DECRYPTION – When the sunny days arrive, old trains take tourists on small picturesque lines or in the middle of TER and TGV traffic. The fruit of preservation work carried out by around a hundred associations of railway enthusiasts.
Their whistle echoes again across the fields, at the bottom of the valleys or on the sides of the mountains. Steam locomotives, Pullman cars, Picasso, Micheline railcars… Every spring, these relics of the golden age of railways come out of their depot after months of hibernation, pampered by rail enthusiasts. The Iron Railway of the Many in the Somme on the Picardy coast, the Vapeur du Trieux in Brittany the Pignes Train in Haute-Provence… In France nearly a hundred associations breathe new life into sometimes century-old material to circulate it for a few weeks or months per year. Enough to delight tourists who treat themselves to the pleasure of a low-speed trip aboard a vintage train for around ten euros.
These associations are almost all grouped within theUnecto the French Union of Tourist Railway Operators, cycle rails and railway museums. “They are divided into two categories: those, the majority, which have their own network and those which use the national rail network.“, that is to say the same routes as the the trains of SNCF passengers, summarizes Henri Barbier, manager of tourist and historic trains at Once upon a time there was a train (Wow)association promoting train travel. All operate mainly with volunteers who are responsible for maintaining the tracks and equipment as well as driving the trains, ticketing and on-board entertainment.
Trains saved from the scrapyard in the 1970s
Frédéric Leonardi / Somme Tourism
It was at the turn of the 1970s that these railway associations emerged throughout the country. Until then, for regulatory reasons, private passenger trains were not authorized to operate on the national rail network. The relaxation of the rules has allowed groups to acquire locomotives and cars from the SNCF that have been abandoned or intended for scrapping in order to circulate them for tourist purposes. And sometimes for a small fee. “Our association acquired its first locomotive in 1974 for a symbolic 1000 francs», recalls Henri Barbier, also president of the Auvergne steam train. Such transactions are difficult to achieve today. The SNCF is reluctant to sell or give away its equipment, in particular to comply with European regulations on asbestos.
“In addition to preserving these trains, the associations also aim to safeguard intangible heritage by perpetuating know-how», adds Henri Barbier. “Maintenance and restoration call on rare trades, such as that of turner and milling machine, capable of creating metal parts exclusively dedicated to our equipment and manufactured nowhere else», underlines Line Brunner, operating director of the Bay of Somme railway main tourist train in France with nearly 215,000 passengers transported in 2023.
The associations also call on the know-how of the oldest for driving trains. “In Île-de-France, the last steam locomotives ran until 1969 on the Bastille line (ancestor of one of the eastern branches of the RER A, Editor’s note). It is their former drivers who trained our volunteers. One of the missions of associations like ours is to pass on these skills from generation to generation.», underlines Pascal Berger, administrator of theAjecta association which also manages the Living Railway Museum in Longueville (Seine-et-Marne).
A second life also for abandoned lines
Once the trains have entered the collections, we still have to find the tracks on which to run them. Very often, these are portions of lines decommissioned and acquired by the department or the associations themselves. The Baie de Somme Railways thus use the former private Bains de Mer network, in operation from 1887 to 1972, now owned by the Somme department. THE Pignes Train travels on the line Good – Digne-des-Bains, managed by the PACA region, while the Vendée railway between Mortagne sur Sèvre and Les Herbiers, runs on an old section of the national network.
“For associations that rent or own their own network, traffic authorization is given by the prefecture, more precisely by its Technical Service for Ski Lifts and Guided Transport (STRMTG)», recalls Henri Barbier. But everything becomes complicated when these trains must run on the national network alongside passenger and freight trains. “In this case, the associations must reserve a train path (traffic slot, Editor’s note) at least three months before the desired departure date. Then charge to SNCF Réseau timetablers to integrate this train into other traffic while ensuring that the train meets the characteristics of the tracks used, for example in terms of mass or traction power», continues Pascal Berger.
“Our trains then run under the SNCF safety certificate which defines the specifications to be respected. The presence of an SNCF traction frame is mandatory in our locomotives alongside the driver and the mechanic», he adds. So many rules to respect in order to display your collection to as many curious people as possible. Thus, on May 22 and June 25, travelers at the Gare du Nord in Paris will be surprised to see old trains from the association National Heritage Railway Equipment (MFPN). Parked among the TER and TGV trains, they will set off to Le Tréport and Boulogne-sur-Mer with hundreds of enthusiasts on board seated on leatherette benches. When ancient meets modern.