Have brought up this thread owing to an interesting reference in a book which I have recently acquired --
Lost Railway Journeys From Around The World by Anthony Lambert; which includes a chapter on the Central Var metre-gauge line.
Mention is of course made, of the tragic wartime destruction of viaducts in 1944, which was the chief factor in the line's demise. I had hitherto been unaware that -- though,
@rogerfarnworth, I now see belatedly that this data features in your material to which your posts link -- this havoc occurred only on the route's easternmost 50km-odd; and that the other three-quarters or so of the route's length, Tanneron -- Meyrargues, was undamaged, and in fact staggered on in service until the beginning of 1950. The general view re the destruction is and has been, that it was perpetrated by the retreating German occupying forces. A brief "aside" in Lambert's book, though, reads: "But some locals, instead of blaming the Germans, believe there was a Machiavellian plan to force the construction of better roads, thereby raising property prices after the war. The likelihood of rebuilding the railway would have been minimal..."
One's first reaction might be to ponder on people with too much time on their hands, dreaming up abstruse conspiracy theories as a change from playing
boules; but in such wartime situations as that of France in World War II, damage to railways -- with practical reasons for same -- can be done either by the enemy; or (overall, with greater likelihood) by the opposing side, including civilian irregular forces working for the opposing side. And -- dearly though I love France -- it is widely recognised that there is a section of that country's people, who can be rather prone to skulduggery of the kind hinted at. At all events; three-quarters of a century later, it's doubtful that the totally certain truth of the matter could be established; and (as I've opined elsewhere on the Forums) even without the viaduct-destruction which happened in '44 -- the happy situation of both the Nice -- Digne, and Nice -- Meyrargues routes still being in passenger use throughout today, is pretty well inconceivable.
There was brought to mind, a rather similar situation of similar date in the very opposite corner of France, i.e. Brittany. This involved the Chemins de Fer des Cotes-du-Nord: the
departemental metre-gauge system serving that
departement (now Cotes-d'Armor). As at the outbreak of WWII, this system had been reduced to its "main line" running coastwise from end to end of the
departement. Per an article in a French railway journal, by a French author: this route essentially continued in service through the war. At the time of liberation in 1944, the Resistance blew up a couple of quite major bridges on it -- the usefulness of these acts as regards impeding German forces, has been found questionable: apparently it's suggested locally, not so much that anyone was "being Machiavellian", but that some folk in the Resistance had come to enjoy blowing things up, for the exercise's own sake. Rather as with the remaining part of the Central Var: the Cotes-du-Nord metre gauge route continued in passenger and freight use for a very few years after the war; but hampered more than a little, by the bridges' having been destroyed. All the route had closed by 1951, save for one section, the 40-odd km. St. Brieuc -- Paimpol, which survived until 1956.