Departmental Railroads of the Sum

August 1st The network of the departmental Railroads of the Sum, conceded with the General society of the economic railroads was a departmental network of railways of local interest (VFIL) to metric gauge Track, which counted up to 329 km of lines, organized in 3 geographical groups:

Like the majority of the district distributers, that of the Sum was at the same time intended for the transport of the people and the routing of the local productions, which they are agricultural (cereals and beets in particular, on this network), artisanal or industrial.

History

During Second half of, the Compagnie of the railroads of North carried out several lines serving the territory of the Sum (Ligne Paris - Lille, Ligne Longueau - Calais, Ligne Creil - Jeumont), but of many sectors remained far from the Railroad. One thus assisted as from the years 1880 with an important building site of grid, me' born as well by North, under his general network of intéêt, as by the Department, using the possibilities which were offered to him by the regulation of the “railways of local interest”, the VFIL.

In this context, the Compagnie of the railroads of North decided to create a junction on its Ligne Longueau - Calais to connect the station of Noyelles to Saint-Valery-sur-Somme, which was still an important commercial port.

This junction, governs by the mode of the Railroads of general interest, crossed bay of Somme on a long wood pier 1300 meters.

In addition, in 1882, the Department of the Sum decided the construction of a coherent whole of secondary lines with metric gauge track intended to supplement the network of the company of North.

It carried out the infrastructure of this network VFIL, and the exploitation of it with the General society of the economic railroads conceded (SE).

Layout of the lines

Group Sea bathings

Line Noyelles - Crotoy

This line with metric gauge Track of 7,469 km was brought into service in 1887. It skirts Right Bank of the Baie of Somme and served, at the time of the commercial exploitation, two halts: Morlay (common of Ponthoile) and Favières, located at 2 km of this village.

Line Noyelles - Saint-Valery

This single-track line , long, 5,6 km was inaugurated in 1856 by the Compagnie of North. It was put at double spacing (normal way and voiue narrow overlapping) in 1887.

It includes/understands over all its length four files of rail: with the center the metric gauge Track, outside the normal Way, and is established on a Digue which replaced in 1912 the pier out of wooden of the origins, which had 1.367 Mr. length.

Little before crossing the Channel of the Somme on a bridge-lock remakes in 2006, it skirts the deposit-workshop of the Group of the sea bathings, and, today, of the CFBS, established beside old the station of Saint-Valery-Channel .

The terminus of this line with double spacing was with the station of Saint-Valery-City, prolonged by a harbor junction which constitutes today the terminus of Saint-Valery for the CFBS.

Line Saint-Valery - Cayeux

This line is the continuation of the line of Noyelles to Saint-Valery, but is only with metric gauge Track, and was created by SE on September 6th, 1887 in the railroads.

After having left Holy Valery-City (km 6 compared to Noyelles) by a strong slope to rise on the level of the littoral plate, it served a halt called Saint-Valéry (km 7), then Pendé - Routhiau (km 11), Lanchères - Pendé (km 13), where was the installations of a rapery with beets, then Hurt (km 16) before reaching the terminus of Cayeux-on-Sea (km 18).

In addition to its passenger traffic, she assumes the transport of Galet S in bulk, used in particular in the industry of the cement factory, as well as the transport of shells or beets towards the sugar refinery of Lanchères.

Line Noyelles - Forest-l' Abbey

This line of 11 km was brought into service on August 24th, 1892 in the railroads. It was primarily intended to connect the line of Abbeville to Forest-l' Abbaye for the remainder of the network, but also accommodates a considerable beet traffic, in particular towards the sugar refinery of Lanchères, on the line of Cayeux.

It separated from the two other lines of the group of the sea bathings at the exit of the Gare of Noyelles, passed to the top of the ways Northern (Ligne Longueau - Calais), crossed the plate of the Ponthieu and joined with Forest-l' Abbaye the Abbeville line - Dompierre, after having stopped at the stations and stops of Sailly - Bray, Sailly-the-Dryness, Nouvion-in-Ponthieu.

The line Abbeville - Dompierre

The line, of 31 km, took its origin with the Gare of Abbeville (Northern), followed the ways of the wide-area network until Abbeville-Carries Wood , (while serving the stop of before Saint-Gilles Abbeville-Carries) then traversed the Ponthieu by serving Drucat, Plessiel-Drucat, Canchy - Neuilly, Lamotte-Buleux and reached Forest-l' Abbaye where it met the line coming from Noyelles. The line continued towards Dompierre, by serving the halt of the Forêt of Crécy (where industrial junctions a company of wood forwarding and a phosphate factory served), the station of Crécy - Estrées (service road of a sugar refinery), the halt of Wadicourt (two manifold centres of beets) then the terminus of Dompierre-on-Authie, with the limit of the department of the Pas-de-Calais.

A prolongation of the line was considered towards the Pas-de-Calais, but never carried out.

This line was brought into service on June 19th, 1892 in the railroads, and was closed with the passenger traffic in 1947, only a service Noyelles - Forest-l' Abbaye - Crécy remains until in 1951.

Group of Amiens

The group of Amiens consisted of only one line, Amiens - Aumale - Envermeu, that is to say 58 km for the section located in the department of the Sum.

The line was carried out in three sections:

Although it is exploited by the CFD of the Sum, the part of the line located between Aumale and Envermeu is in the department of the Seine-Maritime

The line closed with the service traveller in 1940, and any traffic in 1947. The line of Envermeu had its terminus amiénois in Gare of Saint-Roch (Somme), where it had a section common of 900 m with the line to normal Voie Amiens - Canaple until the level crossing of the street Robert Lecoq (Junction known as of Renancourt ).

It served then:

Group of Albert

This group had its terminus in Gare of Albert (Company of the railroads of North|North), initially in the west of the ways of the wide-area network, that the secondary lines of Ham and Montdidier crossed by a bridge.

After the First World War, the terminus of Economic was moved in the east of the ways of the wide-area network, and it was the line of Doullens which spanned them by a bridge.

This group was in the zone of the combat of the Bataille of the Sum, and the installations of its lines and stations were destroyed in many points or were doubled by military railroads to way Decauville.

Line of Albert with Doullens

This line of 42,348 km was open in several sections: November 15th, 1888 in the railroads of Doullens to Beauval, on February 14th, 1889 in the railroads of Beauval to Beauquesne and finally on August 3rd, 1891 in the railroads of Beauquesne to Albert.

The line skirted the deposit-workshop of Albert, then served the stops of Aveluy and Martinsart, the station of the Mesnil-Martinsart, the stop of Auchonvillers, Mailly-Mallet, Bertrancourt, Acheux - Varennes, Léalvillers, Louvencourt, Vauchelles, Raincheval - Arquèves, Beauquesne, Beauval, which had an industrial junction to serve a phosphate factory as well as the covers " Saint-Frères". The line joined the line of the northern Amiens - Frévent with Gézaincourt and, by a base joint to 4 rails (the metric gauge Track of the secondary railroad was placed inside the normal Voie of North), reached its terminus of Doullens.

Line Albert - Montdidier

This line was open on June 25th, 1889 in the railroads of Montdidier to Rosières-in-Santerre, then on October 26th, 1889 in the railroads of Rosières to the line of Ham (Junction of Fricourt)

Line Albert - Ham

The line was open on April 1st, 1889 in the railroads of Albert to Péronne, and on October 24th, 1889 in the railroads of Péronne to Ham.

It was in joint base with the line of Montdidier on the first 5,75 km (where the halts of Albert (km 3) were desserviues, Bécordel-Bécourt (km 6)), and it separated some at the station from Fricourt (km 8).

The line rose then on the plate towards the valley of the Sum, while serving Mametz (km 10), Carnoy (km 12), Montauban-of-Picardy (km 16), Guillemont (km 18), Combles (km 23), Maurepas (km 28), Hem-Monacu (km 32), Feuillères (km 33), Cléry-on-Nap, where the line crossed this coastal river, then arrived at Péronne by serving the stops the Quincunx (km 41), Faubourg of Brittany (km 41) and Fibula-Flamicourt (km 43) parks it where it gave correspondence with the line of North Saint-Just-in-Roadway - Cambrai. A deposit-workshop of the line had been arranged there.

After having crossed on level the way of the Northern , the line attaignait Mesnil-Bruntel (km 5 of Fibula), Mons-in-Roadway (km 8), Athies (km 12), Devise (km 13), Monchy-Lagache (km 16), Fletz-Douv. (km 18), Quivières (km 19), Cross-Moligneaux (km 21), Matigny (km 23) and Offoy (km 28). At this station was made the junction of the junction of Ercheu, but the line continued towards the stop of Canisy (km 30) then reached its terminus of the station of Ham (km 34), where it gave correspondence with the line of the district distributers of the Railroads of the North-East towards Saint-Quentin, the line of the secondary Noyon - Guiscard - Ham as well as the line of the network of the Northern of Amiens to Laon.

Junction of Offoy to Ercheu

It was about a junction on the line Albert - Ham, open on July 14th, 1890 in the railroads, and prolonged in the department of Oise until Bussy, in order to create a grid with the Ligne Boundary-line - Guiscard, VFIL of the Department of Oise.

Characteristics of the ways and buildings

The network was equipped with a single track with metric spacing (except the section with double spacing mentioned in descriptions of lines), the crossings of trains being done in the stations.

The way of the departmental network was armed in Rail S Vignole with 15 and 20 kg/m, as that was practiced on the various networks managed by the General society of the economic railroads, but the line of Cayeux could réutiuliser after the Second world war the rails of 25 kg/m of the line with normal way of Ault-Onival.

Considering the low number of trains in circulation on the lines of the network, there was no indication, if it is not with the junctions and base joint with the lines of the Northern , where the mechanical signalation of the wide-area network was also employed.

Exploitation

The exploitation vapor

The dieseliasation

The first rail-cars appear about the middle of the Thirties, while in 1957/59 intervenes a new stage of modernization with the repurchase of three power trolleys diesels and three more modern rail-cars.

Material

Engines

Cars and coaches

Preserved material

August 1st The Railroad of bay of Somme preserved a big part of the material of the network during its closing:
  • 3 power trolleys,
  • Rail-cars M 31, M 41, M 42, M 43, trailer R 6
  • Rail-car VFIL M-42 (1936), ex- Persan-Beaumont - Ercuis then Economic Railroads of the Sum.

Other tourist railroads preserved material having rolled on the network:

End of the network

The Department of the Sum, authority copncédante of the network (and thus which assumed the deficit of it growing) decided after the Second world war the closing of the groups of Amiens and Albert.

  • the line Abbeville - Dompierre, which had been removed iron during the war of its section Gare of Abbeville - Suburb of the Door of Wood, was closed with the travellers on March 10th, 1947 in the railroads. The line of Noyelles with Forest-l' Abbaye was limited to Crécy, for the travellers, and was maintained of Canchy with Dompierre for the service of the sugar refinery of Lanchères.

  • the section Fricourt - Montdidier - Rollot of the line Albert - Montdidier was removed on April 15th, 1948 in the railroads for the service road travellers, the section has lbert - Froissy remaining exploited for the goods until December 31st, 1948 in the railroads.

  • Amiens - Aumale was closed on June 1st, 1948 in the railroads.

  • on July 1st, 1949 in the railroads saw the closing of the junction of Offoy in Hercheu, and of the line of Albert with Doullens (the service road Albert goods - Acheux remaining assured until December 31st, 1949 in the railroads).

  • the Line Albert - Ham also closed on December 31st, 1949 in the railroads.

  • on February 1st, 1951 in the railroads ceased the exploitation travellers of the line Noyelles - Forest-l' Abbaye as of the section Forest-l' Abbaye - Crécy of what remained line Abbeville - Dompierre.

  • the service travellers of the Ercheu antenna - Bussy, which continued old the junction of Offoy with Ercheu ceased on February 1st, 1954 in the railroads.

These various lines preserved an occasional service goods, in particular for the beet campaigns, until 1955 for Ercheu - Bussy, 1956 for Forest-l' Abbaye - Dompierre and 1965 for Noyelles - Forest-l' Abbaye and Forest-l' Abbaye - Canchy.

The conceded exploitation was maintained on the 2 lines of the seaside, until December 31st, 1969 in the railroads for the Noyelles line - Crotoy and on December 31st, 1972 in the railroads for the Saint-Valery line - Cayeux.

The SNCF took again the exploitation freight of the Noyelles line - Saint-Valery-Port, thanks to its double spacing sees normal/metric gauge track, of December 31st, 1972 to its permanent closure, on February 6th, 1989 in the railroads.

After downgrading of the network of general interest and repurchase by the Department of the Sum, these lines of bay from now on are exploited successfully by the association of the Railroad of bay of Somme which transformed them into tourist railroad. The first tourist circulations took place in 1971 (line of Crotoy) and 1973 (line of Cayeux), and the CFBS undertakes an important work of safeguarding and development of the railway inheritance, while supporting the tourist development of the Baie of Somme.

See also: Railroad of bay of Somme

Notes and references of the article

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