STEWART BLENCOWE
BOOKS
BOOKS
News & Jottings
We even had to suffer the ignominy recently of SNOW in the south of France and although we were a little way up in the Pyrenees, the thermal underwear was the one thing missing from my travel bag!
Europe is no longer the cheap holiday it used to be. We proved that again last month with a ten-day trip re-visiting old railway haunts in south France although I’m sure my wife’s insistence that we stayed in ‘decent’ accommodation didn’t help! Still, her wish to view the likes of Monaco, Cannes and Antibes was satisfied and, thankfully, we shall never, ever, have to return.
The railway interest around Nice is dominated by the Nice-Digne and Nice-Tende lines which are both hugely enjoyable for different reasons. The last time I travelled on the former it was facing certain closure but thank goodness, someone saw sense, and it looks well patronized, at last on the bottom half which snakes through the suburbs of Nice. The wonderful original station in Nice has been partly ‘car-parked’ and the elaborate frontage is held together with scaffolding awaiting the development of social complex behind. It looks like the existing 1970’s diesel units are about to be replaced as we saw a brand new unit at Annot, still in it’s wrapping paper and possibly under trials. The shed at Puget was visited where Portuguese Mallet E211 was under repair and the little 1925 0-6-0T looked likely to haul the now shortened steam runs during the season.
My love of railway ‘ghosts’ took us up to St Sauveur from where an electric tramway once fed into the Digne line at La Tinnee. Although the terminus has long gone several stations ‘exist’ en route along with one or two bridges and embankments. The ‘find’, however, was the original St Sauveur ‘auberge’ or station hostel which served up one of the best meals we had in France, surrounded by tramway pictures on the walls!
The scenery of the Nice-Tende line never fails to impress and Tende is a delightful small French town with a mountain backdrop. Just back down the line, at Breil-sur-Roya, is an embryonic transport museum behind the station.
Our other ‘raison d’etre’ in France was La Tour du Carol, in the foothills of the Pyrenees and served by three railways, all of different gauges. We stayed in an excellent b&b in the station yard at Villefranche at the end of the branch from Perpignan and at the start of the 1115mm electric third rail line to LTC. The journey in the hundred year old stock on this unique line includes traversing the 18 arch, double storey Sejorne viaduct and the spectacular 80m high Gisclard suspension bridge – wonderful.
La Tour du Carol was, in the past, an important transfer point between the 1115mm narrow gauge, the standard gauge of SNCF and the broad gauge of Spanish Railways. The past glory is somewhat faded but we did manage to get trains on all three gauges, in one photograph! We were speculating where else this happens……in the world?
So, back to work although I do have a ‘Last of the Summer Wine’ trip coming up in July – a revisit to some of the old East German narrow gauge lines which were still behind ‘the wall’ last time I saw them!
Thanks to all who are viewing and buying through the website and from the stand at the various shows. The recent Reading Fair was well attended and an excellent day. It will be of no surprise that there really is a glut of the more common and less desirable books around which all the dealers of having trouble with, and although it goes across the grain, collections are being turned down. Still I hope the website maintains a fair degree of quality. I shall possibly be purchasing a large collection of Working Timetables shortly so if you have any specific wants in that area, please let me know. Photographs continue to be popular so I am always looking for more if you happen to be thinning down or disposing.
I am an avid collector of Indian railway publicity, guides, books, folders, leaflets etc. In line with English railways, such publicity started with the original Indian companies, the Bombay, Baroda and Central India, the Bengal Nagpur, the East Indian etc in late Victorian times and continued up to the 1950s. I am particularly trying to obtain all the folders, like the one illustrated below, and would love to hear from anyone who has one of the following;
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Big Game Shooting in India
India and the Tourist India for the Tourist Tourist Cars Indian Cameos South India Travancore Kangra Valley |  |