Villes et Pays d’art et d’histoire Let us tell you the story of the train in Perche Sarthois Rail infrastructure of the past and present in Perche Sarthois Road Main SNCF line Remains visible from public thoroughfares High speed line under construction Station Water tower Mamers - St-Calais Secondary lines Traces of rails Thorigné - Courtalain Bridge Bridge supports Tramways de la Sarthe Remains not visible from public thoroughfares Tourist railways and sites Station Bridge The railway Origins and development Today, it is difficult to imagine 1827. The state encouraged the In the meantime, in 1858, the locally as ligne des ducs (duke’s the immense economic and development of rail transport Compagnie Paris-Orléans line) in reference to the duke social change brought about by to stimulate economic growth opened a line between Le Mans Sosthène II de la Rochefoucauld. the growth of the railways in in rural areas and combat their and Tours. Sarthe being the Owner of the Bonnétable estate, the 19th century. Until then, for isolation. However, it was not doorway to the west, Le Mans mayor and councillor of Sarthe, transport, man had to rely only until the July Monarchy that a rapidly became a major rail the duke was one of the railways on his own force combined with rail network with Paris as a hub junction. Although the main line’s most ardent supporters. that of an animal. In the space officially became an objective. lines in Sarthe were open, three Later on, a tramway network of a few decades, James Watt’s Partnerships were set up important towns, Mamers, La was set up to make travel easier steam machine invention (1769) between the state, landowners Flèche and Saint-Calais did not for all country dwellers. There combined with the first attempts and private companies to build have a railway line. In 1862, the were in fact three tramway to set up railways, initially horse the infrastructure and run the Sarthe council decided to add its networks set up under the powered, led to the first steam network. From then on, the rail sub-prefectures to the national laws of 1865 and 1880, which locomotive in 1804 in a factory network become nationwide. network and to link them to provided for railways with local in Wales. This first conclusive The Compagnie de l’Ouest each other in order to form a interest. For economic reasons test rapidly made the railway the brought the railway to Sarthe network within the department. and in order to adapt to the major element in the industrial in 1854 when it opened the Work began in 1867. But it was terrain, these tramways ran on evolution in England and line between Paris and Brest. in the wake of war in 1870, that narrow rails set a metre apart throughout Europe. In France, The Le Mans-Alençon line the Mamers to Saint-Calais line and built on the road or on the the first railway line was set joined it the following year and was built, thanks to a private shoulder. up to transport coal between the link between Le Mans and initiative, with support from the Saint-Etienne and Andrezieux in Angers was opened in 1863. local nobility. The line is known Continued on page 2 Cover: the tram station in La Ferté-Bernard, avenue de la République (currently an open-air pool) 1 Connerré-Beillé station, rebuilt after the Second World War La Ferté-Bernard station Continued from page 1 Paris - La Ferté-Bernard* - The tram lines in Sarthe were Paris to La Ferté-Bernard line Le Mans line built between 1882 and 1922 and or the Connerré - Courtalain covered a total of 430 km. The to Montmirail line. Transport (State/SNCF - general interest, normal track) first network was the shortest, of agricultural and industrial The line from Paris to Brittany best designed and most profitable. products was also easier. Convoys brought the railway to the The other two were often the of cider apples were shipped to Perche Sarthois in 1854/1855. object of political one-upmanship the cider factories by tramway The Compagnie de l’Ouest and every village wanted its own and industrial products such hesitated between Le Mans station. This rapid expansion was as those made at the Pierre and Alençon for the Paris to soon a disaster. Some lines were glassworks in Coudrecieux were Brest line, but Le Mans won the in deficit and ceased to operate, transported on the Mamers to battle thanks to the influence while others never saw the light Saint-Calais line. The tramways of the mayor, artist Jacques of day. Despite being short-lived, changed the face of rural Sarthe Trouvé-Chauvel. Purchased by the Sarthe tramways opened and helped retain local crafts the state in 1908 and then the up the cultural and economic such as ceramics in Prévelles. horizons of country-dwellers But, even at that time, rural SNCF in 1938, electrified in such as those who used the La exodus was already a reality 1937, the line is the only one Ferté-Bernard-Montmirail line and the promising beginnings that is still working of all those and were therefore able to leave of the motor car announced that criss-crossed the Perche Sarthe and go to Paris via the the supremacy of the roads. History trains of and tramways in SarthoisPerche Sarthois. It enters the area via 2 *first station in Perche Sarthois Bonnétable, tramway station, now part of a housing estate Viaduct in Savigné l’Evêque La Ferté-Bernard, goes through Le Mans - Savigné- Entering the Perche Sarthois It was in Dehault that the most Sceaux-Boëssé and Connerré- L’Evêque* - La Détourbe - at Savigné L’Evêque, the line serious accident involving the Beillé, where there was once La Ferté-Bernard served Sillé le Philippe, Torcé Tramways de la Sarthe took a junction with the Mamers- (Tramway de la Sarthe - metric gauge) en Vallée, Beaufay, Briosne and place, on 20 January 1910. Calais and Montfort-le-Gesnois This line was part of the second Bonnétable where there was Two people died when the tram lines (formerly Pont de Gennes - steam tramway network in a junction with the Mamers- derailed due to an embankment Montfort) and branches off at Sarthe, designed and built by the Saint-Calais and Rouperroux-Le subsiding. The only remains Saint-Mars-la-Brière towards engineer Harel de la Noë. The Coquet lines. At La Détourbe, of this line are a viaduct and a Le Mans. Just after Connerré section up to Bonnétable opened where the left fork went to bridge in Savigné L’Evêque, the it joins the high speed line that on 6 May 1897 and the section Mamers, it continued to the pillars of the viaduct in Dehault later goes to Brittany. Bonnétable - La Détourbe - La right towards La Ferté-Bernard and the stations1 in Bonnétable, Ferté-Bernard opened on 15 via Saint-Georges-du-Rosay, Saint-Georges-du-Rosay and La June 1898. The line closed on Dehault, the viaduct, La Détourbe. 1st February 1947. The steam Chapelle du Bois and Saintt- tramways in Sarthe formed a Antoine-de-Rochefort. It secondary rail network and ran entered La Ferté-Bernard via mostly on the shoulder of the the boulevard de la République road. The network covered the (currently avenue de la 1private property not visible from whole of the Sarth department. République). public thoroughfares 3 Warehouse at Connerré station, located Coudrecieux station on the site of Quai des Sports La Ferté-Bernard - Montmirail then Montmirail-Etat, via Mamers - Jauzé* - it went through Bonnétable, line the Thorigné-sur-Dué line Saint-Calais Line (Mamers - Saint- Prévelles, Tuffé, Connerré-Beillé (Tramway de la Sarthe - metric gauge) in Courtalain. In the Perche Calais - local interest, normal gauge) (junction with the Le Mans- This Tramways de la Sarthe Sarthois, the Tramways de la With the Migneret law of 1865, Paris line), Connerré-ville, line was part of the third Sarthe line has the most remains designed to encourage rail Thorigné-sur-Dué (junction with network, which was built still visible today. networks to serve prefecture the line towards Courtalain), later, during WWI and opened and sub-prefecture towns, the Saint-Michel-de-Chavaignes, on 16 March 1916. German Mamers to Saint-Calais normal Bouloire, Coudrecieux, prisoners helped build the line, gauge was opened. The first Montaillé and finally Saint- in several different places. The stage from Connerré to Mamers Calais. Nearly all the stations line was never very busy and opened on 21 September 1872. still exist, although they are it closed down fairly quickly, The Connerré to Saint-Calais privately owned, except Tuffé. on 1 January 1933, the service line opened on 20 February The Connerré-ville station was having already been suspended 1873 and was the first line of on the site currently occupied between 1 July 1921 and 1 May local interest in Sarthe. The by the town’s multi-purpose hall 1924. It went through Cherré, line remained in service until where there is a monument in Cormes, Courgenard, Théligny, 31 December 1977. Located memory of the Mamers-Saint- Saint-Ulphace, Gréez-sur-Roc mainly in the Perche Sarthois, Calais, Thorigné-sur-Doué and and up to Montmirail-Melleray, which it entered at Jauzé stop, Coudrecieux railway. 4 *first station in Perche Sarthois Vibraye station Saint-Calais station The section from Connerré- Thorigné-sur-Dué - Saint-Calais line for goods station now houses the tourist Beillé to Bonnétable has come Montmirail - Courtalain line transport as far as Montmirail. office. The town of Vibraye to life again thanks to the (State/SNCF - general interest, normal gauge) The goods were mostly farm not only renovated the station Transvap, which runs a service The Thorigné-sur-Dué to produce.