civil affairs handbook france section 11 and 12

8/4/2019 Civil Affairs Handbook France Section 11 and 12

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ARMY SERVICE FORCES MANUALo

CIVIL AFFAIRS HANDBOOKFRiANCE

SECTION 11 &12: TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS WITHA SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE

ON C O M M U N ~ ~ O ~ . S ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ? ' ..,\115UU "'-- 1'.- . ~

t a i ned in res t r ic tedOi sse min at i on 0 f res t r ic ted mat t e r . - The i nfo r mat ion c on

docume n tsa,n d the essent ia l c h a r act e r is t i c s of res t r ic tedmater ia l may.be given to an y person known to be in th e serv ice o f th e UnitedStates andt 0 per son s of undoubted l oya l t y and d is c re t ion ' who are coo per a t in gin Government work, but wi 11 not be commun icated to the publ ic or to the pressexcept :by author ized mi l i t a ry pub l i , c re l a t i ons agencies. (See also par. 23b,AR 380-5', 15 Mar 1944.)

HEA0QUA RTERS, ARM Y SERVI CE FOR CES, 13 JULY 1944


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ARMY SERVICE FORCES MANUAL M35211'&12Civil Affairs

CIVIL AFFAIRS HANDBOOK

FRANCESECTION 11 &12': TRANSPORTAYION SYSTEMS W!ITHA SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE

ON COMMUNICATIONSEC ? E&

HEADO UART ERS, ARM Y SE RYICE FOR CES, 13 JULY 1844

.81 . Dillomiruilof'l of f"cutrleted mltters m Tho l"formAtlcHl COM""taln@d In r @ ~ t r l e t e d dOCUM@nifi And the [email protected] e h a r l e t . r l ~ t l e l of F@ltrlQtedmIt (u' i A1 m y beg I vc"n to A" Y I:hH"."" kno \it" t () bg in t @ Ut f v leo 0f the U" I t dSt i t ;U {HIdt 0 per CHII 0 f u" d0 Ybted loy I 1t Y i " d d II eH' et 10 f't W~ i r leo 0 @ I" ~ i n9In a ~ \ I @ r r t m e n t work, but wi l l Rot be eommun IClted to the public OF to the !)lSIIxcep tby i y t h g r l ~ @ d m l l i t A r y publlc rol . l loru I ~ e " e l @ l i e (Se@ ftl!H} IHH'f '?3b,AR 3tH.) '" , I Mil I" I 9 ~ P )


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NUMBERING SYSTEM OFABMY snVI CE FORCES MANUALS

The main subject matter of each Army Serviee Forces Manual is indicated by consecutive numbering within the following categories:Ml - M99 Basic and Advanced TrainingM100 - M199 Army Specialized Training Progrem and Pre-Induction 'TrainingM20C - M299 Personnel and MoraleM300 - M399 Civil AffairsM400 - M499 Supply and TransportationM500 - M599 Fiscal

M600 - M699 Procurement and ProductionM700 - M799 Admin! etre.tionMaOO - M899 MiscellaneousM900 - up Equipment, Materiel, Housing and Construction

lmADQ,UARTERS, ARMY SERVICE FORCESWashington 25, D. C. 13 July 1944Army Service ForcelManual M.352 - 11 & 12, Transportation Systems in

France, has been prepared under the supervision of The Provost MarshalGeneral, and is published for the information and guidance of a l l concerned

C=SPX 461 (21 Sep 4 3 ) . ~ By command of Lieutenant General SOMERVELL:

w. D. STYER,Major General, General Staff Corpe,. Chief of Staff.

OFFICIALJ. A. ULIO,M ~ j o r General,Adjutant General.


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INTRODUCTION

P1ITpOSeS of the Civil Affairs Ifandhook.International La:wplaces upon an o c c l l ' ! 1 ~ r i n r power the obligationand respot:lsibilit:,r for establishing goverrL'nent and maintaining- ',civilorder in the areas occupied.The basic pnrposes of civil affairs officers are thus (1) to ass is t the C o n ~ a n d i n g General of the conbat'units by quickly establishingthose orderlJ?' conditions which viill contribute most effectivelv to theconduct of military operations, (2) to reduce to a minimum the"hUI:lansuf,f"erinr and the material damage resulting from disorder and (3) tocreate the conditions which will rnakeit possible for civilian agencies

to function effectively. 'The preparation of Civil Affaira Handbooks is apar t of the effort of the ~ ' r a r Department to carry out this obligation as efficiently and,hlmanely as is possib,le. The Handbooks do not deal. withplanninr orpolicy. They are rather ready reference source books of the basicfactval information needed for planning and polipy makinr. For thesereasons, i t should be clear that the data contained in this section

00es not imply any riven program of action.Revision for Final Puhlication.

Significant area information is irx1ediately needed (a ) for civi l. affairs ' officers charred with p o l i c ~ T makincand planning , (b) for theuse of civil affairs o f f i c e r R ~ i n - t r a i n i n E and (c) to 8D.ke certa.in thatorranizeel data is in hand, vlheneverevents requirei t .Arrangements were therefore made with the cooperating arencies to organize a ll irrJl1ediately available material in accordance l '!j i th a pre pared outline. Hence, this section on T r a n s ~ o r t a t i o n Systems in Franceshould be cons'id,ered a preliminary drE!!1. Because the complete sectionon Cor.nm.mications is not now available, .a note onCormm.ll1ications hasbeen appended to this section on Trans.portation S:ystems. . I f time per

~ i t s , there will be a revision of Section XI on Transportation Systemsand a separate section (XII) on Communications vIil1 beavailable la ter .

OFFICERS USING THIS MATERIAL ARE R E ( ~ U E S T E D TO MAKE SlTGGESTIONS ANDCRITICISTvlS INDICATING TI-m REVISIONS OR ADDITIONS WHICH WOULD MAKE THISrrl1\.TERIAIJ MORE USEFUL FOR THEIR FURPOS'ES. T l r F S ~ ~ CRITICISNS SHOUIJD BE SENTr.ro THE CHIEF, SURVEY AND R E : : a : ~ A J . t t C H SECTION, MILITARY GOVERNMENT DIVISION,P ~ M . G . O . , 2805 MUNITIONS BUILDING, W i ~ S r r I N G T O N , D. C. (OR PHONE WAR DEPARTMm-JT ,E:X:TEESION 76370).


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1 . Geographical and Social Background2 . Government and Administration3. Legal Affairs4. Government Finance5. Honey and Banking6. Natural Resources7 II . Agriculture8. Industr-J and Commerce9. Labor

10. Public Works and Uti l i t ies11. Transportation Systems12. Communications13. Public Health and Sanitat ionl l ~ . Public Safety15. Education16. Public Welfare

ijd 22


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' .,. ' ,-...,TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS--FRANCE(WITH A-NOTE ON GOMMUNICATIONS)

CONTENTS' " 'PageI . Transportation Systems, 1!. B . a i ~ o a d S , . 1

(1) Administration 1' (a) French administration 1(b) Gerlllancontrol 2(2) General Considerations 2(a). C 1 e e . r a n c ~ 2(b) Ga'Uge 2,.(c) 'Motive power 2,

f. Electric power 2i i . Steam.Tractivepower :3(d) Lubrican'ts 3


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'.

v ii . F : r e : t ~ h t t r e . f r i c 10(b) The Eastern Region 121. General 12i i Tracks 13l i i . .Axle loads 13iv . Gradients 14v. Sheds, viorks, marshalling yards 14v i . Passenger t raff ic l4v l i . Freight t raff ic 15(c) The Southeastern Region 161. General 16i i Tracks 17i i i . Electrified l ines 17iv . Axle loads 17v. Gre.dients lSvi . Sheds ,works , marshalling yards 18v i i . Passenger t raff ic . IS

vi i i . Freight trai 'flc 19(d) The Southwes.tern Region 21i. General . 21,i i . Track 22i i i . Electrified l ines 24i v. Axle loads v. Gradients 24

v i . Sheds, works and 'marshal1ing;)rards . 24vi i . Passepger Traffic 25v i i i . Freight t raff ic 2;(e) The Western Region 26i. General: 26i i . Track 27i i i . Electrified l ines 27"1v. Axle loads 28,v . Gradients 28vi . S ~ d s , w o r k s , m a r s h a l l i n g yards 28vi i . Passenger t raff ic 28.( i ) Paris suburba.n 29 '(11) International 29( i i i ) Seaside' resorts 29

., (iv) Miscellaneous 29'nii. Fremght .t raff ic . 30

(4) Railways in the Paris Area 31(;) Supplemental Note on Railcar and Rai1way . opera.ted. Road;Service 36

12. Motor Transportation 3S(1) AdJnillistl!ation' 38( ~ Hignway.System 39(3) Mileage 43(4) Construction . ~ ; ~ ; ~ " ~ ~ j ~ 0 f ~ r . ~ , , . 44. . . . . . . . . )"h . / . ; , , ! . ; . ! ~


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; ' ~ " .

(a)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f)

Sur fac P.Curves and GradiantsGamber )ShouldersBridgesLevel crossings

(5). Snow Blockades() Motor Tra.nsport Facili t ies

.Q.. Internal VJa terways a ~ Canals(1) Extent(2) Class1r,"cation(3) Fleet(4) Administration

( ~ ) ' E a s t e r n W a t e r V T a ~ (d) Southern Waterwaysi . SaSne -Rh8rie'system

1i i ' . Garonne-Midi systemi i i . Adour r iver(e) Loire System(f) WesternWaterways

g. . Civil Aviation;"(-1')' \I\dministrat.ion

(a) Central AdministrRtion(b) Field Services(c) Military AviationCd). National Meteorological ~ r i c e

44,46~ . 464647474S4S4849

495050505052545454545454545455555?555556565656565757


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Airfields and SeapJ1::i.ne .Base:s t;7:'Flight Hazards' 58Radio Facil i t ies: ;,',Air Traffic Centres ;8C o m m e r c i t ? ~ l Air T r R n s p o t ' - t a ; t i ~ . 59'{ a } R ~ g i e ' Air A f : r i ~ t t e " ;'9i;(b) , A e r o m a r i t : f . m ~ , . ,


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ITE?" J D . ~ .nl' l TRANSPORTATION S Y S T E m : - - ~ F R A . N C E

.!.. Railroads(1) Administration

(a) French Administration. The main railroad l ines in .Franc e t are operated by- the French National Railroad Compart'(Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer - S.N.C.F.), an autonomousgovernment corporation, organized on January 1, 1938 throUghthe amalgamation of the tour formerly private and two governmentowned railroad systems. Prior to this date the railroads were'operated by the following companies: Etat , !lsace-Lorraine, Nord.,Est, Paris-Orleans, Midi, Paris-Lyone-Mediterranee, and Ceinture.In addition to the lines operated by the S.N.C.F. there are anumber or private railroads, both standard and narrow gauge.

Thenat10nall ines are divided into five geographic regions:Northern; Eastern, Southeastern, Southwestern, and Western. Theadministratfon of the national and private railroads is controlledby the Secretaire d'Etat aux Communications. A Direction G 1 t n ~ r a 1 e des Transports in 'the Secretary's office supervises the DirectionoJ,n'rale desChemina de Fer, which i s in charge of the actual. management of the national railroads. I t has the following divi:"sions: (1) e c r ~ re Generale


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of operation, ways and structures and equipmen't. All lower agenciesreport to the Chef de IDArrondissement. In the second case, an I!! specteur PrinCiiale de l 'exploitation is responsible for.operationalmatters, an Ing nieur de voie for ways and structures, and an Ingltnieurde traction for equipment and operation. The, lower agencies reporl tothe official responsible for their particular type of work.

(b) German Control. There have been no reports that the GermanMilitary authorities have ohanged the administrative organization ofthe French railroads The Direotion Mn&rale and the Directions Rbgionalesare s t i l l in charge of operating the national railroads. , I tis reported, however, that during the f i r s t period of occupation ending November, 1942, temporary headquarters were se t up in Limoges forhandling matters concerning the then Unoccupied Zone. This agencyhas probably been discontinued.

The German authorit ies have, howe'\ter, exerted great influence by'less direct methods upon railroad operation, equipment distr ibutionand other matters. Under the 1940 armistice terms Germany had direct'control of the two important l ines to Bordeaux and thei r continuationto the Spanish border a t Hendaye. A large part of the French 'equipment was requisitioned for German purposes. At present, a l l ra i ltransportation is directed solely in the interest of the German wareffort .(2) General Gonsiderations (See Table I)

(a) Clearance. The European rai lroads have adopted by agreementthe same clearance for equipment on a l l main l ines . French railwaysparticipate in the agreement. This clearance is larger than the Brit i sh, but smaller than the American standard.

(b) Gauge. Nearly a l l national l ines in France are standardgauge (4 feet 8t inches). '(c) Motive Power

i . Electric Power. One-third of French coal conswnptiop1s imported, and the avera.ge annual consumption by the railways from '1921 to 1936 was 11 million tons; the use of hydro-electric power byrailroads is , therefore, of v ita l importance. Before 1914 about ,60miles of electr ic l ines were inexistence. In 1920 a considerableprogram of e l e c t r i f i c ~ i o n was planned but was suspended after thecompletion of only the Modane-ChamMry, Paris-Vierzon sections. After1931 the program was resumed; the portionseompleted were on the ParisOrleans-Midi system between Paris and Hendaye and on the Etat systemthe main l ine between Paris and La Mans. By '1939,2,045 mies of mainl ine were electr if ied in addition to about 500 miles of local l ines.The largest of the local l ines was the Haute...Viennes system operatingabout 236 miles centerine on Limoges. The most important of the local


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- :3 -electrif ied l ines i s the Paris Metro which is considered la ter .According to 'recent reports the Brive Montauban section of theLimog,s-Toulouse l ine 1s scheduled for' completion by December,194.3. The Paris-Toulouse l ine would then be entirely electrif ied.

The French, system of electrification is differenttrom thatin use on most l ines in Germany, Austria and Switzerland which,operate' on 15,000 volt AC 1/16 2/2 cycles single phase current,and from the Italian system which operates for the most part on.3,700 volt DC current.

(r) Ballast and standards of Roadbed Construction 0 Measurements of typically constructed roadbeds on main lines are as follows:


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- 4 ~ Double-track l ines Single-track linesMeters Feet Meters Feet

Formation width 31.63 6.97 19.91Ballast width a t the base 28 .35 5.07 16.63Ballast a t the r o a d w ~ platformDepth of the Ballast 23.431.6 3.570.5 11.711.6

For the most part crUshed f 'lint is used as ballast. Where thisi s not available crushed stone at other types or bricks are used. Cinders are used on' lines ad jaC,ent .to roundhouses.

(g) Ties. Wooden t ies are used almost exclusively. They areusually at oak or creosoted beech, although sultated pine is usedon the former Midi system. Concrete t ies were used during the f irst ,Wo:rld War, but have largely been replaced by wooden t ies . Steel t iesare used on some of the high-speed express l ines. In general t ies arespaced a t the rate ot 14 per 100 feet or ra i l , although in recent years the -tendenCy bas been to lay 16 and -18 per 100 feet of rail.

(h) ~ i. Types of Rail. A high proportion ot rai ls wi.th doubleheads are s t i l l in use, particularly on the former Midi lines, althoughmany have been replaced with rai l s ,of the v1gnole type.i i . Weight at Hai!. The weight of' r a i l for France in 1935was as followst

-Length of Track WeightKilometers Miles Ky. per meter the. Per Yd.26,000 16,156 30 - 38 68-. 8514,115 8,790 44 46 95 -10012,5.30 7,780, 46 1007,610 4,128 J.B 1051,130 7,021 50 110335 2,082 52 135In 1935 "the average weight was comparatively low, but the proport ion .of heavy rails has increased since heavy types have been used in

a l l relaying ot track on main lines . i i i . Length of Rail. and Joints. The length of ra i l variesfrom 40 to 80 teet . Joints are squared, that is the joints of the two

ra i ls of the track exe directly-opposite each other rather than staggered as in the Un!ted States, -and 6 bolt joints (1% - 37 inches)are used when heavy rails are la id . 'Smaller joints are used to rl ighter ra i ls .


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(i) Maintel1ance of Ways. and structure. Prior to the outbreakof war the French railroads were maintained in a good state of repair . After the German o c c u ~ a t i o n th e degree of maintenance wasprimarily determined ~ the amount of steel and labor available.

I t has already been noted that the Germans ordered the removalof rai ls on various l ines for use elsewhere. I t is possible thatthe French used the same device in southern France during the monthsafter the armistice when sufficient manpower was available. Reportsindioate that the state of repair on the main l ines is satisfaotory,although feeder lines have undoubtedly been neglected.l3 ) Bridges and Tunnels. In the mountainous regions of theAlps and the Massif Central, as well as in the areas of large rivers,the railroad lines. oross a great number of bridges and viaducts. Theyare buil t ot. stone and ooncrete, as well as of iron and steel.. The region also includes a large number of tunnels.(k) Signal System. In many respects. the signal system of t he 'French railroads is different from methods in use elsewhere. Signalson most of the lines have been adjusted to meet the provisions of thenew cOde established in 1934. The main characteristics of the Frenchsignal s,ystem may be summarized as follows:Prior to 1934 red and whi:te s q ~ e discs and red round discs aswell as semaphores were used for various types at home signals, greenand white square discs for approach (distant) signals, green discsfor reduced-speed signals and yellow discs for switching signals. Awhite l ight indicated "clear", green "caution", and red "stop". Ayellow l ight on switching signals indicated "stop".Under the new signal system semaphores are preferred for homee.1gne.ls, although the red and white square and the red round discs

are s t i l l in use for this p u r p o s ~ . Yellow square discs are now usedfor approach signals, yellow triangles pOinted upward ,for reduced speedsignals, and purple squares for awitching signala. A green l ight indicates "clear", yellow "oaution", and red "stop". A purple l ight onswitching signals indicates "stop".On s e m a p h o r ~ s the blades indicate "stop" when movEd up to a 90angle and "olear" when at 00 (on the Paris-Lyons-Medit e r r a n ~ e , 4'f' inthe lower quadrant). 00 refers to the bottom of the oircle; a t thatpoint the blade i s covered by the signal post. The blades are neve;t moved into the upper quadrant, and are always moved l e f t (clockwise)from 00 At night one l ight shows on semaphores. Usually more thanone l ight shows on disc signals. Color-light signals for both day .

and night use had been installed only on the l ines around Bordeauxin 1937. Direction indicators, ' consisting of the neoessar,y numberof blades arranged 'in fish t a i l shape, are used in addition to home


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signals when routes in more than one direction are' indicated. Theydo not show l ights . Signals are always located on the lef.t side oft4e track.

Automatic t rain control i s yddely uRed. Block systeXis of varioustypes are in operation on the main Paris-Lyons-Mediterranee and parisO r l e a n s ~ M i d i l ines. A completely automatic block system'is used on thel ines where color-l ight signals are insta l led. Interlocking plants areinstalled in many si tuations. In large centers they are operated byelectrici ty or other types of power. Illumined diagrams of the stationor of the interlocking zone indicating the position of the switcheshave been installed in some control towers Electricity and acetyleneare replacing kerosene to some extent for th e l ighting of signals andswitches.

(1) New Construction. There are no reports of new constructionof any importance undertaken or completed since the outbreak of war.However, in the Bordeaux area the connections to the coast have beenimproved, 6 l ines for the conveyance of gravel and concrete havingbeen buil t from a point, l? km. southwest of Pauillac to the CoastalZone between La Verdon and Lacarau.(m) Locomotive "and PL()l l ing Stock Equipment. (See Table I) Lit t leis known concerning the exact amount of railway rolling stock availablein France prior to the 1940 collapse. According to a Brit ish report onthe eve of the armistice,France possessed about 16,000 locomotives and

454,000 freight cars. However, French official figures in 1938 reported17,235 steam locomotives,' 499,923 f re ight cars, and 31,1/.1 passengercars. Undoubtedly,. the volume of rolling stock continued to declinefrom 1937 to 1940.There i s less discrepancy in the estimates of th e amount of roll ingstock los t to. Germany. The Brit ish estimate that the railways los t4,500 or 28 percent of the i r locomotives, and 181,000 or 40 percent oftheir freight cars. Of the locomotives, 1,500 were los t to Alsace- .Lorraine; 85, 000 were requisitioned and sent to Germany; and 57 , (Joo weresent to Germany in the regular course'of railroad operation and neverreturned. :&;arly in 1942 the French Minister of Conununications, M. Ber

thelot , reported that 142,000 freight carS had been requisitioned. Heplaced the number of locomotives requisitioned a t 3,000. The British.report that 800 to 900 passenger coaches were taken over by Germany andthat 150,000 cars belonging to Germany and occupied countries.are in usein France.Losses of rolling stock have probably not been offset to any significan t extent by new construction, al though the French railway equipment industry is sufficiently large to permit exports of roll ing stock.


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(n) Renair Main"tencl.nce. Prior to the war French railroad equipment was malntained in a good state of repair. Maintenance i s greatlyhampered at present because of shortages 9f materials for parts. In arecent m o n ~ h the followinr percentages of the materials and parts required I',rere obtainable: steel sheets and sections, 56 percent; steeltubes, wheel t i res and sprinrs, 50 percent; lumber, 45 percent. Shortages of fire-box rivets and skid-pans are particularly acute.' Anotherserious shortage-is skilled manpOVler. A recent report from a Germansource states that the S . ~ . C . F . have succeeded in considerably sho;tening the time required for overhanlingand repairing railway wagons andthat as a result the number of waeons under repair has been reduced Qy50 nercent and the volume of transport increased. (Pariser Zeitlmg,~ m r c h 3, 1943). I t is estimated that locomotives in need of repairnumbered 18 to 19 percent of the total number of locomotives in Francein 1941. -

(0) Traffic (See Table I)i . P a s s e n g e ~ T r a f f i c . In 1942 the national railwa:rs arereported to h a ~ e carried 578.6 million passengers 23.3 billion passenger miles. Passenger t raffic is estimated as one-fifth of the pre-warlevel. The average distance travelled per passenger decreased by 16percent. Passenger train miles were seriously curtailed, supposedlyas much as 70 percent in 19LJ., with additional cuts in 1942. Thenumber of passengers per train has greatly increased and trains areseriously overcrowded.

Under the 1934 French laws coordinating rai l and road services,btlS lines discontinued services parallel to the rai l lines while rai lroads discontinued passenger services on branch l ines. Because offuel and rubber shortages, i t is probable that the buses have been unable to maintain service and that railroads have taken over the linesagain.

i i . Freight Traffic.(i) Volume of Tratfic. In 1942 the national railwaysare reported to have carried 102 million tons of freight. The supplyof freight cars, particularly box cars, has been greatly reduced. In1941 carloadings in France were about 20 percent lower than in 1938.In 1942 carloadings are estimated at least 10 percent lower than forthe preceding year. The Germans have introduced a number of methodsto increase operating efficiency,including reducing the free time forloading and unloading, increasing demurrage charges, and increasingthe permissible axle load. These measures have facilitated the handling of a greater volume of t raffic with a smaller number of cars. Theaverage earload increased from 9 metric tons in 1938 to 10.8 metrictons at the end of 1941 and 12.4 metric tons in November, 1942.

*Wherever "wagons" appears hereafter, it is to be read "cars".


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- 8 ....~ ' . ' . " ; " i ; ~ , ~ ~

(i i) Seasonal Movements" The effect of the war onseasonal movements has been to flatten out the seasonal peaks. Thisis particularly true of passenger traffic in southern France. Infreight ~ r a r f i c seasonal peaks s t i l l persist, especially in connectionwith the transport of fertilizers in the 'spring and crops in the fal l .(3) The Five Regions ..

The five regions into which the S.N.C.F. i divided, Northern,Eastern, South-Eastern, South-Western, and Western, and the Parisarea are now considered separately.(a) The Northern Region .. (See Figs. II and III)

i . General. Of the seven formerly _separate railways, theNord possessed the shortest mileage except for the A.t. system (3,796km. - 2,365 miles - of which 2,506 km. - 1,557 miles - are doubletrack), yet i ts freight traffic was greater than that of any othersystem, and i ts passenger traffic second only to that of the Etatr a i l w ~ (which lat ter obtained f i rs t place largely by reason of i tsintensive Paris suburban traffic); moreover, the network of linesreaches a greater density in the northern region than in any otherpart of France. The reason is not far to seek. The line serves thegreatest industrial region of the country, the northern coalfield,which i t links with' Paris; i t links the capita l with the channel portsof Boulogne, Galns and Dunkirk; and i ts cross-country routes, j oining up with the lines of the Eastern railway at Laon and Hirson, linkthe channel ports with Switzerland and Germany (and so' with centraland south-eastern Europe generally) and the northern coalfield withthe Lorraine ironfield.

The main trunk line runs northwards from Paris to Greil, whencetwo lines diverge, one striking north-eastwards to St. Quentin andAulnoye (for Mons and Brussels, and for Namur, L i ~ g e and Cologne),and the other northwards to Amiens, Arras, and Lille (for Ghent andAntwerp) A third main artery branches at Amiens for Boulogne andCalais, and a fourth at Arras for Dunkirk. The outermost and leastimportant of thisradia ting fan of main lines run from Paris viaBeauvais to the seaside resort of Le T r ~ p o r t , and from Paris viaSoissonsand Laon to Hirson, where connexion is ma.de with theeastern region and with the lines serving the coalfield. The mainc r o s s - e o u n t ~ lines run from Amiens to Laon (for Nancy and strasbourg or for Dijon and the Mediterranean), and from Calais via Hazebrouck to Lille and so through the heart of the coalfield to Valencienees and Hirson (for M ~ z i ~ r e s and Metz). Another connexion ofsome impgrtance runs from Amiens to Serqueux, where the Paris-Dieppeline of the'western region is crossed, continuing'thence into whatis really western region terri tory as far as Rouen, where further. connexions with the western lines are made.


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i l . Tracks. All of these l ines have double tracks withthe exception of the Paris suburban area and,like _nearly a l l nationall ines ,are standard gauge (4 feet inohes). All are steam operated.

i i i . Axle Loads. (See Fig. IV). Most of the Nord mainl ines were laid with rai ls , ballast and bridge strengths to permita 2D-ton axle-load. Moreover, much or the secondary network permitted an lS-ton axle-load, and as a resul t the northern region asa whole was far ahead or the res t of France in this respect . Twofactors have contributed to this s tate of affairs ; in the f i r s t placethe vast amount of reconstruction neoes.sary after the 1914-l8war en. abled heavier tracks to be laid and stronger bridges erect.ad, andsecondlY', the considerable coal t raff ic passing over the main l ine,especially from the coalfield to Paris and towards Lorraine, madethe provision of heavy locomotives and large freight vehicles avi ta l n e c e s s i ~ , . the technical problems of the construction ofsnchroll ing stock being rendered much easier by the high axle-loadallowed.

iv . Gradients. Max:tmum. gradients vary from 1.125 on theParis-Calais l ine to 1.200 on the Paris-Lilla and Paris Maubengel ines, the la t te r applying against southbound t rains. I t should benoted that t raff ic from Paris to Lilla avoids entering !miens, ~ passing 1t via the great junction of Longueau.v. Sheds. Works. Marshalling Yards. (See Fig. I I I ) . The

locomotive sheds (each normally accommodating more than lOOengines)are a t Valenciennes, Longueau, Hirson, Paris (La Chapelle), Lens, andDunkirk (Coudekerque). Of' these, Valenoiennes and Lens serve thecoalfield, Coudekerque serves the considel"able t raffio of the portof Dunkirk, Hirson deals with the t raf f ic to ano. from the eastern region, and La Chapelle i s the main passenger-engine shed for Paris.The main locomotive works are a t La Chapelle and Hellemmes (onthe eastern side of Lil le , adjacent to Fives); large repair shopsexis t a t Coudekerque, A m i e n ~ , Lens, Laon, Hirson, and Tergnier, withcarriage and wagon repair depots a t Pa.ris (Le Landy), Tergnier, andErmont.'rhe biggest hump-yards are at L i l 1 a - D ~ l i vranee, Longueau (thegreat junction almost in the geometrical centre of the system) andLa Bourget.

v i . Passenger Traffio. Passenger trafic on the Nordrailway in 1936, the la tes t date for which figures are available,totalled nearly 118 millions. Of these 9401% travelled 3rdclass , 5.4% 2nd class) and 0.4% 1st c1ass--but the percentage of the receipts derived from 3rd class fares was only 69, a result of thegreat importance of long-distanoe international t raff ic which wasmainly 1st and 2nd c1asse The passenger t raff ic fal ls into f iveclasses:


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(i.) Paris Suburban. The suburban and outer-suburbanservices extend as far as Pontoise (30 km.), Persan-Beaumont (37 km.),Creil (51 km.) and C r ~ p y - e n - V a l o i s (61 km.); in addition the 52km.section of the Grande Ceinture from Argenteu1l through N o i ~ - l e - S e c to Juvisy iSlforked as part of the northern.region, though. the pas.senger traffic on this line, mainly worked by railcars, is n o heav:r.. ( i i . ) International Traffic. There are four majortraffic streams: (a ) From the Channel ports - Boulogne, Calais, andDunkirk - to Paris'; from the last-named of these ports the trainferry service from\Dover, .inauguratedin 1936, enabled through c o munication, without change of vehicle, to be established betweenLondon and Paris. (b) From the Channel ports (principally Dunkirkand Calais) to Belgium (for Holland and Germany); the l ines from

Calais and Dunkirk join at Hazebrouck and traffic proceeds thenceto Lille, diverging for Ghent, Antwerp, and Amsterdam .and for Brussels,L i ~ g e , and Germany. (c) From the Channel ports to the eastern region;the chief routes are via Amiens and Laon and via Lille and Hirson.(d) From Paris to Belgium (for Holland and Germany); the main routesare via Lille to Antwerp, and via Aulnoye to Brussels and to L i ~ g e .

( i i i . ) Channel Seaside Resorts. A considerable seasonal tratficexists between Paris and Le T r ~ p o r t (served by the mainline via Beauvais), and the many "plages tt which l ie between Le Tr&portand Calais, most of which are served by light railways .or tramwaysfrom stat'-ons on the main Paris-Boulogne-Calais l ine.(iv.) Local traffic in the industrial area is notperhaps as great as might be expected, since so many of the workerslive in the " c i t ~ s o u v r i ~ r e s n adjacent to the mines and works; moreover, some of the c o l l i e ~ J companies run passenger services on theirprivate lines. There is some daily movement of workers to and froacross the Belgian frontier, for the distribution of population andof industry are l i t t le af'fectedby that frontier.(v. ) Lastly, t.here is the general and diverse passenger traffio of the rest of the system.

vii . Freight Traffic. Of a tota l traffic amounting to over51 million tons in 1936, almost 20 million tons consisted of coal andcoke, and nearly 4 million tons of iron and steel - an obvious indication of the importance of the coalfield industrial area in the economrof the Nord railway. The coalfield, 120 km. in length and 15-20 kIn.broad, e x t e n d ~ from Ligny to the Belgian frontier, and there are closeon 200 individual pits, providing nearly two-thirds of all France'scoal. The collieries have a considerable mileage of their_own railways - e.g. the Bruay concession alone has 156 km. - which contact theNord railway at thirty-five separate points which are thus the starting


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- 1 1

points of the coal traffic. Only about one-third of the output ofcoal is used locally in the coke ,ovens, iron and _steel works, powerstations, and factories, the remaining two:-thirds being sent out ofthe area. or the quantity sent out, about three-quarters travelsby ra i l and one-quarter by wateI'Way. The tonnage of coal receivedby the railway from the collieries has reached 50,000-100,000 tonsper day in recent years. '

Some preliminary sorting of the laden wagons according to destination is done at the larger contact stations, e.g. Lourches, Billyliilontigny, but five main marshalling yards collect the traffic and passi t on, much of i t in ~ o m p l e t 8 ' trainloads, to the Paris area and elsewhere. The greatest of these is Lille-La D ~ l i v r e . n c e , a huge modernhump-yard with a capacity of some 7, 000 wagons per day. Smaller onesexist at Valenciennes (capacity 1,000-1,500 wagons per day),the maincentr.e for traffic passing to the eastern region, Douai (capacity1,000-1,400 per day), in the heart of the industrial region, Somainand Lens.

There are ,four groups of destinations for the coal traffic. Thechief is the Paris ares., where the huge modern marshalling yard a tLe Bourget (capacity 7,000-8,000 wagons per day) receives the coaltrains and passes on wagons to the other great traffic centres in theParisian outer girdle - A c h ~ r e s , Juvisy; and Villeneuve. Secondly,coal traffic goes via A u l n ~ e and Hirson to the eastern region,wherei ts principal destination is the Lorraine ironfield. Thirdly, thereis a miscellaneous group of places, such as the Channel ports (wherehowever, English or Welsh coal tends to undersell the French product),Longueau marshalling yard (whenoe the coa.l goes via. Rouen to the western region), and Tergnier yard (for Reims and the eastern region).Fourthly, coal (mainly household tJrpe) moves across the frontier intoBelgium - and incidentally Belgian coking coal moves into France alongthe same lines; no less than nine lines (five of them double track)lead across the frontier between Tourcoing on the west and ~ ~ u b e u g e on the east.

The Paris traffic is routed e:f.\ther by Lourches-Busigny-St. Quentin,or by Arras and Longueau, though in times of particularly heavy traffiothe Douai-Cambrai-Chaulnes route has also been used. A special fleetof "decapod" engines (class 5.1200) was built to work this traffic,some of which passes in complete train loads to the Paris gasworks andpower stations. This traffic is probably on the deoline owing to theincreased use by Paris of hydro-electric power transmitted from theCentral FAassif. The traffic to Lorraine is not so likely to diminish,but the operation of this section is more di.ffioultowing to the aoc!dented character ot the Hirson route, which reduces by as much as 300400 tons thecapacity of individual trains.


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The Nord railway also carried more foodstutfs than any otherrailway; in 1936 this traffic amounted to over 5 million tons, ofwhich nearly hal f consisted of cereals and flour. The reasons forthis heavy'traffic are not far to seek. In the first place the lineserves the richest agricultural region of France, and considerablequantities of cereals and of sugar-beet thus travel by rai l ; secondly,i t serves the two greatest agglomerations of population in France,Paris and the northern ,industrial region, and, moreover, links boththese urban areas with the principal northern freight port of Dunkirk,through which pass considerable quantities of imported foodstuffs;t h i r d l y ~ though this hardly accounts for a very great tonnage, i tserves, Francets chief fishing port, Boulogne, which is the point oforigin of a valuable and regular service of refrigerated vans c a r ~ ing fish to the Paris region and beyond. Other commodities in thecarriage of which the Nord r a i l ~ B . y held f i rs t place are timber, "stones"and lime (including cement). The timber is largely pit-props for theooalfield, the tlstones" include building stones from the Tertiary limestones of the Oise valley, road metal from the old rocks of the Maubeugearea, and limestone for blast furnaces, and the lime and cement - to theextent of about one-third of the entire French output - are derived fromthe huge works which abound in the Chalk and Portland limestone regionsextending from the Channel coast to the upper Oise valley.

(b) The Eastern Region. (See Figs. V and VI)i. General. This division of the S.N.C.F. comprises theformer E s railway and the state-operated A.L. lines, together totalling some 7,078 km. (4,398 miles) of l ine, of which 5,435 km. (3,377miles) are double track. Both the Est and the A.L. had a considerable. freight traffic, due very largely to the division of the Lorraine ironfield between the two systems and to the considerable coal and coketraffic from the Ruhr and from northern France which the Lorrainesmelting' industry engendered. The eastern region is thus easily themost important freight-carrying part of the French national railways;

i t is second only to the western region in the matter of passengers.The main lines of the eastern region are not so simply arrangedas those of the northern region. The two main radial lines divergea t Noisy-le-Sec, just outside Paris; one runs via Chalons-sur-Marne,Nancy and Saverne to Strasbourg, and the other via Troyes, Chaumontand Belfort to Basle (Switzerland) Three important lines diverge,from the f i rs t of these: one from near Meaux to Reims, 1 1 ~ z i ~ r e s

C h a r l e v i l l e , L o n ~ o n and Luxembourg; one from Chalons to Verdun and. Metz and a t h i ~ from Lerouville to M ~ t z and thence across the Germanfrontier to SaarbrUcken. The M e z i e r e s - L o n ~ o n section of the ParisLuxembourg line forms in addition a part of the important link betweenthe northern coalfield and the Lorraine ironfield, the remaining portions of which are H i r s o n - M ~ z i ~ r e s and Longuyon-Thionville; this route


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i s also used by passenger expresses trom Dunkirk and Calais to Basle.There are three main north-south routes which cro'ss and l ink the majoreast-west trunk l ines. The Laon-Chalons-Chaumont-ls-sur-Tille linelinking the northern "and south-eastern regions has already been described. A second is the Luxembourg-Thionville-Metz-Nancy-Neuf'chateauIs-sur-Tille l ine; a third is a branch of' this , linking Nanc,y withEpinal and Lure (for Beltort), whilst the main .l ine of' the :former A.L.system runs .from Basle through Mulhouse and Colmar to Strasbourg, thencef'orking to Sarreguemines (for Saarbrticken) and Wissembourg (for GermanRhineland) Although scarcely part of' the main-line network, the two transVosges l ines, constructed since the 1914-18 war to provide better.connefion between Alsace and .the rest of France, deserve mention. The

at. Die-Saales l ine, completed in 1928 J carries through Strasbourg-Dijonexpresses; the St. D i ~ S t . Marie-aux-Mines l ink, opened in 19;7, is lessimportant economically. Both constructions involved long tunnels throughthe watershed ot the Vosges, which formed the Franco-German frontier fromIS71 Until 1918.Incorporated for operational purposes in the A.L. system, and sonow in the S.N.C.F., is the Guillaume-Luxembourg line, 'Whioh oonsistsof two main l ines, one trom north-south and the other east-west, crossing

a t Luxembourg. The north-south l ine provides a through route trom Liegeto Lorraine, and the western and _southern arms ot ' the cross carry throught r a t r ~ c t r o m Ostendand Brussels to Strasbourg and Germany.

i i . '1i:lcks Aside from the Paris suburban area, a l l of' thel ines are double track with the exception of the Paris-Strasbourg line,which has four tracks between Paris and Lagrly (28 Ian.), between Vit ryle-Francois and L ~ r ' ( ) u v 1 1 1 e (S4 lon.), between Blainvil1e and Sarrebourg(57 km.), and the Luxembourg-Strasbourg-Bas1e line,whioh has toar tracksbetween Th1onvi11e and Metz (,30 km.). All lines are steam operated.i i i . HJ.e Loads. (See Fig, IV). In 1938 there was no sectionof the eastern region equipped for an axle-load greater than 18 tons,and only a comparatively ,small pro'portionof the mileage possessed aninfrastructure oapable of "taking even this load. The main lines from

Paris to M ~ z i t \ r e s and toStrasbourg, and trom Thionvil leto Basle, couldtake IS-ton axle-loads , bu t the Paris-Belfort line was only so equippedas ta r as Chaumont. There. was, however, a notable ooncentration or 18ton traok in the Lorraine irpn1'ie1d, to r reasons similar to those adducedfor the northern region, and 'the important mineral-carrying l ine fromLorraine through M ~ z i ~ r $ s to Hirson was similarly equipped, as was. theLaon-Reims-Chaumont cross-country express route. The remainder ot thel ines were equipped for 16-ton axle-loads, with the exception of oneortwo short and unimportant lines (e,g. R o m i l l y - S ~ z a n n e ) on whioh 15 tonswas the maximum permissible.

I . __ _ .; _ . ~


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iv . Gradients. The maximum gradients very between 1.100on the Paris-Charleville line (east-bound trains) to , I.?? on theLuxembourg-Strasbourg-Bas1e line (north-bound trains) . v.Sheds, Works, Marshalling Yards. (See Fig. VI). Themain locomotive Vforksare at Epernay, but the following sheds a tleast , and pos'sibly some others,. are equipped to deal with heavy repairs: (a) on the former Est railway - Noisy-Ie-Sec, Reims, Mohon,Chiteau-Thierry, CWons, Bar-Ie-Due, Nancy, BlainvUle, Epinal,Audun-Ie-Roman, Connans-Jarny, Troyes, Chaumont, Culmont-Chalindrey;(b) on the formerA.L e lines - Thionvll1e (Basse-Yutz), Metz (Sablon),Strasbourg (Hausbergen) and Mulhouse.

The principal carriage and wagon repair depots are at Pantin,Noisy-Ie-Sec, Romilly, and MU.lhouse.The largest yards, employing hump shunting, are at Vaires (com pleted, with a garden city for the employees in 1932, to ~ e l i e v e Nois,y-Ie-Sec - capacity 6,000 wagons per d e . Y ~ , Lumes (near M ~ z i ~ r e s ) t Blainville (near Nancy), Strasbourg (two yards - Hausbergen and Port)and Mulhouse (Nord).

vi. Passenger Traffic. Passenger traffio ,on the lines ofthe eastern region in 1936 totalled 13? millions, of whioh 81 millionswere on the Est railway and 56 millions on the A.L. lines. On theEst 92.4% of the passengers tra.velled third olass, on the A.L. 9S.2%,the highest percentage of all the major systems. Much of the A.L. passenger traffic takes plaoe in the Lorraine industrial area, which wouldaocount for the high proportion of third-class travel, and whioh alsoaccounts for the fact that 84% of the receipts from passenger trafficwere produced by third class fares, easily the highest percentage ofany system.

. The passenger traffio of the region comprises four main types,Paris suburban, Lorraine industrial area, international (Luxembourg,Germany and Switzerland), and finally the general traffic over a llp ~ t s ol the s y s t e ~ . Paria outer-suburban services extend as tar asChateau-Thierry (95 lan.), Coulommiers (:34 }on,), and Verneuill 'Etang(53 km.), the last-named locality having alternative routes via themain Belfort line and via the local line from the Bastille terminus.The local passenger tra.f'fic, mainly of workmen, in the Lorraine ironand steel 'area takes place mainly over the"following lines: ParisReims-Mont St. Martin (for Luxembourg,' Trier, Cologne and Berlin),Paris-Bar-le-Duc-Metz-Apach (for Saarbrueken, Frankfort, Berlin andStuttgart), Paris-Nancy-Strasbourg (for Stuttgart, Munich, Pra.gue andthe Balkans (1I0r ient Expressn), Paria-Troyes.,Belfort-Basle (for Berne,Milan, Salzburg ("Tyrol Express tt ), Vienna and the' Ba.lkans ("ArlbergOrient Express")h Laon-Chaumont (followed Qy Calais and Boul0eneportions of expresses bound for the Riviera, Italy, Switzerland (e .g .

1, __ ...... - ._


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"Oberland-Engadine Express n) , Austria and the Balkans), and Thionville-Sarrebourg (followed by traffic from Holland and Belgium viaLuxembourr to Strasbourg and SWitzerland)o .

v i i . Freight Traffic. The total freight traffio of theeastern region in 1936 was 83 million tons, 4$ million on the FBtand 38 million on the A$L. By far the -most bulky commodity oarriedwas iron ore, of which the Est carried 13.4 million tons and theA.L. 11.5 million tons. These figures do not mean, however, that25 million separate tons of are w e r ~ actually put on the rai l , fortraffic passing from the Est to the A.L. or vice versa would beoounted by both companies. Actually under one-half of the tonnagemined in the Lorraine fieldtouohes the railway, the rest being usedlocally and transported to the furnaces by private lines or a e r i ~ l ropeways. The ore traffio has three aspects: (i) export to the FrancoBelgian coalfield and to the furnaces just across the Luxembourg border (via Thionville-Bettenibourg, Longuyon-Mont St. Martin or LonguyonM ~ z i ~ r e s - H i r s o n ) , (ii) export to the Saar and Ruhr areas ot G e (via Thionville, Trier or Metz-Saarbru.cken), (i i i) internal movement,especially as between the calcareous ores of the Briey plateau and.thesiliceous ores of the Nancy, Metz-Thionville and Longwy areas,which are .frequently mixed in the blast furnaces. Fuel - coal andcoke - comes next intonnagej the Est carried 7.6 million tons andthe A.L. 12.5 million tons, and the same qualification must be applied to these figures as to those of iron ore, though the trafficbetween Est and A.L. was less in this case. The three main streamsof coal and coke tra1'fio c o n v e r ~ i n g on Lorraine are (i) from the northem coalfield via M ~ z i ~ r e s , (il) from the Ruhr, (i l i) from the Saar andi ts French "extension (petite Rosselle, La Houve, etc.). I t is worthnoting that both the ore and fuel traffic entail a considerable mileageof empty wagon running, despite the faot that the two commodities aremoving in opposite directions and one might be expeoted to form a return freight for the other. 1n actual fact special wagons are mostlyemplo,yed - all-steel hoppers for ore, different pattern hoppers forcoal, and wagons with wire-netting sides f'orthe more frangible coke.

Iron and steel quite naturally take third place - 5.0 million tonson .the Est and 3.3 million tons on the A.L. This traffic is of courseentirely outward from Lorra.ine, mainly to the northern industrial regionwith i ts great engineering works, partly also to the engineering industries of Paris and Alsaoe (e.g. Mulhouse).

"Stones tr , as usual, oocupya high place by reason of their weight.Granite is quarried for road metal (shaped into setts or "pavAsfl) inthe High Vosges, espeoially in the ~ r a r d m e r - ~ m i r e m o n t area; buildingstone is quarried from the Corallian and Portlandian limestone of theMeuse valley area; sandstone from the Triassic rocks of the Low Vosges.Lime and cement come from the Lower Jurassic limestones of the Moselle

- .......... "--1. . 1 " ' , . ,


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7ziirlilinvalley, and from the chalk soarp north of Vitry, lIld chalk i s alsoquarried in the Marne valley between Vit ry and Chalons, whiJ-st gypsumis worked in th e same valley from Tertiary clays between Cl1tteauThierI'7 and Paris ..

Cereals and other foodstuffs do not figure very- prominently in thefreight t raff ic of' the eastern region, and neither do animals; theChampagne ~ Alsatian vineyards, however, yield a wine tra:rfio whichoooupies a very poor third place af ter the south-eastern and southwestern regions.(c ) The Southeastern Region (See Figures VII, VIII, and IX)

i . General. \ The P.L.M. was the largest of the systems,total l ing nearly 10,000 km. (6, lS2 miles) of l ine, almost exaQtly .one-half of which was double track and one-half single track. Despite i t s great length, however, i t only ranked third in respect ofboth passenger and freight t raff io. Apart from the Lyons-St. Etienneregion it has no great industrial areas within i ts territory, andi t s l ines serve some of the most thinly populated parts of France,including the Alps, the Jura and the eastern part of ... the CentralMassif. Much of i t s t raff ic , however ,mayb.e described as 'highclass ' and remunerative, especially the long-distance passengertrarfic to Switzerland, Italy and the Riviera, and the seasonalfreighf t raff ic in primeurs ' (early vegetables, fruit., etc.) fromthe RhOne valley and via Marseilles fromaorth Africa to Paris.

The mainline is effectively described in the t i t l e P.L.M.-Paris-Lyons-Medlterranean; f t r u n ~ across the scarplands to Dijonand thence down the longSaone-Rhone 'corridor ' to Lyons and Marsell les , turning thence eastward to the Riviera and the I tal ianfrontier at Ventimiglia. This l ine is in effect duplicated byanother which diverges from the f i r s t in the Paris suburbs, strikessouthwards through Nevers to St. Germain-des-Fossl!s, thence south...twards via Roanne and St. Etienne to the RhShe valley at Givors ,after which it follows the right bank of the Rh6he to Avignon. FromAvignon to Marseilles the main and duplicate l ines form a figure 8;the duplicate crosses the main l ine a t Miramas, strikes the coastat Porl-de-Bouc and rejoins the main l ine a t L'Estaqua, just beforeMarseilles.. Yet another, but much less important, north-south linkis provided by the l ine which diverges for the 'duplicate' l ine a tSt. G e r m a i n - d e s - F o s s ~ s a n d runs througnCle:nrtQQt-Ferrand, across theCentral Massif and down '1ts steep C ~ v e n n e s scarp to the A l ~ s coalf ield and Nimes, whence it forks to ' l ink up wi th the RhQ,.e valley onthe other hand, at Montpellier and S ~ t e .

The main l ines east of the sabne-IUJ.ne corridor lead a i ther intoSwitzerland. and I ta ly or else to dead-ends in Alpine valleys. Dijonis the point of divergence for two main trunk l ines leading to eightseparate destinationst (1) toDble, whence one line .strikes northeastwards through Besancon to Belrort and so to Strasbourg or Basle,another l"U1lS to Frasne, diverging thence to cross the Swiss frontiera t Pontarlier (for Berne) or a t V a l l o r b e . , J . ( ~ Lausanne. and the Simplon

I ' .... "'" II I \J'._


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route); ( l i) to Bourg and Culoz, whence one l ine str ikes northeastwards, forking again at Bellegarde for Geneva and Evian-les-Bains,another (worked by electrio traction) via Chambery to Modane and sothrough the JIlt. Cenis tunnel to Turin; this line gives off branchesa t Au-les-Baines (for Chamonix) and a t St. Pierre d'Albigny (forBourg St. Maurice). From Lyons an important l ink connects theRiviera with central Europe, running through Bourg, Lons-le-Saunier ,and Mouchard .(on the Dole-Frasne I l ine) to Besancon (for Bellord) .;another similar l ink runs to Amberieu (on the Bourg..Culoz l ine) .South-eastwards from Lyons runs the main l ine to Grenoble ; finally,from Livron a l ine runs eastwards across the grain of the country toBriancon in the heart of the French Alps.

There are five main links with the south-western region. AtSainoalze is collected t raffio from western France (Brest , Nantesand Tours) which is passed on eastwards along a usetul cross-oountryl ine through La Creusot to Chagny (and so to Dijon), or south-eastwards via Moulins andParay-le-Monial to Lyons e At Moulins, Gannatand Clermont-Ferrand t raffic emanating from south-western France iscollected; t raff ic from Bordeaux destined for eastern France andcentral Europe passes through Moulins, Paray-le-Monial, M o n t - c ~ and Chagny to Dijon; that destined for south-eastern France throughGannat, St. Germain-dee-Fossee and Roanne to Lyons. ClermontFerrand is linked to Bordeaux by the dif 'ficult . route a.cross the heartot the C e n t ~ Massif' and to Lyons via Vichy' and St. Geraain-desFOIles.

i l . .Tracks. ' l i th the exoeption.of the Paris suburban area, a l ll ines are double tracks aside from the Paris-St . Florentin-Vergigny(l72km.), St. Germain-au-Mt. d ' Or-Chasse..sur-Ithone (41 lon.), whichhave f'our t raeks. The l ine from Paris to Ventimilia is steam operatedlthe great junction of Villeneuve-St. Georges should be noted, as wellas a 2t mile tunnel which carries this l ine across the channelMediterranean watershed.

1i i . Electrif ied Lines (See Figure I). The Culoz-Modane sectionor the l i t . Cenis route to I ta ly , which contains gradients of' 113.3 andmany sharp curves, was the f i r s t main l ine in France to be electri t ied;work commenced in 1'23. I t uses current at 1,500 V. d.e.picked up .from a third rai l ; the current comes immediately from the large transformer station a t Albertvil le, but ultimately from seven hydro-eleotricplants owned by the Ugine electrochemical concern.The Chamonix valley narrow-gauge l ine has been electr ical lyoperated since 1908; current is der!ved trom two hydro-electric powerstations owned by the. PoL.,M.. railway and a1tuated on t h e r !verArVeat Servoz and Chavants.iv . Axle Loads (See Figure IV). The main l ines of the soutl1eastern region were equipped, in 19.38, the la tes t date for whichinforma.tion i s available, for 18 ton axle-loads. Paris to Ventimiglia,Paris to Clermont-Ferrand, Dijon to Belfort , Vallorbeand Geneva,Lyons to Modane , Lyons to St. Germain-des-Foss"., and Tarascon to

I


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- - -18, -- .... _ ~ - -Sete, were a l l so equipped, with a few other important l inks and branches.The remainder of the system could take l6-ton axle-loads.v. Gradients. The ma:rlJIum gradients on the Paris-Venti-Migl!aline are 1:125 in both directions and the maximum permissible axle

load is 18 tons.v!. Sheds, Works, Marshalling Yards. (See Figure IX) The largerdepots (roughly thoseaccomnodatingmore than about f i f ty engines) areemphaSized by larger symbols, and :the sheds serving the electrifiedCuloz-Modane l ine are distinguished by the le t ter E.

The chief' locomotive repair works are a t Paris (Bercy), Nevers,Lyons (OUllins), ArIes.. and N1Jaes.The chief' centres for carriage and wagon repairs are V111eneuveSt. Georges, Dijon (Perrigny), Lyons (Ouillins, La Mouche and Parrache),

Clermont-Ferrand, ArIes, and Marseilles (Prado).The largest marshalling yards, employing hump sh1Dlting, are a tVUleneuye-8t. Georges, in the Lyons area (st . Germain-au-Mont d'Or,

G u i l l o t i e r e , V ~ n i e s i e u x , and Chasse), and a t Miramas.vi i . Passenger Traffic. Passenger t raff ic on the P.L.M. ra i l way in 1936 total led nearly 83millione. Of these, 93.2% travelledthird class, 5.8% second class and O.S% f i r s t class; the receiptsfrom third class tares , however, only amounted to 66'10 of' the total,a lower figure than on any other l ine. This resuJ.t is clearlT produced by the -volume of' ' luxury' t ravel on the great international

trunk l ines which form. part of the P.L.M. system--a fact which isalso demonstrated by figures which show that the average length otjourney perppassenger on the P.L,M. in 1936 was 72 lan., or morethan twice the average for other system except t h e P a r i s - O r l ~ a n 8 'Midi, to r which the figure was 59t kID., whilst the averages for t i r s t ,second,and third class passengers were respectively 323, 205,and 61km. Apart from the Paris suburban t raffic, the quite considerablelocal movement in the Lyons-St. Etienne area, and the general passenger tra.rric'on a l l parts of the system, the major traffic s t r e _are f'rom Paris to the Riviera and to the south-eastern frontier orFrance (Pontarlier, Vallorbe, Geneva and Modane), streams whicharereinf'orced from the eastern region a t Is-sur-Tille and Belfort;a .smaller stream runs from Baris to ' the spas and other centres of'the Central Massif--Vichy, Clermont-rerrand, etc. The Paris suburban traffic extends as far as Me1un (45 laD.) and Corbeil (33 0 . ) ,with outer-suburban services as far as Montereau (79 lan.) andMontargis (118 lan.); it is not as heavy as .that ot the western andnorthern regions.I

The tact that the Swiss, I ta l ian, Alpine resorts andRivieratn . t r ic i l l has to use the main l ine between Paris and Dijon makesthis one ot the most intensively used stretches of track in France-especially at. night, for most of the big expresses are sleeping-cart rains, which under normal circumstances leave Paris in a continuousstream during the evening hours and arrive from the south-east in the. -_ ..

I ( a = ~ .... ~


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early morning. Dijon between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. was probably the busieststation in u-ope during those hours. Much of the l ine has fourtra.cks; the double-tracked section from Melun via Fontainebleauto Montereau i s effect ively quadrupled by the parallel l ine on theopposite side 'of the Seine valley, and thus the only two-tra.ck sectionsare between St. Florentin (107 miles from Paris) 8.nd Les LaumesA l ~ s i a (160 miles), and. from Blaisy-Bas surmnit ( 1 7 ~ miles) to Dijon(195 miles).

v i i i . Freight Traffio. Freight t ra ff ic in 1936 totalled 38million tons, of which nearly 10 million tons consisted of coal andcoke--partly coal derived from the northern field and being distributed southwards for domestic, industrial and locomotive purposes,and .part ly coal from the severe.l small fields which are served. by theP.L.M. l ine , namely; Le Creusot, St. Etienne and A l ~ s . The seconditem, 2.8 million tons, i s iron and steel; this resulted largelytrom the t ra ff ic in pig-iron and steel to the great engineering centresof Le Creusot and s t . Etienne and the outward t ra ff ic in finishedproducts from those centres. Istones I occupy third place It Road /metal is quarried from the granite and other igneous rocks of theeastern part of the Central N'JB.ssif, as in the regions of Roanne, ICusset and s t . Etienne; ballast gra-'l.rels come from the Bas Dauphineregion; building stones are got from the Jurassic limestones of theRhone valley south-east of Amberieu, from the scarp edge west ofC h a l o n ~ ~ n e and from many places in the Great Oolite Plateauof Langre'S, also limestone and marble from Provence. Lime and~ e m e n t ceme from Jurassic J.jmestones in the region of Nevers, inthe RhO"n valley between C h a m b ~ r y and Amberieu, and in the Grenoblearea, from the Cretaceous limestones of Le Teil and Montelimar,and from ~ h Cretaceous and Jurassic limestones of Provence, e .g.LIEstaque and the ranges behind Toulon. Fourth place i s occupiedby wine; the Rhone valley and ~ Mediterranean region form one ofthe major areas of production of 'vin ordinaire l for home consumptionand a considerable t ra ff ic resul ts , amounting to 2.4 million tons in1936. Cereals and flour are important--2 million tons --part lyby reason of the import t ra ff ic of the port of.Marsei l les. Ofthe other foodstuffs the most interest ing item is the Iprimeurs'--early v.:egetables and f ru i t--which has giv.en r ise to a highlyorganized special t ra ff ic of a seasonal character, ' which isworth analysing in a l i t t l e deta i l .

/ The P.L.M. railway used just i f iably to advertise i t se l f asIReseau de s primeurs'. Five thousand special t ra ins a year, c o prising 125,000 wagons (mainly'of special insulated or refr igerator types) loaded with half a million tons 'o f produce, certainly represented a considerable item in the organization of the railwaycompany. The producinr regions are the Mediterranean l i t to ra l andthe, R h o n ~ - S a $ n e .valley, whilst about a quarter of the tote.l t ra ff ic


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-20 ... . -...,.is derived from North Africa (via Marseilles-Arene) and thereis some also from Spain (via S ~ t e ) ; the chief consuming centresare Paris, the Lyons-St. Etienne region, and the industrial north,but large quantities pass also, especially in the summer, to theseaside resorts, the spas (e.g. Vichy) and the Alpine touristoentres. Whilst the collection of prod.uce from a rew areas isfair ly easy therefore, i t s distribution to a multitude of diversedestinations constitutes a t raff ic problem of considerable mag nitude. .

Although the niax:lmum t raffic intensity i s between June andSeptember, there 1s actually an almost continual flow ofprodueetrom one region or another. In Jenu.ary, vegetables and f'ruitarrive from North Africa; in February and March this traffioincreases and is supplemented by asparagus, a r t i ~ h o k e s and othersalad vegetables from Var, Durance and Avignon; in April, greenpeas from Algeria are rollowed by those from the Comtatreg!on{Avignon-Orange), and by Algerian haricots and early tomatoes;'May sees the haricot season in ru n swing (and i t lasts unti lSeptember). From June to September fruits are added to thespate or vegetables; in June come Comtat strawberries, Nimesoherries, iblane valley peaches, and the f i r s t grapes tromAlgeria; in July, apricots, plums, apples and pears from thesame regions; in August, table grapes from Var, Bas Langue.docand 6omtat. There 1s a sharp t a 1 l i n ~ o tf in thf tra:f'fic inOctober, but there are nuts from Ardeche, the Cevennes andDauphine, and the f i r s t oranges arrive at Marseilles.

In November the t raf t io t e a t a minimum , but new potatoesbegin to arr:1ve trom Algeria, and in December. the f i rs t wintervegetables appear, together with flowers from the < Med!terraneancoast (Cote d f Azur), 81'1d the North African and Spanish orangetraffic inoreases.The perishable natureof the produce neoessitates rapidityof trans!t , and under normal ciroumstances the produoe would becollected from the growers during the d q , paoked in special .vans whioh would then be marshalled into complete trains forvarious destinations, soma of which would be reached in timefor the early morning markets. Most of the marshalling and

dispatching of t rains r i s done a t the yards a t Avignon andChasse, with L7on-Botteaux, La Voulte and Rognac playing muchsmaller parts. The foca].. position or Chasse made itthe:res.J.lyv ita l point in the whole I primeurS" se.rvice; on the mainMarseilles-Paris l ine just south of:Lyons, it l ies a t thejunotion or lines to St. Etienne, the Bourbonnais and Burgundy,and communioates via Lyon-Guillotiere with Besanoon, Genevaand .Modane, and via Givors .with the right bank of the RhOne(Which i s apt to be congested with night passenger expresses).The bulk or the marshalling work is done between 7 t 30 p.m.and 3.30 $.m. At the Paris end of the maintrarric stream


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-21

the trains are 'Wlloaded at Bercy, and much of the producethen passes by lorry to Les HaIles, the Paris equivalent ofCovent Garden. .In 1937, the P.L.M. possessed nearlY 9,000 special vansfor 'primeurs' traffic, representing almost four-fifths of'thetotal French stock of this class of vehicles, and ineludingsome 400 s t i l l rurther specialized vans for use on the Dun kirk-Dover ferry s e r v i c e . A particularly interesting item in the freight trafficof the southeastern region is animals, mainly sheep. In1936 over 2, 100,000 animals were carried by the P.L.M.,afar greater number than by any other system. This trafficis essentially the modern expression of the seasonal transferof animals and their shepherds between summer and winter pastureswhich has been a characteristic feature of the farming systemof parts of France for hundreds of years, and which is knownas t transhumance'. The long journeys on foot from the pla.insof Provence and the lower Rhone to the Alps in the early sum mer, however, are largely a thing of the past, and the sheepand goats are now driven to the railway stations at ArIes,Pont d'Avignon and Nimes, for example, and sent by trainto destinations in-the Tacentaise and Maurienne ~ g i o n s s u c h as Bourg-St.. Maurice and Modane, returning southwards when theAlpine pastures eease to be available, in the late autumn.This is not only a matter of convenience but is also a factorin reducing the incidence of foot and mouth disease, whichwas formerly spread over wide areas by the migrating flocks.(d) The Southwestern Region (See Figures X,n,XII.)

1. General. The combination in 1934 of the thirdlargest (Paris-Orleans) and fifth largest (Midi) of the sevenmaj or railways of France resulted in the fomation of a systemwhich in mileage considerably exceeded that of any other 11,706km., 7,274 miles). The geographical character of the combination,however, prevented i t from playing the part in passenger andfreight transport which i ts length of line would seem to warrant.Only the A.L. system, with but one-fifth the mileage, had .smaller passenger traffic, and the freight tonnage of theP.O.-Midi was actually the smallest of all the systems. Thesame geographical factors, however, gave the system a uniquedistinction; the existence of abundant possibilities for thedevelopment of hydro-electric power in the Pyrenees and in ~ Central Massif made electrification an obvious step, especiallyin view of the distance of south-west France from major coalfielc.s. The 500 mile main line from Paris via Bordeaux to theSpanish frontier is electrified throughout, as are also the3 ~ mile .transverse main line of the Midi from Bayonne-toSete, and numerous other lines.


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tditXtd:c,The main l ines of the south-western region fa l l naturallYinto two groups, those from Paris to the Spanish f rontier endthose linking south-western France wi.th the centre and south

east . or the former the most important is the 'Sud.-Expre.,s Iroute from Paris via Orleans, Tours, Poit iers , Bordeaux, andBayonne to the Spanish frontier a t H e n d ~ ~ ( tor Madrid). Asecond,more dirfioul t l ine , which crosses the western p a ofthe 8entral Massif, leaves the f i r s t a t Orleans, and proceedsvia Vierzon, Limoges, Brive and Montauban to Toulouse, continuingthence via Foix to the Spanish frontier a t Puigcerda \ for . ,Barcelona); only the Brive-MontB.uban section of' th is l ineremains steam-operated. A branch of' th is trunk: divergesatLimoges to r Perigueux, Agen and'Tarbes, whilst an al ternat iveroute between Brive and Toulouse runs through Figeac .Ath ird south-bound l ine leaves the second main-line at 'Vierzonand proceeds via Montlucon, Aurillac and Millau if,o Beziers; thel as t section of this line, trom Neussargues to Beziers, whichincludes a very st,eep descent of the Cevennesscarp, is eleotr i calJ.y' operated.

The transverse l ines run from Tours via Vierzon ahd Bourgesto Saincaize (carrying t raff ic trom Brit tany and Nantes to theP.L.M. l ine); from Angouleme via Limoges and Montlucon to Moulinsand Gannat (linking La Rochelle and Royan with the P.L.M. l ine):from Coutras (on the main Bordeaux l ine) via Perigueux and Briveto Clermont-Ferrand (for Lyons, Geneva, etc . ) ; from Bordeaux viaAgen, Toulouse and Carcassonne to Narbonne, whence conne_ctioni s made via Beziers with the P .L.M. a t Sete, and via Perpignanwith. the Spanish l ine to Baroelona. a t the frontier station ofPort-Bou; and from Bayonne via Tarbes to Toulouse, the lAst l inehaving oonnection with the main Bourdeaux l ine also r ia the~ o o - D a x .and Tarbes-Morcenx l ines. Finally, mention must be madeof the numerous electr i f ied branch l ines which ru n from theBayonne-Toulouse .l ines to the market towns and tourist centresof the Pyrenees. One of these, commencing a t Pau, crosses themountains by the Somport tunnel to Canfranc, whence a Spanishl ine leads to Saragossajof the others the chief are those toPierref it t e , Bagneres-de-Bigorre ,and Luchon.

i i . ~ The l ines are double traok throughout theSouth-western region with the exception of four t r a c ~ l ines onthe Paris-Hendaye electr ical ly opsrated route between Paris(Auterl i tz) and Etampes (54 km..) ,and between Ceroottes andLes Aubrais (7 kIn.); there is a three track l ine on the S8aeroute between Toury and Cercottes (23 km.). On the Paris-Hendayel ine the f i rs t two miles are underground from the Qmi d I Orsayterminus to the Austerlitz station. The l a t t e r part of thisline throughthe Pyrenean foot-hills is tortuous with numerous


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tunnels and bridges over coas ta l torrents.The Hendaye and Cerbere l ines round th e ends of the Pyrenees

w e opened in 1964 and 1878 respectively, but although as fa rback as 1865 no less than twelve possible routes $cross the rangehad been surveyed by engineers,i t was not unti l 1928-9 that th elinking of France and Spain by trans-Pyrenean railways was effected.The f i r s t actual crossing of the Pyrenean watershed had been provided in 1911.by th e narrow-gauge electrified l ine from Villetrancheto Bourg-Madame, prolonged in 1927 to La Tour de Caro1--but thiswas a l l within French Territory, for th e frontie11 departs in placesfrom the watershed. The Somport l ine , linking Pau and Saragossa,was opened in July 1928, and the Puymorens l ine, which should linkToulouse and Barcelona, in July 1929. Both of these l ines areeleotrif ied on the French side; neither has succ9.eded in achievingany great importance; the steep gradients and the curvature (minimumradius 200 m.--656 f t . ) make fast travel quite impossible; thebreak of gauge a t the frontier is an effeotive deterrent to i n t e ~ national traf 'f ic, and th e poli t ical situation has not encouragedsuch t raff ic .

The Somport line ascends the Aspe valley; the gradient fromBedousto Etsaut averages lI28f, steepening thence to the summit,a t 1: 2.3. There are sixteen tunnels, including a spiral 1,79.3 m.(1,96l;yd.) long, and the summit of the l ine is.rea.ched at 1,211m. (.3,97.3 f t . ) above sea-level in the Somport tunnel, 7,875 m.long (8,612 yd. , or nearly 5 miles). From th e internationalstation or Canf'ranc a t the Spanish end of this tunnel, the steamoperated 'Norte' railway, 5 f t . 6 in . gauge, leads down at 1:50towards Jaoa and so to Saragossa. The l ine oonnects two agrioultural distr iots across a mountainous area, and i t s internationaltraffio i s vert s l ight indeed. r

The ~ o r e n s l ine ascends the A r i ~ g e valley-from Ax-les-Thermas,mostly a t 1:25 and with eleven tunnels, one ot Which is a mile-longspiral , to the watershed, which i s crossed a t 1,567 m. (5,141 f t . )above sea-level in th e ~ r e n s tunnel, 5,53.3 m. long (6,051 ;yd.)nearly 3t miles; the deso.nt to the French frontier ' station of LaTour de Carol i s slightly' less steep, and has no tunnels. Thestation ot La Tour de Carol was bui l t in anticipation of the development when the authorizedconversioD at the Spanish l ine toBaroelona to standard 4 f t . st m. gauge was completed. I ts vasthalls have never yet been used to r their proper purpose.From a military point ot view these trans-Pyrenean l ines havenot the same value as the coast l ines , for the.gradients are extremely Bent. on both sids of the frontier, being almost a t thel imit of normal adhesive operation, and any interruption of theelectrioity supply would greatlY hinder t raff ic . The estimatedcapaoity of the l ines for southward-moving traffio i s eighteen trainsper 24 hr. , . as comPared with seventy-two for the H.nA838 l ine


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and forty-eight for th e Cerbere l ine. Their prospects for internationalt raffic are very poor. After a l l , about two-thirds of the internationaltrade between France and Spain has in normal t i l ~ S been conducted by sea,and these two dif! icul t l ines can hardly hope to compete for the remainingone-third with the Hendaye and Cerbere routes.

i i i . Electrified l ines. (See Figure I) No less than 2,828 km.(1,757 miles) of line in the south-western region are electr ical ly operated.The equipment consists of overhead wires which supply current a t 1,500V. d.c. The current i s generated a t a number of hydro-electric stationsin the Pyrenees and in the Central Massi!, and i s also.available, during themid-swmner months (when the volume of the Central Massif r ivers ,and so theirout-put of power, i s much reduced), from the thermal-electric station a tGennevilliers on the outskirts of Paris) it is distributed a t voltages ofbetween 90,000 and 220,000 to the main transformer stations. These keystations, ,which step down the current to the voltage required by the ra i l way, a r e fed from the Central Massif' hydroelectric stat ions of EKuzon(on the Creuse), Mareges and Coindre (both on the upper Do rdogne) ania t Chevilly (Paris), Chaigny (Orleans) ,- Les Epines-Fortes (Tours), Chaumont(Poitiers) , Eguzon and Nereges; tbose fed from th e Pyrenean power stations'in the Ossau and Aura valleys are a t Flaac ( A n g o u l ~ e ) , P e s s a c (Bordeaux),Dax, Jurancon (Pau), Hourat, LennemezSll, P o r t e , t - s t ~ Simon (Toulouse) ands t , Victor. The narrow-gauge l ine in the eastern Pyrenees, from .Villefranche-Vernet-les-Bains to La Tour de Carol, i s operated a t850 V. d.c. with th i rd ra i l j current is supplied by th e Fontpedrouse hydroelectr ic plant.iv . Axle Loads.(See Figure IV) The infrastructure of the P.O.Midi l ines was more variable than that of any other system, partly nodoubt due to the very considerable reconstructions which have been undertaken as an accompaniment of the programme of electr if icat ion. ' The useof heavy electr ic locomotives tends to demand a stronger permanent waythan was necessary for the steam locomotives which'they replace, and inconsequence long stretches of the Midi main l ines between Bordeaux andPointe de Grave (Verdon), Bayonne and Sete were laid with t rack capableof taking 2C-ton axle-loads whilst much of the remainder, and also agood deal of th e .P.O. main l ines , were equipped for IS-ton loads. Reconstruction and relaying were proceeding apace,. and it is possible thatsome sections, e.g. Tours-Bordeaux, have since be e n ' stepped up' fromthe general standard of 16 tons to the higher IS-ton standard.v. Gradients. The maximum gradients on the southwestern l ines varyfrom 1:100 on the Bordeaux-Hendaye and Les Aubrais-Toulouse sections tols200 on t h Toulouse-Narbonne section.v i. .Sheds, Vlorks. Marshalling Yards. (See Fig. XII) Theaverage s ~ z e of the sheds in the south-western region is probablymuch smaller than in the northern and eastem regions. Thechief l o c o ~ o t i v e works are at Paris (Ivry), Tours and Perigueux,

t ~ 1ast named dealing only Vii th steam locomotives, the other twoWlth both stearn and electric . The ma::'n carriage and wagon repair


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/ "depots are a t Paris, Orleans, Tours, Limoges and Bordeaux, and specialwagon repair shops are associated wi.th the m a r s h a l l ~ n g ~ of Juvisy,LesAubrais, St. Pierre-des-CoI'ps, Montlucon, Bordeaux, Perigueux andLimoges.

The largest yards, employing hump shunting, are a t Juvisy, LesAubrais, st Pierre-des-Corps, Limoges and B o r d e a u x - S ~ J e a n . vi i . Passenger Traffic. Passenger traf'ic on the P.O.-Midisystem in 1936 amounted to 74 millions; this figure and those to r thedifferent classes of t r a t f i c - f i r s t 0.6%, second 6.1%, third. 9.3.2% are closely comparable with the P.L.M. s ta t is t ics , though the proport ion of the tota l receipts derived from third class was much higher, a t77%, than on the P.L.M. The general geographical situation ot "the two

systems is not dissimilar. Both have Paris suburban traff ' ic; spas andother touris t centres and small industrial towns are found in botheastern and western sections or" the Central Massif; Alpine resorts arebalanced by Pyrenean l 'esorts; Biarritz and 81:.. J ean-de-Luz perhapsbe regarded as a miniature Riviera, whilst internat ional t ra f f ic withSpain is a small counterpart of the P.L.M. traf'fic with Switzerlandand Italy*

Paris suburban t ra f f ic i s not .great; there i s really O n l ~ . 0_n.8_service running to Bretigny (36 lem.) and forking thence, to ~ e (60 lan.) on the main l ine and to Dourdan (60 lem.) , t h e lim!t of elect r i f ica t ionon the secondary l ine to Tours. The service formerly ,worked from the Luxembourg terminus to Limours has been -taken over by'the Paris Metropol1tain as far as Massy Palaiseau, whilst the end of'the 1ine,f'rom St. R&I!\V to Limours, is substituted by road t ransport .

vi i i \) Freight Tratf' ic. The absence of large industrial centreswithin the south-western region "is responsible for the sma:p.ness otthe freight t raf f ic . The 1936 to ta l of tmder 28 million tons for theP.O.-'Iti.di was less than that of any of" the other systems. The mostimportant item, as usual, is coal, ot whiohover 5 million tons wereoarrie d; some of this no doubt was British coal imported a t Bordeauxand Nantes, for the small coalfields a t Commentry', Decazeville andCarmaux distribute but small quanti t ies by r a i l . The electr i f icat ionot the main l ine had muoh reduced ~ h demand for locomotiva fuel - theP.O. section alone reckoned a saving of 455,000 tons of coal, a yearand the Midi almost as much - so there is l i t t l e possibili ty of an in crea.se in coal t raf f ic . The second item on the l i s t is one which distinguishes the P.O.-Midi from the other systems; it is wine. Severalof the major wine-producing distr icts of France fal l within the southwestern region, such as the Bordeaux country, the Loire valley, BasLanguedoc, and the brandy areas of C h a r ~ n t e s and Armagnac. The winet raf ' f lc is a specialized business, emplo,ying special containers. Othercommodities connected with agriculture loom largely, fert i l izers andcereals being next in order of tonnage.'


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.Stones" are less important than on other l ines, but the t raff icincludes road metal from the Central Massif (Limousin region, especially the Vienne valley), building stones from the. Cretaceous limestoneor. the Charente valley below AngO'U.J!eme, marble from the Pyrenees. Limeand cement are obtained from the Jurassio and Cretaceous limestonesot the north-eastern fianks of the Aquitaine basin, from. Corallian11mestoneat La Rochelle and from Tertiary limestones near Bordeaux.As in the south-eastern region animal traffio, . especia.lly on the Midisect ion of the south-western region, i s heavy, and for the same reasons."Transhumance"between the Mediterranean lowland and the Cntral Massif,and to a less extent between the pla insofAquit.aine and the Pyrenees,now takes place very largely by r a i l instead of on foot, and in 1936over J.t million animals, mainly sheep and goats, were c ~ i e d by the- P.O.-Midi system.


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- - - - -

one running almost due west to the seaside resort Granville, the otherserving Chartres, Le Mans, Rennes, St . Brieuc and Brest From thela t te r an important l ine diverges a t Le !VIana for Anger's, Nantes (forst. Nazaire) , Vannes, Quimper and Brest, and an alternative (though l i t t l eused) route to Bordeaux, other than the P.O. main l ine, i s provided bythe l ine which runs from Chartres through Saumur, Niort and Saintes tothe Gironde estuary ,wi th westward branches to the ports and resortsof Les Sables d' Olonne, La. Rochelle, and Reyan. The most importantcross-country routes within-the western region run either north-southor east-west. or the former the most important i s from St. Malo viaRelIDes, Nantes, La Roche-sur-Yon and La Rochelle to Saintes (for Bordeaux), which, linking up with the P.O.-Midi a t Bordeaux, provided auseful Channel-Pyrenees route (the flCote dlFmeraude-Pyreneestt express)as an a.lternat ive to the more usual route from Ehgland via the shortersea route and Paris. Another similar Channel-Spain l ink (the "MancheO c ~ a n t f express) is provided by the l ine from Dieppe through Rouen, Serquigny, Alencon and Le Mans, which crosses and ma.'l{es use of parts of theCherbourg and Granville main l ines. The east-west l inks join the portsand resorts of western France to the P.O. system and so to central andeastern.France; the c h i e ~ are Angers-Tours, La Roche11e-Niort-Poitiers,.and Rqyan-Saintes-Angouleme.

i i . ~ With the exception of the Paris' suburbs the l inesare double track throughout the western region, and those from Paris toDieppe, Cherbourg and Havre are steam operated.i i i . Electrified Lines. The year of. the great Paris Exhibit ion, 1900, is a landmark in French rai1wt;y' history, for it was thatyear that the f i r s t electr ic railways began to operate. Both the

f i r s t two lines were in the Paris area; one was the Mt\tropolitain, andthe other was the Invalides-Versailles (R.G.) l ine of the Ouest ra i l way. The Etat followed soon after with the conversion of several seet ions of i t s Paris sUburban.lines, out of St,Lazare, to electr ic t ract ion, and some 103 kIn. of l ine , carrying a t raff ic comparable in densitywith that of the Southern Railway in the London suburbs, were ultimatelydealt with. The suburban l ines concerned are as followsl (i) InvalidesVersailles (R.G.) (18 km.), ( i i ) st. Lazare to Auteuil (on the PetiteCeinture l ine) , Argenteuil (10 km.), St. Germain-en-Laye (21 lon.), St,N o m - l a - B r e t ~ c h e (30 km.), Versailles (R.D.) (23 km.) and Issy-Plaine(20 lon.). These l ines are operated by current a t 650 V. d.c . pickedup from a third r a i l . Current is derived from foUr thermal-electricpower stat ions on the banks of the Seine, and through them i s alsoavailable from the hydro-electric sources in the Central Massif. Thestation a t Moulineaux was actual ly owned by the Etat railway, the otherthree, Nanterre, Issy and Gennevilliers, belonged to the Union d I.hect r ic i te . The passenger t raf f ic is operated by multiple-unit t ra ins .

._ .J : : _.....,;


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--- 28_.-_ More recently a beginning was made with the projected electrification of some of the main l ines, and the Paris (Montparnasse)-LeMans section of the main Brest line commenced operating by electrictraction in 1937. The same technique as for the P.6."",Midi lines WaSadopted, viz. 1,500 V. d.c. derived trom overhea.d wires. The currentisderivad ultimately from the hydro-electric stations of the CentralMassif, supplemented by the Paris thermal-electric plants, but thekey transformer stations which feed the l ine are at Elancourt (nearVersailles) e:t the Paris end of the l ine, at Luisant for the middle(Chartres) portion and at Arnage for the La Mans end.

i v. Axle Loads. The whole of the western region lines wereequipped for an axle-load of 16 tons. This is the only region of theFrench railway system in which no greater load than 16 tons per axlewas permissible. I t should be borne in mind that axle-load is notmerely a function of rai l weight, but also of the nature of the in. frastructure, i .e . ballast and particularly bridge strengths.v. Gradients. The maximum gradients vary between 11100on the Paris-Dieppe and Paris-Cherbourg sections to 1:18lagainstwest bound trains on the Paris and Havre route.

v i. Sheds. Works, Marshalling Yards. (See Fig, XIV) Here,as in the seath-western region, fifty engines may be taken as a veryrough dividing line between the larger and less important sheds. Thesheds accommodating the electric locomotives bn the Paris-Le Mans lineare specially distinguished.The chief locomotive works are at Paris (Batignol1es), Rouen(Sotteville), Rennes and Saintes. Rennes is also the main centre forrail-car repairs. Carriage and wagon repairs are concentrated a t LeMans, Rennes, Sottevi11e, Mantes, Paris (Montrouge) and Nantes (Blottereau); the main repair depot for electric stock is La Garenne, inthe suburbs of Paris.The largest yards, with hump shunting, are at Rermes (capacity4,000 wagons per day), Sotteville (capacity 7,000-8,000 per day), LaMans, Trappes (capacity 3,000-4,000 per day ), and A c h ~ r e s .

v i i ~ Passenger Traffic. Passenger traffic on the Etat linesin 1936 totalled 176 millions. No figures are available givinG theexact proportion of this huge total represented by' the Ps.ria suburbantraffic, but the fact that the S t . L a ~ a r e terminus alone handled 300,000 passengers a day suggests that between one-half and two-thirds ofthe total may well be accounted for by the d a i ~ movement to and fromthe suburbs. Other figures indicate the vital difference in the character of the passenger traffic from that of any of the other lines.


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"C," . " " ' i ' f ; ' / . ' ~ . : ~ ___..,

The average length of journq per passenger was sh01"ter - a t 28.8km. -o n the Etat railw8Y than on any of the others except the A.L.l ine (which had less than one-quarter of' the mileage of l ine); moreover, the figures to r the ditf 'erent olasses are a complete reversalofs imllar figures for the other l ines - f i rs t class journeys averagedonly 17.4 lon. in length, second class 15.9 km., and th i rd class 38.3 ..lan. Fir s t and seoond class suburban season ticket-holders are responsible for th is , and it should be borne in mind also that some otthe suburban services have no third class accommodation a t a l l .

The passenger t raff ic of the regionta l ls into tour main, classes t(i) Paris suburban, (i i) international, ( i i i ) holiday, (iv) general.(1) The intensive Paris suburban t raff ic i s workedpartly by -electric t rains, part ly by "push and pull" steam t rains

(whioh work with the engine always a t the Paris end) with the outersuburban or -grande banlieue"services workedby' ordinary steam trains.The electr ic services from St. Lazare extend to Auteuil, Argenteuil,St, Ge

civil affairs handbook france section 11 and 12

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