Railways around Paris

[danphi11ips]

Hi All,
I was wondering of anyone could tell me if there are any good stations for freight and a variety of passenger trains within an hour out of Paris?

Thanks a lot
Daniel Phillips

 

[CC 72100]

Depends what you're wanting to see - if it's local stuff you're after, then Pont Cardinet out of St Lazare (or alternatively Clichy Levallois) offers good views of the local trains out of St Lazare; the Transilien line L (stainless steel units) and J (loco-hauled double-deck rakes and 27300 locos and tin can single deck sets with BB 17000 locos) as well as all Intercités traffic towards Normandie - BB 15000 locos on the longer Le Havre, Caen and Cherbourg services, electric units on the Rouen stopping services.

Pont Cardinet is I believe in zone 1, Clichy Levallois in zone 2. Unfortunately, being so close to Paris, there wouldn't be much freight to see.

Let me know what you think, and i'll come up with some other options. But if it's quantity, then just out of St Lazare is the place to be.

 

[danphi11ips]

Hi Adam,
That sounds really interesting and I may go there for a few hours. Is there anywhere nearby which is good for freight? I'm happy to travel for an hour or so.

Thanks for your help
Dan

 

[Gordon]

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This question comes up time and time again on this forum, it really needs one of us to collate everyone's comments and post them as a special inforrnation page!

As such, have you tried a search of this forum using the keyword 'Paris'. If you do you will pick up all the previous answers to similar requests about Paris, eg this thread:

http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=87747&highlight=PARIS




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[CC 72100]

Is there anywhere nearby which is good for freight? I'm happy to travel for an hour or so.

Not being a massive fan of freight here in the UK either, I can't say I really went looking for the freight during my time in Paris.

However, we often passed freight trains when going out of Gare de Lyon towards Montereau. I wonder therefore whether Melun (about 30 miles from Paris) would offer you the mix of suburban units and more occasional TER services with the bonus of freight too?

 

[danphi11ips]

Thank you both for your replies. The link it very useful thank you, I tried searching Paris and it came up with many posts which were often unrelated.

Thanks, I may try Esbly and Melun

Thanks a lot
Dan

 

[CC 72100]

Thanks, I may try Esbly and Melun

That's a good shout actually - standing at the next station on the line towards Trilport was where I saw my only 66 of the year so far!

At Ebsly, a weekday at 17:25 and then 18:25 will allow you to see the diesel loco-hauled on the 17:05 + 18:05 La Ferté-Milon trains on load 8 single deck stainless steel sets, recommended. There you'd also see the new Francilien units, the Z20500 on Chateau Thierry locals, BB 17000 on single deck sets around the rush hour, and TER services which are first stop La Ferté-Milon.

Should be in for a bit of a variety.

 

[danphi11ips]

Thanks a lot,
I've tried to find train times to Esbly and there seems to be a 30 minute service from 23:55 until 01:45 but nothing after that.
Do you know if Villeneuve- Saint- Gorges would be good?

Thanks a lot
Dan

 

[Gordon]

I've tried to find train times to Esbly and there seems to be a 30 minute service from 23:55 until 01:45 but nothing after that.
Do you know if Villeneuve- Saint- Gorges would be good?
Dan

Esbly is on Transilien Line P - route diagram here: http://www.transilien.com/contents/fr/Docs---PDF/Plans/ligne_P.pdf

Esbly has a half hourly service throughout the day:

http://www.transilien.com/contents/...es/hiver2013/EPT4-AN14-D37-LV-version0403.pdf

Other possible stations are Lagny, Meaux and Trilport, all with their photogenic advantages and disadvantages



Villeneuve St Georges is not good - at least not like it used to be in the 1980s. There is no decent view of passing long distance trains from the suburban platforms. Much better to travel out to a location where all trains pass close by such as any of the stations between Montgeron and Melun on RER D:

http://www.transilien.com/contents/fr/Docs---PDF/Plans/ligne_D201312.pdf

This is the Paris - Lyon 'Ligne Imperiale' and, as far south as Combs la Ville has some TGVs services diagrammed to leave Paris using the route used by all TGVs between 1983 and 1996, loco hauled (BB7200) passenger trains to Lyon and the loco hauled (22200/26000) to Nevers/Clermont Ferrand .

Another alternative is the line to Orleans - stations south of Juvisy out into the country towards Etampes and beyond are OK


Don't forget that France still has plenty of overbridges with low parapets or railings which are great for photography, and is comprehensively covered by Google street view, which can show you where there are bridges eg:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@48.6...ata=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sJ1o8f67WyTeR9vfi8mHNlQ!2e0

This is Combs la Ville (see above)


Photos of some of the above in my albums:

http://gwizz.zenfolio.com/long100
http://gwizz.zenfolio.com/p946484934
http://gwizz.piwigo.com/index?/category/35-france_november_2012




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[CC 72100]

Esbly is on Transilien Line P - route diagram here: http://www.transilien.com/contents/fr/Docs---PDF/Plans/ligne_P.pdf

Esbly has a half hourly service throughout the day:

http://www.transilien.com/contents/...es/hiver2013/EPT4-AN14-D37-LV-version0403.pdf

Other possible stations are Lagny, Meaux and Trilport, all with their photogenic advantages and disadvantages
.

They'll be at least 2x stopper in each direction, 1 which is first stop Meaux (Chateau-Thierry), then the 17/18:05 La Ferté-Milon additionals (also non-stop) come that time in the evening. And of course the tram-train which shuttles back and forth between Ebsly and Crécy.

And then add to that all the TER and freight services....

Meaux would see a lot of terminating trains which may not be what you're after. I personally didn't like the look of the area around Lagny Thorigy (or Vaires Torcy for that matter) but from there you'd see the same as I've described above.

And Gordon, I'll be taking a good look through some of those photos later. I'll plan 'recognise the place'

 

[Gordon]

I personally didn't like the look of the area around Lagny Thorigy (or Vaires Torcy for that matter)

True, I haven't photographed at Lagny since 1977, but a look around on street view suggests the area is reasonable enough. Indeed even what one might consider an inner city station - Pantin - I've photographed at and stayed near Pantin station and the area was perfectly acceptable.

Vaires station looks OK on street view as well, however street view appears to show the police addressing a 'situation'

 

[CC 72100]

True, I haven't photographed at Lagny since 1977, but a look around on street view suggests the area is reasonable enough. Indeed even what one might consider an inner city station - Pantin - I've photographed at and stayed near Pantin station and the area was perfectly acceptable.

Vaires station looks OK on street view as well, however street view appears to show the police addressing a 'situation'

Must admit I didn't think Pantin was too bad when I used it on a few occasions. There's certainly worse places (Northern bits of the RER B, D and Transilien J especially via Conflans fin d'Oise, I'm looking at you!)

As for the police addressing, that was obviously a great Google maps moment to capture there! Must day, on a Meaux stopper was the one of two times that there was a Revenue operation carried out on a train during my time there. The Z50000 unit left the dodgers no place to hide - chavs get in at the back of the train = half the revenue team go straight to the back of the train. Simple!