Chemin de fer de La Mure

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The Chemin de Fer de La Mure (the Mure railway) is a tourist railway near the city of Grenoble, France. Following threats of closure in the mid-s1970s, the line was saved by an oil crisis, getting the chance of a further life to become one of the finest tourist railways in Europe with spectacular views over dams and lakes, and mountain scenery. It can be reached easily by road from Grenoble, or by trains on the SNCF line towards Gap.

Saint-Georges de Commiers station

A train on the upper viaduct at Loulla

A former coal wagon in the station at La Motte d'Aveillans

[edit] History

The line was built between 1882 and 1886, to link Saint-Georges-de-Commiers and La Mure through a mountainous region of the department of Isère.

The 30 km. long, metre gauge line running from La Motte-d'Aveillans and La Mure and to a connection with the main line of the PLM railway at Saint-Georges-de-Commiers. The line was almost closed in the mid-1970s and if the country hadn't been suffering an oil crisis the line would have met its end. Its life was extended by fifteen years, which proved to be its saviour. Unlike many other lines this became a tourist attraction which combines an area of industrial heritage with some of the finest scenery on any similar line on the continent.

The railway was electrified in 1903, using a symmetrical current power supply with two overhead lines at plus and minus 1200 volts direct current respectively. In 1950, this non-standard system was replaced with a conventional power supply with a single overhead line at 2400 volts direct current.

Coal traffic ceased in 1988, and most of the coal installations were demolished, the coal being transported by road. The SGLM found a new vocation in providing a tourist attraction and as a result, there remain all of the line's historical installations, the workshops, forge, joinery shop, etc. The network's departure and arrival stations were dependent on connections with the PLM railway's Grenoble - Veynes line. The necessary facilities together with the transhipment platform for the automatic transfer of the coal from the SGLM coal cars to the trains operated by PLM (which became SNCF in 1938) were built adjacent to the PLM station, today the station for the Chemin de fer de La Mure. The trains of the railway now run at the leisurely pace of up to 30km/h.

[edit] Electric and Electro-Diesel Locomotives

No.	Name	Wheels Arr.	Builders Details	Date Built	Notes.
A1			CLB/T-H		Preserved, out of order
A2			CLB/T-H	1913	Scrapped
A3			CLB/T-H		Preserved, out of order
A4			CLB/T-H		Scrapped
A5			CLB/T-H		Preserved, out of order
A6			CLB/T-H		Scrapped
A7			CLB/T-H		Scrapped
A8			CLB/T-H		Scrapped
E1	La Drac	Bo-Bo	CGC/Thury	1903	Withdrawn 1933, since scrapped
E2	L'Isere	Bo-Bo	CGC/Thury	1903	Withdrawn 1933, since scrapped
E3		Bo-Bo	CGC/Thury	1903	Withdrawn 1933, since scrapped
E4		Bo-Bo	CGC/Thury	1903	Withdrawn 1933, since scrapped
E5		Bo-Bo	CGC/Thury	1903	Withdrawn 1933, since scrapped
E6		Bo-Bo	CGC/Thury	1903	Withdrawn 1933, since scrapped
T6		Bo-Bo	ANF/SAAS	1932
T7		Bo-Bo	ANF/SAAS	1932
T8		Bo-Bo	ANF/SAAS	1932
T9		Bo-Bo	ANF/SAAS	1932
T10		Bo-Bo	ANF/SAAS	1932
1		ABDe4/4	SWS/BBC	1916	Ex-NStCM, In service
5		ABDe4/4	SWS/BBC	1916	Ex-NStCM, Out of Service
10		ABDe4/4	SWS/BBC	1918	Ex-NStCM, Out of Service
11		ABDe4/4	SWS/BBC	1918	Ex-NStCM, In service
T2		Bo-Bo	B+L/Ren.		Ex-VFD, Note 1
T4		Bo-Bo	B+L/Ren.		Ex-VFD, In working order but not in use, Note 1
		4w	Decauville		P.W.Dept., in regular use

Abbreviations':

ANF.......Ateliers du Nord de La France
B+L.......Brissonneau and Lotz, Creil, France
BBC.......Brown, Bouvrie et Cie
CGC.......Compangnie General Construction, St. Denis, France
CLB.......Chantiers de La Buire
NStCM.....Chemin de Fer Nyon-St-Cergue-Morez
Ren.......Renault
SWS.......
T-H.......Compagnie Franciase Thomson-Houston (Nowadays: Alsthom)
Thury.....Ateliers Rene Thury, Geneva.(Nowadays: S.A. Ateliers Secheron (SAAS))
VFD.......Voies Ferrees Dauphine

Note 1 : Part of a class of 10 electro-diesel locomotives, 2 are in service at the Chemins de fer du Jura (CJ), 1 at the Chemin de Fer de La Provence (CP).