Prochain point : lat="49.14737" lon="1.984176"
The Chars-Marines line and train stop
The Chars-Marines branch line, a very ephemeral link
From tracks through the meadow...
The Valmondois-Marines railway line was completed in 1911 with a section between Marines and Chars linking up to the main Paris-Dieppe line. But this new branch line, with its standard gauge (1,435 mm) was incompatible with the other section, which was meter gauge. So Marines Station is a double terminus, no train can go from one end to the other of the line! The train made 4 or 5 round trips per day between Chars and Marines.
On the day of the inauguration heavy rain caused the train to overshoot the station, so all the VIPs: the Transport Minister and local elected officials, had to climb down onto the tracks before they could take shelter. The newspapers had a field day reporting the incident!
... To a green track
The Chars-Marines section, initially managed by the railway company Compagnie de l’Ouest, was finally handed over to the branch line railway company, the Compagnie des chemins de fer économiques and declined along with the Valmondois-Marines line.
When it passed through Marines the old railway line followed a cutting under the road to Neuilly, which has since become a pleasant walk along a green belt or “coulée verte”.
The short train stop for passengers leaving Marines, not far from the hospice, is still visible today.
