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Colmar to Paris 1978 info please

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Animal Jack

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Hi, everyone just enroled on here in the hope someone can help please. Im writing a story in which my heroine takes a mid day train from Colmar to Paris in 1978 and I need to know would the train have gone via Strasbourg and would it have been direct or would it have changed anywhere . Thanks for any advice AJ
 
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Gloster

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The only through Colmar-Paris trains in the May 1976 timetable were the night train via Strasbourg on weekdays or the 17.56 on Fridays, which would probably have been full of conscripts going on weekend leave. Best possibility is 12.06 Colmar-Strasbourg 12.43, then change to Train 1006 13.40 Strasbourg-Paris Est 17.37. 1006 comes from Salzburg, so if it is late or your protagonist wants to get away quick, there is a 12.50 from Strasbourg (Train 1606) that stops at a lot of intermediate stations and reaches Paris Est at 18.02.

Via Mulhouse it is 11.31 departure and arrive Mulhouse 11.55 (train starts from Luxembourg, so could be late) and change, then Mulhouse départ 12.16 on Train 1044 and arrive Paris Est 17.18. The next Mulhouse-Paris is not until after 16.00.

A personal opinion from someone who lived in Colmar, albeit some years later, is that travellers would automatically default to going via Strasbourg, rather than via Mulhouse.

Two notes to the above: the times I have given are from May 1976 and I can’t be sure whether they ran as shown after the end of the month, although the 13.40 Strasbourg appears to. Also, I do not have the times of most of the Mulhouse-Colmar-Strasbourg local trains, which might give another option for getting to Strasbourg.

Source: Thomas Cook Continental Timetable, May 1-29 1976.
 
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Mcr Warrior

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Good to assist the OP with some (undoubtedly helpful) contemporary info.

P.S. Is it me, or have there been quite a few aspiring authors on here of recent with requests for historical train timetable information? Trust that railforums.co.uk gets suitably acknowledged when the various books eventually see the light of day! ;)
 

Animal Jack

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The only through Colmar-Paris trains in the May 1976 timetable were the night train via Strasbourg on weekdays or the 17.56 on Fridays, which would probably have been full of conscripts going on weekend leave. Best possibility is 12.06 Colmar-Strasbourg 12.43, then change to Train 1006 13.40 Strasbourg-Paris Est 17.37. 1006 comes from Salzburg, so if it is late or your protagonist wants to get away quick, there is a 12.50 from Strasbourg (Train 1606) that stops at a lot of intermediate stations and reaches Paris Est at 18.02.

Via Mulhouse it is 11.31 departure and arrive Mulhouse 11.55 (train starts from Luxembourg, so could be late) and change, then Mulhouse départ 12.16 on Train 1044 and arrive Paris Est 17.18. The next Mulhouse-Paris is not until after 16.00.

A personal opinion from someone who lived in Colmar, albeit some years later, is that travellers would automatically default to going via Strasbourg, rather than via Mulhouse.

Two notes to the above: the times I have given are from May 1976 and I can’t be sure whether they ran as shown after the end of the month, although the 13.40 Strasbourg appears to. Also, I do not have the times of most of the Mulhouse-Colmar-Strasbourg local trains, which might give another option for getting to Strasbourg.

Source: Thomas Cook Continental Timetable, May 1-29 1976.
Thank you so much , that is really helpful. ....and it also tells me she would have got off at Paris Est and not Gare de Lyon as Id previously thought . Thanks .

Good to assist the OP with some (undoubtedly helpful) contemporary info.

P.S. Is it me, or have there been quite a few aspiring authors on here of recent with requests for historical train timetable information? Trust that railforums.co.uk gets suitably acknowledged when the various books eventually see the light of day! ;)
could be more of us have been writing our memoirs in these unusual times. I'll post an extract from this chapter when I get to 'La Fin' which incidentally will be at Gare du Nord. :). Thanks again AJ
 
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Cheshire Scot

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In a work of fiction a fictional (daytime) through train might be provided - with the risk it might generate some nit-picking that on the date in question it would have been necessary to change in Strasbourg!
 

Gloster

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If you need her to go the Gare de Lyon, catch the 12.16 from Mulhouse as above, but change at Belfort (arrive 12.54) and catch Train 1584, depart 13.05, which has through coaches to Gare de Lyon, where they arrive at 19.00. However, unless she is desperate to take an indirect route for some reason, it is a route only likely to be taken by the most unhurried of railway enthusiasts. (I have done Colmar-Paris via Bourg-en-Bresse, but I had all day to get to Le Havre. Cheaper to spend the money on a train ticket than in the fleshpots of Paris!)
 

Animal Jack

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If you need her to go the Gare de Lyon, catch the 12.16 from Mulhouse as above, but change at Belfort (arrive 12.54) and catch Train 1584, depart 13.05, which has through coaches to Gare de Lyon, where they arrive at 19.00. However, unless she is desperate to take an indirect route for some reason, it is a route only likely to be taken by the most unhurried of railway enthusiasts. (I have done Colmar-Paris via Bourg-en-Bresse, but I had all day to get to Le Havre. Cheaper to spend the money on a train ticket than in the fleshpots of Paris!)
If you need her to go the Gare de Lyon, catch the 12.16 from Mulhouse as above, but change at Belfort (arrive 12.54) and catch Train 1584, depart 13.05, which has through coaches to Gare de Lyon, where they arrive at 19.00. However, unless she is desperate to take an indirect route for some reason, it is a route only likely to be taken by the most unhurried of railway enthusiasts. (I have done Colmar-Paris via Bourg-en-Bresse, but I had all day to get to Le Havre. Cheaper to spend the money on a train ticket than in the fleshpots of Paris!)

Ill stick with the 12.06 and when she spends the night on Paris L'Est the morning sunlight will be shining in through that amazing 'cathedralesque' window above the clock :). (C'esque - not a scrabble -worthy word apparently !). Thanks again AJ. (providing its an east facing window of course !!!! you watch ...someone will have me on that !!!) ;)
 
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StephenHunter

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What sort of rolling stock would there have been? Were the Corails around in large numbers back then? It might help with atmosphere.
 

181

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Ill stick with the 12.06 and when she spends the night on Paris L'Est the morning sunlight will be shining in through that amazing 'cathedralesque' window above the clock :). (C'esque - not a scrabble -worthy word apparently !). Thanks again AJ. (providing its an east facing window of course !!!! you watch ...someone will have me on that !!!) ;)

Unfortunately the Gare de l'Est is aligned almost north-south, so I think the window you mean (actually from Google Streetview there appear to be two) faces south.
 

Gloster

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What sort of rolling stock would there have been? Were the Corails around in large numbers back then? It might help with atmosphere.

I think that delivery of the Corail coaches only started in 1975 and so they might just have started appearing on the premium trains. Otherwise, it would likely to the be UIC or USI designs, even the DEV AO, and there were - also on the top rank services - a few more designs that appeared in smaller numbers, such as the DEV Inox, which I think I saw on the Est a few years later. There were also older designs: I can remember old Est designs and, I think, former Sud-Est ‘Bruhat’ at Strasbourg in the late 1980s.
 

jamesontheroad

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What sort of rolling stock would there have been? Were the Corails around in large numbers back then? It might help with atmosphere.

I think that delivery of the Corail coaches only started in 1975 and so they might just have started appearing on the premium trains. Otherwise, it would likely to the be UIC or USI designs, even the DEV AO, and there were - also on the top rank services - a few more designs that appeared in smaller numbers, such as the DEV Inox, which I think I saw on the Est a few years later. There were also older designs: I can remember old Est designs and, I think, former Sud-Est ‘Bruhat’ at Strasbourg in the late 1980s.

This will be very important when @Animal Jack sells the option on their novel to agent for film adaptation! Good luck!
 
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