My all-time favourite has to be an about-ten-days' tour in France in late summer 1967. Especially poignant for me, in that while I have always loved France and its railways: however, constraints -- largely, earlier from being a non-autonomous kid; later, financial -- have meant that this 1967 "bash" was the only concentrated look I ever got, at French steam in regular everyday service. (I had spent some time in France the previous year, but for various reasons, did relatively little "railwaying" then.)
The 1967 doings, carried out with two fellow-enthusiasts, focused chiefly on the north-western quarter of France: in the mid / late 1960s, the north of the country was better for steam in both quantity and variety, than further south; and we had a particular reason for wanting to include Brittany in our itinerary. We were on the move for the majority of the time -- felt fairly exhausted by the end of the tour. We rated it as distinctly worthwhile as regards experiencing SNCF steam. The steam classes behind which we travelled, were 4-8-2 241P; 2-8-2 141R; 2-8-2T 141TB and 141TC; and on the tour's last train ride, Amiens -- Calais with a Pacific which was either 231G or 231K (my notes on the tour are long lost; and at all events, by the end I found myself beginning to suffer from "battle fatigue" and might well have failed to determine the loco's number or class). We additionally saw in action: 2-8-2 141P, 2-10-0 150P, and elderly 2-8-0 140C, and I think, 0-10-0T shunters (potentially more than one class) at Calais and Boulogne; other types were observed, but not in steam. Numerous interesting and pleasant rail journeys were enjoyed, with assorted forms of traction; and the weather was kind to us -- beautifully sunny throughout the tour.
The reason for our targeting of Brittany was to take a look at the very last knockings of the metre-gauge element of the then till-lately-magnificent Reseau Breton system. As at a year previously to our visit, this entity had been operating some hundreds of kilometres of lines of standard and (mostly) metre gauge, spreading through wide reaches of the Breton peninsula: lines with freight and -- on nearly all -- passenger, services; passenger almost all railcar, freight steam. Had been France's biggest surviving metre-gauge system: alas, its metre gauge was done away with in rapidly-succeeding stages commencing early 1967. By the time we arrived at Carhaix, the system's operational and administrative centre whence its various routes radiated: the busiest of these, to the SNCF north-coast main line at Guingamp, had been converted to standard gauge; all that remained active on metre gauge were curtailed portions of the formerly very long east-to-west route passing through Carhaix, as at our visit carrying freight only -- even this to cease only weeks after we were there. One or two freight trains each way per day were working on these metre-gauge lines, these hauled by the undertaking's impressive Mallet 0-6-6-0Ts. We observed a certain amount of this action -- also much shunting at Carhaix, performed by steam: metre-gauge Mallets, plus one beautiful little 4-6-0T, and standard-gauge SNCF 141TC 2-8-2Ts. Requests for brake-van travel on a freight were refused, albeit politely, by the superintendent at Carhaix: we managed to cadge some 12 kilometres of illicit "brake-vanning" by travelling by bus, in advance of the scheduled freight, to a town some way east of Carhaix; and pleading with the train crew for a short ride. Return to Carhaix was made by another bus.
The Reseau Breton had one section which at 1967 had already long been standard gauge: the branch from Guingamp to Paimpol on the Channel coast (still in passenger service today). In 1967, this branch was railcar-operated except for a daily mixed-train working each way, motive power 141TC 2-8-2T. We travelled one day, on the "mixeds" in each direction -- not speedy, but excellent fun.
A couple of days later came our tour's other metre-gauge experience: the Le Blanc -- Argent line in the Loire valley (still, in part, with passenger services today). I for one, found this outfit a bit of a come-down after the Reseau Breton -- not only because of its then having long been (as we were aware beforehand) all-diesel. While the RB, although at death's door, still had a smartly-run and workmanlike air to it -- with track still in excellent condition -- the Blanc -- Argent and its railcars had for me something of a flimsy / down-at-heel / "cheapskate" feel, with scruffy sand-ballasted track, and running through countryside which though not ugly, seemed rather humdrum. We had time to cover only part of this line's route -- using it as a segment of a day's progress in a generally easterly direction. I am glad to have "done" the BA (have never revisited it); however, though I'm a big fan of the narrow gauge in all its forms, I must rate this line as having afforded one of my least-enjoyable n/g experiences.
High-points generally of this French trip: the Reseau Breton, of course. Action with the huge and magnificent 4-8-2s of class 241P -- France's last generation of steam express locos, mostly relegated as at the late 1950s, through modernisation, to secondary main lines. In 1967 they remained active on just three routes: on all of which we witnessed them in service, and had 241P haulage on two of the three -- if, on one of them, in far from favourable circumstances (see below). Sampling, albeit briefly, Paris suburban steam working from the two termini which then still featured same: by 2-8-2Ts, class 141TC out of Gare du Nord; and the rather archaic-looking class 141TB on the odd little suburban line from the small Bastille terminus -- that station as of now long defunct, with the line absorbed into the electric Reseau Express Regional system. We saw plenty, almost throughout the tour -- including a couple of journeys behind them -- of the 141R mixed-traffic 2-8-2s: SNCF's most numerous steam class, built in large numbers in North America in the late 1940s to make good World War II damage and destruction. A rugged design, visually ugly and highly un-French-looking: but by all accounts, excellent locos: they were, some seven years after our visit, the last steam class in "mainstream / full / proper" SNCF service. Some 141Rs burned coal, some oil; we experienced both varieties. Spoilt creatures though this makes us appear from a 2020 perspective: 141Rs were so numerous and frequently met with, that at length we came to feel a little tired of them. On our last full day in France we made a long day-trip from Paris over the 200-kilometres-odd east to Chaumont, on the main line to Mulhouse and Switzerland. Chaumont then was a wonderful steam stronghold, with a large steam shed inhabited by several classes, some not very common -- and absolutely no 141Rs. Expresses were diesel-worked between Paris and Chaumont, with power changeover there: haulage east of Chaumont was 241P. We had no actual travel behind steam that day -- just a number of diesel-hauled hours through (as often on our tour) quietly beautiful and little-marred countryside; but the steam scene at Chaumont, where we spent a number of hours, was busy and breathtaking.
Our tour had a few sub-optimal patches; the undoubted worst being a gruelling overnight run from southern Brittany to Le Mans on a relief holiday express: all seats taken, with our having thus to spend many hours standing in the corridor -- no trying to sit down therein, this being made sure of by a bad-tempered guard who ceaselessly patrolled the train to enforce compliance. This "train from hell" was hauled initially by an oil-fired 141R, later by a 241P; unfortunately, most of the time we were feeling too wretched to care very much what was up front. Despite the occasional "hair in the custard", I definitely consider "France 1967", my remembered-as-most-delightful railway venture; and reckonably, never to be bettered in this world -- with self well-stricken in years, and everyday commercial steam working, effectively no more on the planet.
Yes it definitely did do a lot of trade with Navy. Plenty of empty tins of McEwen’s on the corresponding southbound service by the time it got to Exeter.
