PontAuRail
Encyclopedia
PontAuRail is an voluntary association
Voluntary association
A voluntary association or union is a group of individuals who enter into an agreement as volunteers to form a body to accomplish a purpose.Strictly speaking, in many jurisdictions no formalities are necessary to start an association...
created in 1995 to run trains between Pont-Audemer
Gare de Pont-Audemer
Gare de Pont-Audemer is a former railway station in the market town of Pont-Audemer, Eure in Normandie. The station is on the railway line from Paris-Saint-Lazare to Honfleur via Brionne....
and Honfleur in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. The group comprises approximately fifty voluntary members, of which twenty are active.
An agreement, une convention signée, allows PontAuRail to use the line between Pont-Audemer
Pont-Audemer
Pont-Audemer is a commune in the Eure department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France.-Population:-Sights:The commune was spared substantial damage to its historic buildings during the Battle of Normandy. Nowadays the half-timbered buildings and the canals running between them are a...
and Honfleur
Honfleur
Honfleur is a commune in the Calvados department in northwestern France. It is located on the southern bank of the estuary of the Seine across from le Havre and very close to the exit of the Pont de Normandie...
on request on Saturdays, Sundays and Bank holiday
Bank Holiday
A bank holiday is a public holiday in the United Kingdom or a colloquialism for public holiday in Ireland. There is no automatic right to time off on these days, although the majority of the population is granted time off work or extra pay for working on these days, depending on their contract...
s.
The trip along the Risle
Risle
The Risle is a long river in Normandy, left tributary of the Seine.The river begins in Orne west of L'Aigle, crosses the western part of the department of Eure flowing from south to north and out into the estuary of the Seine on the left bank near Berville-sur-Mer...
valley lasts fifty-five minutes, including manoeuvers; closing of the semi-automatic level crossing
Level crossing
A level crossing occurs where a railway line is intersected by a road or path onone level, without recourse to a bridge or tunnel. It is a type of at-grade intersection. The term also applies when a light rail line with separate right-of-way or reserved track crosses a road in the same fashion...
s in Pont-Audemer and shunting
Shunting
Shunting is an event in the neuron which occurs when an excitatory postsynaptic potential and an inhibitory postsynaptic potential are occurring close to each other on a dendrite, or are both on the soma of the cell....
in Honfleur.
Rolling stock
SNCF
The SNCF , is France's national state-owned railway company. SNCF operates the country's national rail services, including the TGV, France's high-speed rail network...
Diesel multiple units, X2426
SNCF Class X 2400
SNCF's X 2400 are a class of railcars. The 79 XABDP 2400, unifiés 600 hp were built from 1951 to 1955. They were capable of carrying 12 passengers in 1st class and 56 in 2nd class, they were 27 m long and capable of reaching a top speed of 120 km/h...
and X4555
SNCF Class X 4500
The SNCF Class X 4500 diesel multiple units were built by ANF between 1963-1970. The X4500 class are one of four classes of similar design known as "Caravelles" as when built the engine sound reminded railwaymen of the contemporary French SE210 'Caravelle' jet airliner. X4500 are identical to the...
.
- Railcar X2426 was officially decommissioned on 27 September 1987 in Limoges. Saved from scrapping, it became the property of the Train Touristique du CotentinTrain Touristique du CotentinThe Train Touristique du Cotentin is a heritage railway and voluntary association in Basse-Normandie, France. The railway runs between Barneville-Carteret and Portbail on part of the former railway line linking Carentan to Barneville-Carteret in Cotentin....
until 1995 when it was purchased by the Risle Seine SIVOM to create pleasure railway service between Pont-AudemerPont-AudemerPont-Audemer is a commune in the Eure department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France.-Population:-Sights:The commune was spared substantial damage to its historic buildings during the Battle of Normandy. Nowadays the half-timbered buildings and the canals running between them are a...
and HonfleurHonfleurHonfleur is a commune in the Calvados department in northwestern France. It is located on the southern bank of the estuary of the Seine across from le Havre and very close to the exit of the Pont de Normandie...
. It remained parked in Gare de CarentanGare de CarentanGare de Carentan is a railway station serving the town Carentan, Manche department, northwestern France. It is situated on the Mantes-la-Jolie–Cherbourg railway.-Services:-References:*...
for a long time and then was vandalised in Gare de Pont-AudemerGare de Pont-AudemerGare de Pont-Audemer is a former railway station in the market town of Pont-Audemer, Eure in Normandie. The station is on the railway line from Paris-Saint-Lazare to Honfleur via Brionne....
. It was then restored carefully and repainted in its original livery. The X2426 is now the property of PontAuRail following the dismantling of the SIVOM.
- DMUDiesel multiple unitA diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple unit train consisting of multiple carriages powered by one or more on-board diesel engines. They may also be referred to as a railcar or railmotor, depending on country.-Design:...
X4555 was entrusted to PontAuRail by the SNCFSNCFThe SNCF , is France's national state-owned railway company. SNCF operates the country's national rail services, including the TGV, France's high-speed rail network...
in 2004. The X4555 was built in 1965 and allocated to Lyon VaiseLyonLyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
on 10 November 1965. It was then moved to NeversNeversNevers is a commune in – and the administrative capital of – the Nièvre department in the Bourgogne region in central France...
on 23 May 1971 then to MarseilleMarseilleMarseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
on 9 June 1971 and finally to Longueau on 30 September 1982. It was then decommissioned in September 2003. It ran services in 2005 in replacement of the X2426, which is less powerful than the X4555.
Stations
- Pont-AudemerGare de Pont-AudemerGare de Pont-Audemer is a former railway station in the market town of Pont-Audemer, Eure in Normandie. The station is on the railway line from Paris-Saint-Lazare to Honfleur via Brionne....
- Toutainville
- Saint-Maclou
- Beuzeville
- Quetteville
- La Rivière Saint-Sauveur
- Honfleur