Brignoles Train Festival 2016

The Brignoles station's yard was the central point for the ATTCV 15 year anniversary celebrations on Saturday and Sunday 23rd and 24th April 2016.

The yard was used to exhibit a part of the association's set of railway vehicles collected since its creation in 1994: railcars, trailers, locomotives, passenger carriages, goods wagons, MoW vehicles ...

In addition to these rail vehicles a few road vehicles belonging to the other associations were also on display.

Please enjoy viewing some photos from the exhibition.

Train du Centre Var - ATTCV starts 2016 traffic season in spring colours

X 2204 enters a Carnoules-les-Platanes station filled with flowers

Sunday April 3 is the first day this year 2016 with regular tourist traffic between Carnoules-les-Platanes and Brignoles. Railcar X 2204 in its original colours was selected for this introductory journey, leaving Carnoules-les-Platanes with passengers at 15.00. Some photos below from the journey.

Picasso's faulty engine removed

A team of ATTCV members undertook last Friday of January the task of removing the faulty engine from the association's railcar Picasso X 3976, as a first step in the engine's replacement. The replacement engine has already been acquired and is on site.

ATTCV gets another DU 65 speeder

The new speeder DU 65 in front of the previously received and railcar Caravelle X 4567

The Association has recently received one more MoW/speeder/draisine type DU 65 of railway vehicle. It is placed in the ATTCV depot in Besse-sur-Issole but not (yet) in trafficable state.

The previously received DU 65 was baptized "Camps-la-Source" and is by the Association often used for transport of small groups of passengers, on short distances. Remains to be seen how/for what this speeder will be used.

ATTCV Acquires Heritage Railway Mail Car

One of the two remaining French railway mail cars ("mobile post office"), type PA (Poste Atelier) (OCEM PAtf 50 87 00 17 073-3), has recently been received by the ATTCV association.

The car was manufactured in 1933 for the Alsace-Lorraine railway network, and was during its last years of operation used for mail services between Nice and Ventimiglia (in Italy). Retired in the early 80s, it was taken over by a local private collector, who last year sold it to the Association. It now forms part of the ATTCV collection of rail vehicles at the depot in Besse-sur-Issole.

The car contains two compartments, one used for storage/transport of mail, the other for mail sorting.

The following photos show the car's interior and its on-board electric generator.

Railcars in the Train du Centre Var

Railcars on the Carnoules - Brignoles line

ATTCV has four railcars used for its heritage rail operations between Carnoules and Brignoles,  of which at present three are operational and one (Picasso) is undergoing engine revision.  In addition, a draisine (speeder) is used for very small groups of passengers.

---

X-2204 - "Ville de Brignoles"

Cut into service:  1985 - Arrival at ATTCV: 2012 - More info X-2204

ATTCV Open-Air Railway Museum

 ATTCV depot in the yard of former Besse-sur-Issole station

The ATTCV depot in Besse-sur-Issole is a railway museum in being. From the Association's creation in 1994, the collection of rail vehicles has increased from zero until today's almost 25 vehicles. Most prominent, and important for the Association's financing of its activities, are of course the very first railcar Picasso (now awaiting total renovation of its diesel engine), the two Caravelle DMU railcars (one of which still has its approval for operation on the national railway network) and the former Train des Merveilles railcar.

Draisine DU 65

Draisine DU 65 No 6.100

This motorized vehicle (speeder; motor car; crew car; in France called draisine) arrived to ATTCV in 2012. It was manufactured in 1965 and is intended for use as track inspection vehicle, including to move track and other work crews to/from the place of work.

Railcar X-2204

"Ville de Brignoles"

This is the latest arrival and the youngest railcar in the railcar collection. It was built in 1985 and arrived at ATTCV in March 2012.

Railcar Caravelle X-4590

Caravelle X-4590

The X-4590 arrived at ATTCV in June 2006, only two months after the arrival of the X-4567.

When it arrived at ATTCV it carried the color scheme of the lower Normandie line (Basse Normandie), and had in addition been "decorated" by some "open-air artists".

Railcar Caravelle X-4567

X-4567 with its trailer XR-8380 (in front of X-4590, X-3976 and a passenger carriage) at the ATTCV Besse depot

The X-4567 arrived at ATTCV in April 2006, after having been operated by the state railways, SNCF, since its cut-into-service in 1966.

During 40 years of service on SNCF rails it has covered a total distance of close to 3,800,000 km (corresponds to almost 100 tours around the globe, or 10 times the distance to the moon!).

Railcar X-3976 Picasso

ATTCV railcar X-3976 Picasso

Picasso at Brignoles station

It's a nice little beast. It weighs 31 tons. Not that heavy, though, compared with many other rail vehicles. It was put into service in April 1956 at the depot in Tours southwest of Paris. It served railway passengers for more than three decades before becoming a member of the tourist railway in Guîtres-Marcenais's rail vehicle collection northeast of Bordeaux.

It arrived to ATTCV's depot in Besse-sur-Issole in April 1996. After five years in Besse it was ready for service under the ATTCV banner. On 19th August 2001 it ran as the Association's inauguration train on the Carnoules - Brignoles tourist train line.

Locomotive BB-64042 arrives at ATTCV

In addition to diesel locomotive BB-63812, which arrived at ATTCV in Carnoules in March 2012, the association in October 2012 got a second, almost identical BB-64042.

The locomotive had been put into operation in 1969 at Sotteville-les-Rouen in the department Seine-Maritime in Normandy. It was after retirement used by the tourist railway "Le train à vapeur de Toulouse" (ACPR1126). As that association no longer is in a position to use it, it has been taken over by ATTCV.

This type of diesel locomotives was manufactured during the 50-ies and 60-ies for SNCF by Brissonneau and Lotz. They are equipped with a 12 cylinder 825 hp diesel engine.

BB-64042 will be capable of pulling the whole set of ATTCV's USI and UIC passenger carriages, with a capacity of 300 passengers.

The locomotive can be viewed, together with all other heritage rail vehicles held by ATTCV, at the ATTCV depot/railway museum in Besse-sur-Issole.

More on ATTCV