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Great 3 days at Pithiviers

Discussion in 'Narrow Gauge Railways' started by Purple Emperor, Jun 26, 2012.

  1. Purple Emperor

    Purple Emperor New Member

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    I've wanted to visit the Pithiviers tramway for some time. They have some very tempting engines in their operating fleet.
    I was very keen to film them working. The weekend of 23rd 24th June was shown on their website as the 120th anniversary
    of the Pithiviers-Toury Tramway, but they didn't say what was happening or what was running.

    I went on Friday 22nd because this was shown as a diesel day, and they have 2 I wanted to film. It turned out that No 10
    an 0-6-2T Decauville worked two round trips for schoolchildren, but T11 the Gmeinder HF130 0-6-0 diesel did a full line trip
    with a works train. I was lent a bike to chase this train to the Bellebat terminous to video the shunting!

    Saturday was even better. The 2 passenger engines were No5 an 0-6-0T Blanc-Misseron and No12 a massive (for 2' gauge)
    0-8-0T Franco-Belge. The driver proudly told me his engine weighed 23 tonnes. The passenger service was half- hourly from
    14-00 until 17-45 trains crossing at the mid-way loop. Their tram (autorail) AT1 also performed a round trip and gave rides
    on the Bellebat inner loop. To my delight both dieselswere working, mostly shunting. T15 is a Gmeinder 2 axle 8 tonne shunter.

    Sunday was more of the same with No 10 and No5 being the passenger locos.

    So all 3 operational steam engines were used. No9 a very fine 2-6-0T La Meuse was under repair and there were many other
    engines scattered about the depot and museum.

    Keith
     

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