French Railroad books

[LaViedurail]

Dear UK Rail Fans,

I am working for "Les éditions La Vie du Rail", we are the first and most popular editor of books and magazines about trains and railroad transportation in France.

We're trying gather informations on UK Rail Fans.

We feel we have a lot of material that could please rail fans from all over the world, but we need to be accurate on what their tastes are.

Do you know what british rail fans are mainly interested in ?
(Steam, Highspeed, signaling, history...)

What Age, generations are involved ?

If there is anything about french railroad british are pretty passionned about ? (French Subway, TGV, old french steam machines, parisian subway...)

Thank you a lot for your help, I hope we will be able to bring you in the future, several good new railroad books to read

Best Regards,

Pierre LALU

Bien cordialement,

 

[dorsetman]

I spend a lot of time in France and have often bought La Vie du Rail, but haven't seen it in the magazine shops in France recently.

 

[tjlrailblue]

I like French auto-rails and diesel locos

I don't know what books would sell here. I usually buy French train magazines when I'm in France or elsewhere in mainland Europe (once or twice a year)

Tim

 

[QJ]

At one time in the not to distant past I was a frequent traveller by train around France. My main interest, at the time, was to travel over as much of the SNCF and Paris Metro network as was possible including branch and connecting lines without a passenger service where the opportunity arose (courtesy of SNCF engineering work diversions, COPEF, AGRIVAP, AJECTA and other organisers of such trips for whom I am still grateful for the opportunities to travel around France they afforded me).

Following on from my effort at covering as much of the French network as was possible I got interested in the history of French Railways in general and lines closed to passenger services but still open for freight in particular. The Trains Oublie books I managed to obtain were a great read despite my school boy knowledge of French.

And, of course, interest in the signalling, types of train and locomotives that operated on these lines as I travelled around followed. I particularly had a fondness for travelling on trains hauled by the CC72000 diesels around the SNCF network. I even went to Morocco not too long ago to ride behind some of these fantastic looking and sounding locos (ONCF having bought some made redundant by SNCF to compliment the similar DF type bought directly from Alstom).

One of my other favourite rail travel experiences was the overnight services by sleeper, couchette or in day coaches conveyed by night train. Sadly the number of trains and destinations have much reduced in recent years. It would be fascinating to read articles about the operations of these trains that used to run before the advent of TGVs and cheap flights killed most of them off.

In short just about every aspect of French Railways captured my interest. I had a number of friends and acquaintances that shared this interest and still do though we don't get to travel around France as we used to. Family life and the lure of exotic rail travel further afield having turned our heads as travel around the globe has become cheaper and easier to achieve. Long gone has been the need to catch a ferry to one of the French Channel Ports and travel through France by train to go anywhere else. In some ways I miss those days (except when there is a Force 11 gale blowing).

 

[Yew]

Personally I'd be interested in an article that compared the approaches of BR and SNCF in postwar rolling stock design. And a look at the various experimental projects I dont know that much about.

 

[LaViedurail]

Thank you for all your informations ! I was wondering what range of price would any British enthusiast be ready to pay for a Nice heavy book, and also for light simple one (light cover less pages...)

What do you usualy spend and for what kind of product ?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I usually buy the Platform 5 book "French Railways Locomotives + Multiple Units" as soon as each edition comes out. The cover price on the current edition is £19.95. I also bought the ST Publications "West European Coaching Stock" this year ( £13.00 ) as this includes all the current SNCF carriages.

So, as far as France is concerned, for me it's pretty much the entire stock list and a bit over £30.00...