JOURNEYS OF DISCOVERY

Slowly it dawned upon me that the Michelin road map wasn’t wrong after all – railways existed in these remote regions. When my family visited the caves at Roquefort to see how the cheese is matured I sloped off to the railway station. Nothing doing – no passenger timetable but at least the tracks were not rusty. Oddly there was an electronic destination indicator for Millau or Béziers. The station name board said Tournemire-Roquefort so I input this to Google and by a miracle up came a TER timetable. Many hours later I had worked out a day’s circular itinerary including the Aveyron Gorge, a TGV (Toulouse-Béziers) and a two coach mini-express from Béziers northwards. So on a cool August morning I returned to Tournemire-Roquefort and shivered with two others in the morning mist under the wires awaiting the 07.10 to Rodez, which I surely expected would be a bus. It wasn’t, it was diesel unit 2110, warm and empty stock from Millau to collect us. We descended the Soulzon valley to the Tarn Gorge and under the famous new road viaduct. Then we attacked an eight mile climb at 1 in 35 to the Col d’Engayresque from where we looked down on the pylons of the Millau viaduct.

Such was my introduction to the fabulous Ligne des Causses, opened in 1890 and worked by double-headed 4-8-0 tanks before pioneering electrification by the CF du Midi in 1932. The original catenary is still intact and operating.
To my huge pleasure the day’s itinerary planned straight off the internet worked a treat, thanks in part to the tolerance and understanding of a strange Anglo-Saxon by French railway officials. Thirteen hours, fifty seven tunnels and forty five viaducts later I alighted at Tournemire-Roquefort totally besotted with the classic railways of France profonde.
Subsequent trips have taken me over the Viaduc de Viaur, through the Col du Lioran (3,500ft), along the northern part of the Ligne des Causses including the mighty Viaduc de Garabit aboard the former Aubrac express, through the Cévennes in winter (I counted 105 tunnels between Langeac and Alés) and in deep snow down the 1 in 28 incline out of Le Mont-Dore terminus. There is still much to do and comprehend but thanks to the SNCF Society I have been able to piece together the history of these lines and understand what I am seeing. Truly a journey of discovery from ignorance to enlightenment - I can’t wait to return.

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