Why not a french route ? I personally have a preference for the 30-60's period, with steam, electric and diesel engine mixing old company material and new one from the SNCF ( Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français) which was created in 1938. The 7 main old merged and nationalized companies The AL includes the Luxembourg duchy network The metric, economic, urban, overseas or industrial are not included but widen number of companies and lines I can ask you a lot of routes, so I will suggest you only 3 yet - with some photos bellow, and develop them in dedicated topics if you are interested : - Paris-Nord to Calais-Maritime and to London via Dover by ferry in the 50's-60's : The "Train Bleu" Going through Boulogne-Tintelleries station : Calais at 40Km La Fleche d'Or (Golden Arrow) in 1960 leaving Paris-Nord Station La fleche d'argent (the Silver Arrow) at Touquet Paris Plage airport - in link with Lydd airport in England At Calais going down from the ferry boat from Dover - Paris-Gare-de-Lyon to Lyon in 1983 after complete openning the first high speed Line : TGV in 1981 in Paris-Lyon station a TGV on the high speed line crossing a 141R with the orient express perserved cars the TEE Cisalpino to Milano (Italy) on the classic "imperial" line between Paris and Dijon At Lyon-Perrache station - Toulouse-Matabiaux - Latour-De-Carol-Enveitg (border and exchange station to Barcelona in Spain) from 30 to 70's though the Pyrennée mountains: 3 BB4100 in the puymoreens ramp with an express train to Paris Austerlitz via Toulouse in the 60-70's a Z7100 quitting Foix longing the Ariège river to Ax-les-Therme Saillens hemicoid tunnel Latour-de-Carol-Enveitg station with a BB8500 SNCF on the left and serie 281, serie 436 RENFE on the right in the end of teh 70's- the 2 countries does'n have the same gauge so they have specific track each I could have put other routes like the North Eastern freigh corridor, the blue diesel prototypes route line 4 Paris-Est - Chalindrey - Belfort - Basel (CH)... So if you are interested that I treat one of them above or other routes from France and leser from Belgium, put them below.
For a French route, I hope their next one is Nice to Marseille. That's a beautiful French route since it goes along the French Riviera in certain places of it.
To make you discover a bit more about old french railway (and other than french)with english description Find the link of the picture collection from the british Mike Morant link I will post later some other view
You asked for it, so you have some pictures of: - Marseilles-Saint-Charles to Ventimiglia (Italy) : The Frech Rivera line in early 60's (before electrification and modernization): 241 P taking the "Mistral" coming from Paris-Lyon at Marseilles-Saint-Charles station to Nice in 1956 TEE "Ligure" Milano - Avignon at Roquebrune in the early 60's going to Avignon a the same place with diesel locomotive BB 66000 in Roquebrune Cap-Martin leading to Menton 060 DB (future BB65000) on test at Ventemiglia in 1958 2 060DB on the La Rague viaduct at Théoule-sur-Mer At Anthéor Viaduct 1964 with anotehr 141R I will put some picture of other interesting lines later on.
Great suggestions. It all looks beautiful! I would love to see some French routes added at some point.
Excellent suggestions! On what may be the opposite end of the spectrum, I wouldn't mind see the Paris Metro, or at least a portion of it.
So I added some picture on the first tread and put a map of the old french companies in it. From DeBrief's suggestion I will not put some metropolitan picture but his predecesor and less kown nearly wipped out : - La Petite Ceinture of Paris line : a ring 100% inside Paris in the 30's : The line in dark a circular train at Ménilmontant station On the Auteuil viaduct with the Eiffel Tower on the background - the bridge was destructed and replaced by the Galianni bridge At Belleville-Vilette passenger and goods station
- Paris-Est to Basel (CH) at the time of the blue diesel (70's) : The line shematics : CC70002 prototype engine with an express train 140C at Troyes comming from Provins in 1969 - this engine was one of the last steam in commercial service until 1975 Culmont-Chalindrey station after the 1964 electrification At Culmont-Chalindrey depot with A1A- A1A 68000/68500 CC70001 prototype in the same depot From left to right : a brand new CC72000, BB69001and a A1A A1A 68500 at Chalindrey TEE Arbalete (Paris - Basel) near Chaumont : So I will start a poll to see which line from the prensented one you are interested to be develloped. Note I will concentrate on older periods than the actual one. Here you can have some nice aerial view from the past : link Cheers
So difficult to choose, would love to see many of these routes, in the end I chose the northern steam route and the TGV but would also like to see the SNCF blue diesels.