A French Narrow Gauge Adventure

[Tonysmedley]

If any of you are going in the direction of the French-Spanish border this year, try and fit in a trip to the Artouste narrow gauge railway.
It is one of the most spectacular in Europe but little known to Brits.
The gauge is 500 mm (about 18" )
You park near the terminus and go by cable car several thousand feet up the side of a steep valley to the railway terminus. The trains have open sided coaches with very little to keep you in and are hauled by small diesel locos. Almost immediately you go through a lengthy tunnel which brings the line out on the opposite side of the mountain at 6,000 feet up on the slopes of a VERY steep sided valley. The line then snakes its way along on shelves cut into the rock face for around 5 miles. before finishing just short of a large dam for the construction of which the railway was originally built. You can walk up to the dam and its reservoir. The railway continues into a tunnel to serve the valve gear for the dam.
The views all the way are spectacular and the drop to the valley floor almost terrifying! I have no doubt that in the UK the railway would have been closed on Health and Safety grounds long ago. There is very little to stop you jumping out of a train on the move if you were so foolish and you wonder what British children would be like compared with the generally well behaved French youngsters.
I am writing this partly because surely it can’t be long before the Eurocrats catch up with this have they have caught up with so many parts of the heritage railway scene here and banned everything they can!
It would make an interesting MSTS route from the scenic point of view but not much room for additional activities,. The line is essentially a single way route between two stations.
To get to the Artouste you travel South from Pau on the D934 towards S[pain. The road climbs steeply past a number of dams before reaching reservoir which is also a leisure resort. On the other side of the lake, driving round the head of the lake is a modern complex, with hotels, shops and the cable car station. You are now well up into the mountains, but the Artouste is several thousand feet higher, by way of the cable car..

[andrewtoplis]

We went on the Petit Train de l'Haut Quercy in the Dordogne this summer. That also had open carriages (ie doors but no glass in the window space), and is at 1 in 50 almost all the way! By the time the engine had pulled us up the whole carriage was coated in a layer of ash!

Andy

[davvydo]

both sound like fantastic route !
any pictures ?

[Tonysmedley]

Unfortunately I cannot locate my photos of the Artouste route, but see below.

Two other French narrow gauge routes which you really ought to try and see are

The La Mure line from St George de Commiers to La Mure, South of Grenoble. 1 metre gauge This is an electrically worked line of around 19 miles with an average gradient of 1 in 30 which twists and turns up to the top of a plateau where there were once anthracite mines. The line was built to bring the coal down, the road being impossible. There are 7 viaducts, 5 major bridges and 18 tunnels. At one point the line runs high above a vast reservoir, about 1,000 feet below, on a series of narrow shelves linked by tunnels. The train stops here and elsewhere on the route for you to get out and admire the views and the almost sheer drop to the water. When the line was built it was necessary to bring in the French army to shell the cliffs from the other side of the valley until they had blasted out enough space to create working faces to which men were lowered from above. have a look at the following link - sorry about the length of the address, just COPY and PASTE it into the web address box.


http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... BMure%26hl

The Little Yellow Train of the Pyrenees. Run by the SNCF, a metre gauge line with steep grade, sharp curves and spectacular views of the Pyrenees. Electric with a third rail and some open topped coaches. At the lower end the nearest large place is Perpignan linked by a standard gauge line. The ng route is around 40 miles long and it is worth doing half the route if youbwant to save expense and time. The upper terminus at LaTour de Carol has tracks of 1 metre, standard gauge and the larger Spanish gauge in the station!

The web site link is

http://www.countrycousins.co.uk/yelltren.htm

The following link gives some views of the Artouste or look in Google> advanced search> Artouste train. Many of the links are in French but there is an automatic translation function, which can give some amusing turns of phrase!

http://translate.google.com/translate? en&sl=fr&u=http://www.pyrenees-pireneus.com/VISITE ... _qdr%3Dall

hope this is of interest

Tony

[Tonysmedley]

Another good link to the Artouste line - with photos

http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... _qdr%3Dall

[andrewtoplis]

davvydo - pm me with your email and I can send some. Forgot to say its standard gauge tho!

[Tonysmedley]

For the amusement of readers, here is an extract of the automatically translated description of a journey on the Artouste line

"With close to have crossed the tunnel with the gauge of the train over a 315 meters length, we lead to the green valley of Soussouéou. The line extends on 10 km length, on left bank of this one.
Along the course one can admire at the season the wild flowers, or the wild fruits. Rhododendrons, irises, bilberries, raspberries follow you throughout this voyage in a landscape of postcard.
The way in the train (to go) lasts a little less than one hour when, we arrive finally.
Park Lake Artouste terminus, announces to us the head of station in his microphone.
Rise towards the lake the staircase with the back of the train.
Between the station of the lake altitude 1914 meters and the lake him even, there are 77 meters of made uneven (altitude 1991 m )
A one hour pause twenty minutes enables us to rejoin the lake (with fifteen minutes of walk) and to discover the lake of 75 hectares which extends to the foot from prestigious peaks, Pallas, Lurien, and Ariel which are reflected in its pure water, crystalline and deep, where one can observe trouts and ombles knights.
The hour of the return is already there, it is necessary to join the station where the train awaits its passengers for a voyage moreover. Although the way is the same qu ' with the outward journey, the landscape seems different.
The kilometers ravel. Already the tunnel.

I L is careful to reserve and carry a woolly, because we are in high mountain."