Vivarais
My first experience of French narrow gauge was on a camping holiday about twenty years ago. Actually it was a pretty boring trip - we were near Aurillac which is a kind of semi-arid Keswick (sorry Keswick!) right in the middle of the country. But I made an overnight drive on my own across to the Rhone valley near Valence to see if it was any better around there and I wasn't disappointed.
This was the engine I found simmering at Tournon in the Ardeche at about seven on a sunny morning - Chemin de Fer de Vivarais number 404. Now one of the most interesting preserved lines in Europe, it was once a part of a huge metre gauge secondary network that criss-crossed the whole of France.
404 is an 0-6-0 0-6-0 Mallet and every morning takes a train from the banks of the Rhone at Tournon up to Lamastre in the hills - about a 20 mile climb. Part of the route is even over the SNCF freight line on dual gauge - what more could a gricer reasonably expect?
posted by Iain @ 3:26 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
That bit about dual gauge on the SNCF bit reminds me of God's Wonderful Railway (GWR) which Brunel originally had at 7ft gauge and had to change it to 4'-8½". Legend has it he did it in a weekend, or was it dual gauge for a while?
Hi Iain.
I am so glad to see that there are still some mallet type steam locomotives puffing about these days. That is a fine photograph of a beautiful locomotive.
The French people would proboubly despise me for saying this...But that locomotive actually looks somewhat American in appearance.
That loco is beautiful and powerful.
Nice photograph.
Eddie
http://eddiesrailroad.blogspot.com
Another interesting thing about that loco is the way the cylinders are angled. Normally the slide valve would be set vertically above the piston. But this arrangement must need an oddly cranked link motion or extended crankpins. How is the crosshead set up? Anyone got a picture of the detail? I'd like to see it.
Heh!Heh! I think it's the American locomotives that probably look like the French ones Eddie! Now let me see ... Gustave Mallet ... where did he hail from?
Tose cylinders are angled to squeeze under the footplate on bends and still be accessible for repair - actually the valve gear itself is all square.
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