Rural Tramways in Provence

[RogerFarnworth]

Reading a book in French by Jose Banuado, I have discovered more about the Sospel to Menton tramway.

The Menton-Sospel line is the only one in the TNL network to have seen steam locomotives.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...de-provence-61

This post builds on previous ones, particularly ...

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...de-provence-51

[RogerFarnworth]

It is a while since I posted about the tramways in Nice. I have been concentrating on a series of posts about the metre-gauge lines in Kenya and Uganda. That series of posts is now complete and I can focus once again on the South of France metre-gauge tramways and railways.

The TNL grew in size in the years before the first world war but had great difficulty in getting new lines authorised and built

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This post focusses on the years immediately before the First World War. It was at this time that the network reached its fullest extent and it was the time when it was both in its best condition and carrying the greatest number of passengers. After the First World War things began to change and competition from other forms of transport increased.

[RogerFarnworth]

This post covers a short-lived tramway which left the Nice to Digne line of the Chemin de Fer de Provence at Plan du Var. It travelled up the Valley of the River Vesubie as far as St. Martin Vesubie. The line lasted no more than 20 years but was effective in opening up the valley of the Vesubie to tourism and vastly aided the agrarian economy. The post below has also been included in the story of the Nice to Digne metre-gauge main line.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...de-provence-64

Tramway services left Plan du Var Station travelling North and diverged from the Nice to Digne line before reaching the Vesubie River. The images below are old postcards of the location of the junction and show the development of the site over a number of years. Initially a stone arch bridge took the road over the Vesubie, but when this failed it was replaced by the concrete arch bridge visible in some of the pictures.

[RogerFarnworth]

This post covers another short-lived tramway which provided a service up the valley of l'Esteron from Pont Charles Albert over the River Var to Roquesteron, a distance of more than 20 kilometres.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...de-provence-66

Before the tramway was constructed the Charles Albert Bridge was a suspension bridge (built by Marc Seguin in the mid-19th Century) [2] but this bridge was not designed to accommodate tramway loading. In 1913 it was rebuilt to accommodate the trams, just as was necessary with the Pont de la Mescla on the Tinée tramway. The replacement structure had six spans of over 30 metres in concrete built by the company Thorrand. In the foreground of the image immediately below, there is the Pont-Charles Albert stop and the lime kilns at La Lauziere overseen by the perched village of La Roquette sur Var, © Yann Duvivier. [6] This 'new' bridge was replaced in the mid-20th Century by the one which is in use today.

[RogerFarnworth]

Another of the branch tramways left the Nice to Digne line close to La Mescla Station and travelled up the valley of La Tinee.

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I first looked at this tramway in 2013. It was only a short blog recognising the existence of the line in the valley.

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...e-tinee-valley.

This line was 26.5 Km long and connected villages in the Tinée valley to Nice to Digne line. Like other lines of the Tramways Alpes Maritimes (TAM), the electric current was single phase. The civil engineering works (bridges, tunnels) were executed by the Department.

The line was built in 1911 and operation started on 1st April 1912. Landslides affected the operation of the line in the early months. The original opening was delayed from January to April because of landslides and on 2nd April a further landslide affected several hundred metres of track and destroyed power lines.

The line ceased operations in 1931.

The available imagery from the time of the tramway is limited in extent and is supplemented by images from later dates.

[RogerFarnworth]

New territory for me. The now removed TAM tramway from Pont de Gueydan to Guillaumes up Les Gorges de Daluis .....

https://rogerfarnworth.wordpress.com...de-provence-69

The line from Le Pont de Gueydan north to Guillaumes followed the valley of the River Var and ran through the Gorges de Daluis.

Marc Andre Dubout, writing in French, says that the line was probably the moist daring of secondary line construction work with very steep gradients, numerous tunnels, two remarkable bridges. He comments that it is the most impressive tramway from a tourist perspective with 'unique viewpoints and singular landscapes'.

One of the bridges on this route has the distinction of being one of the earliest reinforced concrete arch structures in France.

[RogerFarnworth]

I have been exploring the history of the Metre-gauge Tramways in Nice through reading a french-language book about their history. To do so, I have had to use translation software as my French has not improved beyond O-level standard!

This is the next post in the series: .....

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/08/12...de-provence-87

It covers the period from 1935 to the liberation by allied forces in 1944.