The yellow train: maintaining a small line

Photo essays/Go to France/The yellow train: maintaining a small line

Every day, all year, the Yellow Train travels the 63km of line between Villefranche de Conflent and Latour de Carol, thus serving the 21 stations located on its route, along the valley of the Tet and the plain of Cerdagne . Its line, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2002, was inaugurated in 1910 with the aim of opening up the Catalan Pyrenees high townships. Possessing the highest station of the SNCF network, with Bolquère station located at 1593m above sea level, the yellow train and its line benefit from some peculiarities of which its gauge of rails of a meter (contrary to 1.435m "classic"), its power supply by third rail (and catenary) whose production is carried out by many hydroelectric facilities such as the famous dam Bouillouses. Famous, as 2 of its 29 bridges and viaducts, the bridge Séjournée overlooking the Têt 65m high or Cassagne bridge (now Gisclard), 15m higher. Falsely considered as a tourist train, because of its discovered wagon or its slow speed (between 30 and 40km / h), it is still to this day a TER of the Occitanie region, carrying nearly 400 000 travelers per year and allows to make the link between the Catalan Country and the Toulouse region via the Latour de Carol station. The successive struggles of railway workers and users for the survival of the line also marked the territory.
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le Train Jaune sur le pont Gisclard en automne, vallée de la Têt

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Train Jaune

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Train Jaune

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Train Jaune


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