Freight traffic only on the Grenoble - Crolles section
- May 1, 1937 Closure of operations between Saint-Ismier and Le Touvet
- June 17, 1939 Closure of the Montbonnot - Chapareillan section
The Second World War temporarily prevented further reductions. However, as early as December 9, 1946 - retrospectively to December 1 - it was decided to cease operations between Aiguinards and Montbonnot. The last train ran from Aiguinards to Place Notre-Dame on October 31, 1947, the next day the Tramway de Grenoble à Chapareillan was finally history. The remaining section was officially closed on March 15, 1948.
vehicles
The car bodies of the railcars based on the SGTE model were supplied by the Compagnie française de matériel de chemin de fer in Ivry-sur-Seine , the mechanical part came from Schneider in Le Creusot as the French representative of the Geneva-based company Compagnie de l'industrie électrique et mécanique (CIEM). The two-axle bidirectional vehicles, which only led the 2nd carriage class , were 8.50 m long, 2.30 m wide and 3.75 m high over buffers . Their center distance was only 2.00 m, which could lead to stability problems with one-sided loading. The curb weight was 11 t, the maximum permissible total weight 14 t. The passengers had 18 seats arranged in a compartment and 10 standing places on the platforms. Lighting and heating - the latter in the form of resistors under the benches - were electric. The two traction motors each developed 35 hp . Braking was done manually and electromagnetically, the electromagnetic brakes could be activated by the traction current as well as by the motors - in this case acting as generators . In 1931 they were replaced by compressed air brakes in the ten railcars still in existence . The power was supplied via two trolley poles , initially with grinding shoes, later with contact rollers. Despite the weak motorization, the railcars were able to carry trailer loads of approx. H. 3 passenger cars or 4 freight cars to be pulled at 15 km / h over the 40 per mil ramp in front of Chapareillan.
The 7.35 m long railcars were heavier with 12 t empty weight and with two 50 HP engines more powerful than those for passenger transport. At last they were only used in the shunting service in the depot and sold in 1938.
At the time of opening, there were 11 railcars, 2 freight railcars, 5 baggage cars with post and 1st class compartments, 10 closed passenger cars with compartments for both car classes and 10 open 2nd class summer cars. The stock of 26 freight wagons was divided into covered , open and flat wagons. In the course of the existence of the TGC, the vehicle fleet has only seen minor changes.
All vehicles - like the railcars - had an axis spacing of 2.00 m, central buffers and rod couplings with clamping devices. The compartments, including the sidecar , were electrically heated and lit. The 1st class compartment had seven seats in the baggage car and six in the closed passenger car. There was a door between the compartments of both classes; in the 2nd class there were 12 seats on wooden benches. In the summer carriage, the wooden benches held 28 people, and there were two folding seats on each of the platforms. The passenger cars were initially maroon, then painted green after the VFD took over operations. The vehicles for freight transport were artillery gray with black fittings. Central buffers and rod couplings with clamping devices. The passenger cars were initially maroon, then painted green after the VFD took over operations. The freight vehicles were artillery gray with black fittings.
The TGC rented a total of four three-axle steam locomotives of the Corpet Louvet 030T type and 40 freight wagons from the VFD for freight traffic to the sidings. In Bernin, Crolles, Le Touvet, Chapareillan and Grenoble-Polygone, water cranes and (exception: Le Touvet) slag pits, as well as coaling systems at the last two stations mentioned, were installed.
business
The summer timetable for 1900 showed 33 pairs of trains from Place Notre-Dame, but only four of them reached the terminus at Chapareillan. Three trains ended in Le Touvet, four in Crolles. 18 trains did not go beyond Saint-Ismier, the rest ended in Montbonnot-Saint-Martin, La Tronche or Île Verte. Another 11 pairs of trains ran from Place de la Gare to Île Verte station, serving seven inner-city stops in between. The travel times were based on the maximum permissible speeds: 25 km / h on an independent route, 20 km / h on country roads, 12 km / h in urban areas and 6 km / h in front of military facilities. The journey from Place Notre-Dame to Saint-Ismier took 48 minutes, to Chapareillan and vice versa about 2:45 hours.
In the 1931 summer timetable there were still 28 pairs of trains on weekdays, four of which ran to Le Touvet. One of them ran continuously to the Place de la Gare, Chapareillan was no longer approached.
Web links
- Tramway Grenoble - Chapareillans with map and numerous historical photos (French)
- Vestiges du TGC - Vallée du Grésivaudan Preserved buildings of the TGC (French)
literature
Dominique Allemand, Patrice Boullin: Le Tramway de Grenoble à Chapareillan . Imprimerie Boulevards Bouvarel Réunis, Grenoble 1985, ISBN 2-905447-02-8 .