© René Hulot, honorary chairman of FACS-UNECTO
translated by Jean-Michel Zaniroli
FOREWORDOur association is now 40 years old. The first issue of our newsletter, which was then named Chemins de fer Secondaires, was published on 1 january 1957. This wasn't a real newsletter but it contained the articles of our association that were officialized in the Journal Officiel on 16 march 1957.
Why did the founders - Claude Wagner, Jean-Claude Riffaud, Bernard Rozé, hubert Mozaive and a few others - take such a move? They all came from the Association Française des Amis des Chemins de fer (AFAC) and had found it necessary to publish a newsletter in order be better known. Jean Robert, Jacques Rossetti, Jean-Louis La Rosa, J-B Prudhommeaux and René Tétart had the same necessity in mind when they founded the Association pour le Musée des Transports Urbains et Ruraux (AMTUIR)
THE YEAR 1957This year was a turning point. The hard times of the post-war period were now over and thirty years of prosperity and changes were ahead.
Branch and local lines that had known a tremendous surge of activity during the bleak war years were now being closed down in a hurry although 3000 Km of narrow gauge lines were to be modernized under the Monnet plan.
Supporters of the now all- powerful car objected to sharing town streets with "clattering" and "traffic-jam generating" tramways. Paris itself had "wisely" got rid of tramways shortly before the 1937 international exhibition. The then monthly newsletter which was published in a very precarious way by the late Jacques Chapuis who had joined in june 1957 monotonously and persistantly reported the closing down of lines. What remained of the once famous Saint Brieux-Paimpol line in the Côtes du Nord had been discontinued at the end of 1956 and the two DeDion OC1 railcars had been transferred to another part of Brittany.
THE END OF LOCAL RAILWAYSThe Saint-Just en Chaussée-Froissy ligne was closed at the end of 1958, Annemasse-Sixt and Montereau-Egreville were dicontinued the following year, the Tramways of Corrèze followed on 31 december 1959. Urban tramway lines were closed in Versailles, Bordeaux and Strasbourg. So called "secondary" SNCF lines were to follow: Vesoul-Besançon on 14 may 1959, Lerouville-Sedan on 11 may 1959 and Auch-Vic en Bigorre on 30 may 1959. Lines are still being closed forty years later, irreversibly it seems.
Meanwhile, the newsletter carried on but on alternate months from 1960 on (N° 37 - Jan/feb 1960) This allowed the publishing of longer articles about branch lines and urban networks. The front page with a picture in black and white made way for a double page on blue background which became a fixture of the newsletter.
Membership was growing steadily from 170 at the end of 1959 to 500 in 1964. That figure had been set up as a limit above which higher quality printing was required. The new formula started with N°66 in december 1964 with the beginning of a study about commuter network in the Paris area. The following issue about the tramways of Corrèze was published in a smaller 15*21 format to cut costs.
TRAVELSJacques Bazin organized many railway trips for FACS members and we were the only ones to do so at that time. Among these were the Brittany network in june 1960 - it was to be closed in 1966 - , the Ternynck sugar factory on 14 october 1961 with the Weidknecht Decauville engine and the Martroy now to be seen in Pithiviers, the POC on 31 may 1964, the Valenciennes tramways in the same year... and many others.
Standard gauge lines weren't forgotten either. A 030 T overhauled by the FACS ran on Mamers-StCalais on 12 june 1965. Using SNCF lines was much easier then than nowadays. On 13 march 1956 the first preserved train ran on the Petite Ceinture -Paris' inner circular ligne - hauled by 230 D 51 (Nord) and 141 TC (Ouest) on the Val de Seine ligne, then 141 TC 45 (Nord) from Les Batignolles to Gare du Nord. Special trains were run on several lines throughout the sixties: Troyes-Châtillon sur Seine with 130 B (Est), Cercy la Tour-Château Chinon with 242 TB (P.L.M), Chinon-Port de Piles with 230 G 352 (P.O) and the Grande Ceinture -Paris' outer circular line - with 141 C 78 (Ouest). We'll end this survey by a Paris to Beauvais via Creil return journey with 230 G 353.
We would like our readers to bear in mind the fact that this engine had come back from the Montluçon depot to Paris at our own request so that it could haul special trains; It is now kept in good repair by the SNCF and was thoroughly overhauled in 1996. Let us come back to the 60s and a quick succession of lines being disused. The Pithiviers-Toury tramway closed on 31 december 1964. The Réseau Breton, France's largest metric gauge network closed in 1966 and the Vivarais line in 1968. The mission the FACS had undertaken, namely the preservation of the last local lines, had failed.
TRAMWAYS IN TOWNSThe only remaining tramway lines in France were the short N°68 line in Marseilles, another line in Saint-Etienne and the Mongy Lille. A joint move was made in Pithiviers at the beginning of 1965 by the chairmen of FACS and AMTUIR who asked the Conseil Général of the Loiret département to lease them part of the Pithiviers-Orme line together with two engines, four vans the sheds and workshop. The council was taken by surpriseand agreed to the request, thus was born on 23 april 1966 the first "living museum line" in France. The forest railway at Abreschviller opened soon afterwards and MM Arrivetz and Virot from Lyons reopened the Tournon - Lamastre in 1969. Rolling stock was soon gathered there: almost all the carriages from the Réseau Breton which were still running in 1966, the three carriages of the Tramways de la Sarthe which were owned by FACS.
RAILWAY PRESERVATIONThe FACS and AMTUIR had already taken care of the railway heritage. The AMTUIR had started its collection by buying the N°1 engine of the Versailles tramway which was stored in the disused depot of CGPT at Malakoff. A Piguet engine and a small 2-axle carriage were bought by subscription among members of the FACS when the Tramways de la Corrèze closed at the end of 1959. In the same year, our English member, Mr Klingan, discovered two Corpet-Louvet N° 73 & 75 from the steam tramways of Ile et Vilaine in a chalk-pit belonging to the Lambert Co. He found a third similar engine there which had belonged to the Chemins de Fer Economiques des Charentes. Very limited funding only allowed us to save N° 75 which was transferred to Malakoff. Then the preservation movement initiated by FACS gathered strength and the N°103 of the Chemin de Fer de Grande Banlieue, the 230 T 327 from the Réseau Breton, N°101 & 104 Pinguely engines from POC... and others were bought. These engines could then be lent to new touristic railways which would overhaul them and use them.
THE END OF STEAMThe end of steam was announced by the SNCF in 1965 and the FACS couldn't let that move go unheeded. Many steam trips were organized in the years 1970-75, on 31 march 1973 from Troyes to Chatillon sur Seine with 140 C 38, one of the last CFTA engines from Gray, on 8 march 1975 from Moulin to Lyons with 141 R 1187 from Vénissieux depot, from Paris to Reims via La Ferté Milon with 231 K 8 which was bought by the FACS soon afterwards.
Locomotive 140 C 314 was bought from Chaumont depot and was stored in Gray with 230 G 352 . They were joined by 141 R 568 which had been bought by a member on his own. Steam disappeared from SNCF lines in a very hushed way. The preservation of electric locomotives wasn't forgotten either. The 2D2 5525 is owned jointly by FACS-AFAC-COPEF.
TOURISTIC RAILWAYSWhile preserved railways grew in numbers thanks to steam enthusiasts, the SNCF banned privately-owned locomotives from its tracks. This measure even applied to former SNCF engines... The FACS decided to set up a union of the operators of touristic railways (UNECTO) which was to be an independant body with a president elected anually. The move was a complete failure so the FACS resumed control in 1975 until new regulations were issued in 1997, namely two separate associations with the same president. The UNECTO now represents 35 railways and has been acknowledged at last by the SNCF. Co-operation proposals are being studied.
FIRST TRAINS ON SNCF LINESAs early as 1981, president R. Hulot ably helped by Mr P. Didier then a magistrate at the Supreme Court of Appeal (Cour de Cassation) had been negotiating with Mr Bronner who was legal adviser to the SNCF and a member of the same Court. The SNCF ban was subsequently removed and a first trip was organized between Gray and Vesoul with 141 R 568 on 29 november 1981. Other associations seized this opportunity and the number of special train trips has become so high that booking all seats in carriages seldom happens nowadays. We are a long way from the 400 passengers that made the first trip on the Petite Ceinture on 13 march 1966. Some tour organizers had the good idea of buying assorted carriage along with ex-SNCF locomotives (141 R 420, 231 G 558, AJECTA, Train à Vapeur de Touraine, Chemin de Fer Touristique du Vermandois) because there is little rolling stock of this kind still available, especially in the Paris area.
The FACS newsletter still regularly came out but as the number of magazines and associations increased in the 80s, membership dwindled and the standard 21*29.7 size was chosen on 1 january 1987. The number of colour pictures rose too, of course, but our copy writers still make a point of presenting historical articles in black and white. The death of Jacques Chapuis in december 1996 is deeply regretted by readers who appreciated the very accurate studies he made for us over the years.
HISTORICAL MONUMENTSA very important fact cannot be omitted it this short survey of 40 years of railway preservation in France. The council for the preservation of historical monuments (Direction du Patrimoine) asked the FACS to make a list of all steam locomotives which hadn't been scrapped. The "historical monuments" administration started getting interested in 19th century industrial heritage in the early 80s. Anything produced in the 19 th century was despised during the first half of this century. Baron Hausmann's architecture was persistently laughed at and the Orsay station in Paris nearly got demolished. The "pagoda" by Guimard at the Bastille Metro station wasn't spared and what purely industrial buildings remained were at best looked at with scorn. People often get interesting in arts or techniques when it's almost too late to save them. It was the case for steam locomotives, then for old rolling stock and later for the first electric locomotives. So the FACS set up a report about existing engines and marked the most interesting ones for official preservation. 49 locomotives and rolling stock of all types and gauges were ultimately classified as historical monuments by the Direction du Patrimoine. Local authorities which had often felt no concern for volunteer work in railway preservation groups started looking at the matter in a more positive way when they realized there were "historical monuments" at their door... The "children" of FACS - AMTP, Abreschviller and others - had most of their engines officially preserved that way.
We think our thousand present-day members can be proud of these 40 years of volunteer preservation work and we hope the next generation will carry on with as much dedication and efficiency.
© René Hulot, honorary chairman of FACS-UNECTO