The 3rd railroad of France : Andrézieux -
Le Coteau
The concession, the construction and the
operation
The difficulties of the navigation on the
Loire river between Andrézieux and Roanne restricted the export of the
coal from Saint Etienne so it was decided (even before the first railroad)
to prolong the export to Roanne.
The conditions and contract were approved on March 29, 1828. The tender
took place o July 21, 1828 and there was only one tenderer, Henry et
Mellet company which tendered with only half centime discount! On August
27, 1828 a Royal decree confirmed that choice. On April 14, 1829, Mallet
et Henry, two graduates of the Ecole Polytechnique, formed the company
"Compagnie du chemin de fer de la Loire". In 1828, they presented
the planed route. They rejected the route along the Loire riverside which
was a route with a continuous slope but which was longer (80 kilometers
instead of 67) and because it was impossible to build a double tracks line
in the more difficult part of this route. They preferred the direct way
thru Neulise and L'Hopital. Thirty years later, the rejected route was
the route which was chosen to modify the first route but the technical
and financial resources changed a lot in this period. The route was approved
on March 21, 1830.
The iron rail #1 , with simple head weighted
65 kg with 5 meters length (13 kg/m). They were supported by cast iron
chairs every 0.83 meters fixed on stone dices. Wooden sleepers were used
on unstable ground. The railroad was composed of two 1.45 m tracks with
1 m between the tracks except a 2500 m one way section. Though only one
track was installed on the majority of the line. The curves had more than
300 m radius except two of them which had 200 m radius. Two tunnels were
digged in porphyry along Gand river, they are more than 100 m length, 3.50
m width and 4.50 m high.
The company was operating transportation during
the second part of 1832 with some relay on the La Mure (St Bonnet
les Oules) to St Etienne road. The company owned 2 locomotives and quite
250 trolleys for coal and freight transportation and some trolleys with
benches for employees and travelers. Their wheels and axles were built
in Lyon and manufactured in le Coteau where they were assembled.
As for the St Etienne - Andrésieux
railroad, the opening day could be confused. Quite often, the opening day
is February 5th, 1834. This day corresponds to the first direct trains
from St Etienne or Lyon to Le Coteau. As we already saw, the company
was already operating in August 1832. The line was completely finished
in February 1833 except the junction to Andrézieux. The first travel
on all the entire line were operated on March 15, 1833. The start point
of the line was road #82 where they were installing the rails to make the
junction to Andrézieux, it was
done on November 15, 1833.
The inclined planes
1 - La Quérillère Inclined
Plane
On July 23, 1833 it was decided to modify
the junction of the railroad to the St Etienne railroad at La Quérillère
(St Just sur Loire) instead of making a detour thru Andrézieux.
This junction required a 2.93% inclined plane on 800 meters operated by
horses to help to reach the plateau near La Renardière. From this
point to Balbigny the 37.7 km route follows the actual railroad in the
Forez plain. This route has a continuous smooth slope from La Renardière
to Lachat hamlet near Balbigny. Fortunately this slope was going down to
help heavy coal transportation. It is just after Balbigny that the route
has to face with hill relief with inclined planes instead of digging tunnels
or viaducts as Mr. Seguin did on the St Etienne - Lyon railroad.
2 - Biesse Inclined Plane
After the "Le Bernand" river we are the bottom
of the first inclined plane, the Biesse Incline. It is a 1936 m long with
4.46% gradient . It is operated by a fixed 70 horsepower steam machine
built the Chaillot workshop. It was able to help 8 trolleys (24 tons) to
climb the slope. The route continues with a 0.2% gradient on 4290 meters
before arriving at the bottom of the second inclined plane, Neulise Plane.
On the way there was the biggest engineering structure, the Saint Marcel
bridge, called La Revoute bridge, composed of 3 wooden arches 22 meters
above the river.
At Biesse the building, where there was the
steam machine, is still in good overall conditions but it is threatened
to be demolished if no local authority buy it. It is certainly the last
french remain of an inclined plane on an non industrial railroad, it would
be upsetting that this building would disappear.
 |
Remains of the building where
there was the fixed steam machine at Biesse.
(photo Andreas Gossweiler) |
 |
Map of the time of the fixed
steam machine at Biesse. On the right, the place of the water tank.
You can see a short track to a small building, a shed for the
locomotives. |
 |
The today's water tank at Biesse.
(photo Andreas Gossweiler) |
 |
Biesse, remains of the locomotives
shed. You can see a stone which is the remain of a dice which was
used to support rail (red circle).
(photo Andreas Gossweiler) |
 |
Biesse, today's remains of the
track.
(photo Andreas Gossweiler) |
3 - The two Neulise inclined planes
The south side of the Neulise incline, called Champagny,
is 2230 m long with a 3.9% gradient. The north side, called Grand Ris,
is also 2230 m long with a 4% gradient. The difference of levels is 92
m.
The plateau between the two inclined planes is 628 m long with a 30 horsepower
steam machine in its center. This machine with its weak power, installed
by Chaillot workshops, was a reuse of the "Le Rhône" steam
boat which sunk at Lyon in 1827. It was only able to pull on one side of
the slope if a load was counterbalanced for the descent. So the operations
were quite difficult! It was even able to pull 33 tons in 13 minutes. Less
than one year after its first operation, the boiler of the Neulise steam
machine exploded on October 21, 1834 in the morning.
The permanent lack of funds of the company did not allow
to immediately replace the steam machine and during about ten years the
traction was made by horses and exceptionally by ox. In 1843, the recreated
company ordered to Le Creusot a 120hp steam machine able to pull a train
without another train as counterweight. After some tests on January 10,
1845, is was first operated on February 10 with more than one year late.
 |
Engraving showing the Neulise
building with its fixed steam machine.. |
4 - Le Buis Inclined Plane ( self-propelled
)
Then the slope becomes less steep with 0.6 to 0.7% gradient
on 1424 m. Then we are at the top of the last inclined plane, Le Buis
Incline. It is 882 m long with a 4.95% gradient and a difference of levels
of 43.5 m. The cable was 1100 m long and a weight of 2200 kg. This incline
was self-propelled because no machine was necessary. Hopefully the slope
was oriented to the good direction, the heavy loads were mostly using the
descending slope so it was used to pull up the trains going the opposite
way, the way up the slope.
This system was used until 1850. After that year, the number of passengers
and goods going from Roanne increased and it was not very pleasant to
wait until the next coal train going the opposite way! In case of un sufficient
counterweight, the locomotive was attached to the cable to join its power
to the machine and had to continue to the bottom of Neulise incline. In
case of no counterweight, the locomotive had to climb attached with two
or three wagons then the locomotive was attached to the cable to be taken
down and then its was used to pull six to eight wagons.
Then, we go thru the Gand river valley and the two tunnels.
Following a 0.5 to 1.2% slope, we arrive at L'Hôpital sur Rhins and then
we follow the Rhins river on 6415 m until Le Coteau with a 0.4% slope then
only 0.2% at the end. The Le Coteau station was built along the road to
Lyon with all the buildings and workshops of the company. The track continues
along an old branch of the Loire river where landing stage were built
for unloading the coal.
5 - Varenne Inclined Plane
A self-propelled inclined plane was built to link the
river side to the top of the Varenne landing stage.
 |
The harbor at La Varenne in
1834, on the right the Varenne inclined plane. |
 |
Close up of the Varenne inclined
plane. |
Click to enlarge
 |
Plan of the le Coteau station
on the edge of the Loire river. On the left the landing stage and
the Varenne inclined plane. |
 |
Profile of the Andrezieux (La Quérillère)
- Le Coteau (Roanne) railroad. |
After the use of the fixed steam machines, the operations
were done with locomotives on the plain for the goods and with horses on
all the other sections.
Auguste Bousson, engineer of the company and future director of the "Compagnie
du Rhône et Loire" which regrouped the 3 first companies, published in
1863 a memo on the different ways of towing and operations used on the
different lines of Rhône and Loire.
Large number of accidents occurred, specially at the Neulise inclined plane
after drifts of the train due to cable breaks or breaking failures.
During its Tour de France in 1844, Flora
Tristan used
our railway from Roanne to St Etienne. She said that this railway was very
colorful but with a bad construction and that there was many misfortunes
on this route.
For a complete story of the third french railroad (and
also for the first and second french railroad), you may read the book « La
Loire berceau du rail Français » ARF Editor ( or read the
web site http://arforez.free.fr ).
At Biesse the building, where there
was the steam machine, is still in good overall conditions but it is
threatened to be demolished if no local authority buy it. It is certainly
the last french remain of an inclined plane on an non industrial railroad,
it would be upsetting that this building would disappear.
Gérard VACHEZ
Responsable de l’Histoire et du Patrimoine
Amis du Rail du Forez
Les dessins, plans et photos sont des archives de l’auteur
ou de l’ARF (sauf mentions spéciales).
Google Map positionning of the railroad track and the Inclined
Planes (Michel Azéma)
You may click on the markers
(foot markers) to see precise vue of actual locations of the planes |
 |
Technical Datas
Inclined
Planes
inclinés |
Length
(m) |
Diff
of Levels (m) |
Gradient
(%) |
Characteristics |
Comments |
Andrézieux
- Bif la Quérillière |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
200 |
|
|
|
|
La Quérillère |
800 |
|
3,0 |
|
animal traction
from 1833/11/15 till end of 1845
fixed steam machine (030 Koechlin) from
1846 till 1857/6/22 |
|
37.500 |
|
|
|
|
Biesse |
1936 |
|
4,46 |
|
fixed steam
machine (70 hp) from 1833/3/15 till 1857/11/20 |
|
4290 |
|
0,2 |
|
|
Neulise Champagny |
2230 |
92 |
3,9 |
|
Fixed steam
machine (30 hp) from 1833 /3/15 till 1834/10/21
Animal traction
from 1834/10/21 till 1845/2/10
Fixed steam
machine (120 hp) from 1845/2/10 till 1857/11/20 |
Summit |
628 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
Neulise Grand
Ris |
2230 |
92 |
4,0 |
|
idem |
|
1424 |
|
0,65 |
|
|
Le Buis |
882 |
43,5 |
4,91 |
|
Self-propelled
inclined plane with a pulley at the top.
Simple track with siding in the middle (later they was a section
with 3 rails)
Locomotives (120 schneider) were used in complement because of
lack of descending heavy loads after March 1845. |
|
14.450 |
|
|
|
|
Varennes |
190 |
10 |
|
|
Self-propelled
inclined plane with a pulley at the top.
Double track
Locomotives (120 schneider) were used in complement after March
1845 |
Le
Coteau |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Start: 15 mars 1833
End : 20 novembre 1857
|
Video at Biesse, the house where was the steam machine of the Biesse inclined plane (October 1, 2012) (Video Michel Azéma)
Video at the place where was the steam machine of the two Neulise inclined planes (October 1, 2012) (Video Michel Azéma)
