Ian Fuller2006
Locotracteur
One of the most fascinating things about the SNCF in the 1980s and 1990s was the freight scene. I spent a month in Montpellier in 1993 and an afternoon spent on the station could be pretty rewarding. SNCF doesn't really operate regular-headway passenger services (not outside Paris anyway) so quite often you'd get a few passenger trains within quite a short space of time then nothing scheduled for a while. At that point a flurry of freight activity would usually begin - van trains, container trains, wagonload freights or bulk trains of grain hoppers. By this point wagonload freight was fast disappearing in the UK, but it was still a big part of the French scene. Montpellier, despite not being a major destination for freight, had two small shunters ('locotracteurs' in French). The job of one of them was to pick up small handfuls of wagons dropped off a few times a week by passing freights, and trundle them up the line to outlying stations or factory sidings. These days wagonload freight is dying in France too, and this quintessentially French railway activity will soon be a thing of the past.
Montpellier's other locotracteur, a little Y7100, was usually employed shunting a small container terminal just west of the station. This was quite tucked away, but the thrum of the little shunter as it moved the container wagons back and forth was often heard. Every now and again the completed trains would be taken away by a Villeneuve BB7200.
Y7209, allocated to Beziers, is seen here going about its business in August 1993. A long time resident of the south of France, the condition of its paintwork bears witness to a life spent in the sunshine. Green with yellow lining was the old standard shunter colour scheme, which was being replaced by orange and brown. Southern-based locos tended to fade a bit, with the yellow paint on the green locos fading to the dull orange colour seen here, while locos in the new orange livery went a very strange peachy-pink hue after a few years. SNCF did in due course change the orange livery to a much stronger shade which was more durable.
Locotracteur
One of the most fascinating things about the SNCF in the 1980s and 1990s was the freight scene. I spent a month in Montpellier in 1993 and an afternoon spent on the station could be pretty rewarding. SNCF doesn't really operate regular-headway passenger services (not outside Paris anyway) so quite often you'd get a few passenger trains within quite a short space of time then nothing scheduled for a while. At that point a flurry of freight activity would usually begin - van trains, container trains, wagonload freights or bulk trains of grain hoppers. By this point wagonload freight was fast disappearing in the UK, but it was still a big part of the French scene. Montpellier, despite not being a major destination for freight, had two small shunters ('locotracteurs' in French). The job of one of them was to pick up small handfuls of wagons dropped off a few times a week by passing freights, and trundle them up the line to outlying stations or factory sidings. These days wagonload freight is dying in France too, and this quintessentially French railway activity will soon be a thing of the past.
Montpellier's other locotracteur, a little Y7100, was usually employed shunting a small container terminal just west of the station. This was quite tucked away, but the thrum of the little shunter as it moved the container wagons back and forth was often heard. Every now and again the completed trains would be taken away by a Villeneuve BB7200.
Y7209, allocated to Beziers, is seen here going about its business in August 1993. A long time resident of the south of France, the condition of its paintwork bears witness to a life spent in the sunshine. Green with yellow lining was the old standard shunter colour scheme, which was being replaced by orange and brown. Southern-based locos tended to fade a bit, with the yellow paint on the green locos fading to the dull orange colour seen here, while locos in the new orange livery went a very strange peachy-pink hue after a few years. SNCF did in due course change the orange livery to a much stronger shade which was more durable.