Tramway de la Vallée d'Hérimoncourt
| Société du Tramway de la Vallée d'Hérimoncourt | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1887 |
| resolution | 1932 |
| Reason for dissolution | Cessation of operations |
| Seat |
Montbéliard France
|
| Tramway de la Vallée d'Hérimoncourt | |
|---|---|
 A train with four sidecars in Seloncourt
| |
 | |
| Route length: | 20 km |
| Gauge : | 1000 mm ( meter gauge ) |
The Société du Tramway de la Vallée d'Hérimoncourt , TVH for short , was a small train company in the Doubs department that existed from 1887 to 1932. It operated three meter-gauge railway lines around Audincourt with a total length of 20 kilometers. From the beginning both passenger and freight traffic took place. In the first three decades of the 20th century in particular, this resulted in a significant improvement in the transport infrastructure in this region .
history
The tram network was created on the initiative of the Peugot family of entrepreneurs who wanted to improve the transport of goods and personnel in the Montbéliard area . The Peugot brothers , who later became known as car manufacturers , ran an industrial plant in Hérimoncourt that was called Usine de Terre-Blanche .
On September 1, 1883, it was decided to build a steam tram line from Audincourt to Hérimoncourt . This seven-kilometer line went into operation on Sunday, June 26, 1887. Plans published on the same day announced the construction of a line from Audincourt to Valentigney, two kilometers away . This line was inaugurated on November 1, 1888 and one year later it was extended by four kilometers to Beaulieu (now the eastern district of Mandeure ). Only in 1924/1925 was another extension to Mandeure put into operation. In 1895, in the eighth year of operation, 167,340 passengers and 27,857 tons of freight were carried. The winter timetable of 1897 lists seven daily train pairs, five of which cover the entire route and two cover the section between Montbéliard and Valentigney.
In 1904 another line opening was celebrated, that of the eight-kilometer-long Montbéliard line, on which Sochaux was also located. Eight years later, Peugeot's large assembly plant was opened here. In 1909, the Compagnie des chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM) expanded the facilities of the Montbéliard train station.
In the years 1915 and 1916, the number of passengers had tripled compared to 1895, while the tonnage of goods had increased five to six times. This increase in traffic came from all industries in the region. The increase in recent years was mainly due to the aircraft engine and submachine gun factories located here and the opening of the Montbéliard – Sochaux – Audincourt railway line.
With the increase in road traffic in the early 1930s, the tram was increasingly perceived as a traffic obstacle, especially because of the routing on one side of the street. The downfall of the railway is not least due to the pressure of the nearby Peugeot works in Sochaux. The board of directors of Peugeot Frères decided on March 1, 1932, to set up bus routes for their works traffic. The last trips on June 1, 1932 - on this memorable day were free for everyone.
business
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The company's headquarters were in Montbéliard, right next to the PLM train station. There was not only a workshop but also the administrative offices of the TVH. The rolling stock consisted of eight tram locomotives with a C wheel arrangement, which had been delivered between 1886 and 1913. Six of them were from Blanc-Misseron production , one from the Netherlands, and a German tank locomotive with the wheel arrangement C. In 1923 the fleet was expanded to include two tank locomotives with the wheel arrangement C1 'from Baldwin . A train consisted of a locomotive, which was driven by a driver and a stoker, and usually three or four sidecars, on Sundays up to six. There was also a conductor and a loading conductor on board.
The passenger cars with a wooden structure and open platforms at the ends of the cars also came from Blanc-Misseron. A central aisle divided the two rows of wooden benches with a total of 32 seats. In winter, hot water was used to heat the compartments with the help of iron heat pipes, which was changed in Audincourt. The interior lighting worked with oil lamps . There was a mail car that ran mornings and evenings, twice a day, on behalf of the PTT , thus ensuring the mail was transported along the route.
A station master was on site in all places with a train station . In addition to the ticket office, there was often a room in these buildings that was used to run a café or restaurant.
The route lay in subgrade on the left or right side of the street. The grooved rails were easily filled with road dirt, which, together with the narrow track, led to frequent derailments. These accidents often ended in a shop, bar window, gardens, or toilet block.
environment
Already at the end of June 1868 the railway line from Montbéliard to Delle via Audincourt and Morvillars was opened, which met in Montbéliard with the Dole – Belfort railway line completed ten years earlier . In 1904, the Compagnie du Tramway Beaucourtois added the four-kilometer-long Dasle-Beaucourt-Beaucourt Ville line, which was to be closed in the same year as the TVH routes. One year after the First World War on August 6, 1913, the 16-kilometer Belfort – Sochaux tram was added, enabling a trip to the capital of the Territoire de Belfort of the same name . This line was also discontinued for passenger traffic in 1938 and completely discontinued in 1940.
Web links
- Le TVH Tramway de la vallée d'Hérimoncourt (Doubs) (French)
- Claudio Filipponi: La Société du Tramway de la Vallée d'Hérimoncourt (TVH) (French)
Individual evidence
- ^ Claudio Filipponi: La Société du Tramway de la Vallée d'Hérimoncourt (TVH). In: binarimorti.altervista.org. Retrieved June 29, 2016 .
- ↑ Patrimoine: Hérimoncourt - Usine de Terre-Blanche. In: www.patrimoine-pays-de-montbeliard.fr. Retrieved June 29, 2016 .
- ↑ Les Chemins de Fer Secondaires de France 90: Département du Territoire de Belfort. (French) ( Memento from January 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Bernard Petit: Territoire de Belfort Chemins de Fer d'Intérêt Local (French)