A network of 1 metre railways was built in the South of France at the end of the 19th century, run by the Chemins de Fer du Sud de la France (S.F.), later to become the Compagnie des chemins de fer de la Provence (C.P.).

600 km of rail lines were built in three areas:

(1) La Littoral. A coastal section ran from Toulon, via Hyeres and Ste Maxime to Fréjus and St Raphaël.
(2) Nice-Meyrargues. A central section ran across the departments of the Var and the Alpes Maritimes, from Meyragues, via Draguignan and Grasse, to Colomars at the Var river, where it connected with the Nice-Digne section. This line ran from the end of the 19th century until it was closed in 1950.
(3) Nice-Digne This section ran from Nice, up the Var river valley to Dignes-les-Bains. Thankfully this line is still in service today.

Tramways were also built in the Alpes-Maritimes. These tramways reached into some of the remotest areas of the Alpes-Maritimes. One example is that from Menton to Sospel.

The “Train des Pignes” is a name that was used locally for the old train on the Meyrargues-Nice and the Nice-Digne lines. Villagers used to collect pine cones (pommes de pignes) in the hills, usually the large cones from a pine called the pigne noir. They would collect the pine cones in large bags and leave the bags beside the railway tracks. The train moved through the hills very slowly — so slowly that passengers could get on and off the train while it was moving at it’s “normal” speed. It was a common sight for these bags of pine cones to be put onto the train as it passed, to be transported to the remote houses and farms for fuel.

A number of branch lines linked the longer lines to places nearby, mostly in the Alpes-Maritimes.

Grasse-Cannes: 1871-1938 for passengers, although the southern part of the line remained open for limited freight operations. The Cannes-Grasse line was reopened in 2005.

Grasse – Cagnes-sur-Mer: left the Grasse-Vence route at Pré-de-Lac and followed the valleys down past Roquefort-les-Pins and Villeneuve-Loubet to Cagnes-sur-Mer.

Vence-Cagnes-sur-Mer: went past Saint Paul-de-Vence and La Colle-sur-Loup. Some of viaducts and tunnel openings are still visible here, from along the road.

Roquestéron: from the Var river, at the Pont Charles-Albert (between St Martin-du-Var and Plan-de-Var), this spur line followed the Esteron valley west to Roquestéron, passing just south of Gilette and Pierrefeu.

Vésubie Valley: from Plan-du-Var, via St Jean-la-Rivière, Lantosque and Roquebillière to St Martin-Vésubie.

Tinée Valley: this branch-line went up the Tinée valley from a narrow gorge at the Pont de la Mescala to St Sauveur-sur-Tinée, providing access to:La Tour, Bariols, Clans, Illonse, Marie and Rimplas.

Dalius Valley: this line followed the Dalius valley up beyond the Gorges de Dalius. It branched off from the main line at the Pont de Gueydan and went to the small town of Guillaumes.

References:

http://www.beyond.fr/themes/lostrailways.html – this page gives a much fuller account of these lost lines and is worth a visit.

Usually when we come to Nice in the late Autumn we travel somewhere on the Chemins de Fer de Provence which runs from Nice to Digne in Provence – about 151 km.

Last year we travelled to Entreveux. This year we did not travel on the train, but walked alongside the line at St. Martin du Var. We also visited the renovated buiding that used to be the Nice terminus of the line. Renovation was only just completed. Here are two photos which show the change – the first from 2007 the second taken this week.

There was a display of some historic photos some of which you can find below.

Since late 2011 the trackwork on the line has been being renewed and they have bought four new DMUs for use on the line.

We visited Sospel in The Alpes Martime today and took the bus from there to Menton.

As we travelled down on the bus on the D2566 we saw a number of derelict viaducts.

After a little investigation on the Internet we were able to establish that a tramway was opened from Menton to Sospel in 1912/13 which at first was very well patronised with 1st and 2nd Class accommodation. Often freight wagons we attached to trams as they traversed the line.

When the main line from Nice to Tende was being built, the tramway provided an easy means for transport of materials from the coast. Sadly once the main line was opened usage of the tramway declined and it closed in the 1930s. The route of the tramway very closely followed the line of what is now the D2566. It passed through or close to two villages en-route from Sospel to Menton: Castillon and Monti.

References:

http://transpressnz.blogspot.fr/2012/02/one-time-tramway-from-menton-to-sospel.html

http://www.cparama.com/forum/ligne-du-tramway-menton-sospel-t4789.html

http://www.notrefamille.com/cartes-postales-photos/cartes-postales-photos-Ligne-du-Tram-de-MENTON-a-SOSPEL-A.-M-.–Le-Viaduc-du-Carei.-06500-MENTON-06-alpes-maritimes-553903-67098-detail.html

http://www.delcampe.net/page/item/id,80276116,var,Tramway-line-from-Menton-to-Sospel-the-Viaduct-du-Caramel-Sospel-Alpes-Maritimes-France-postcard,language,E.html

http://www.lafoireauxaffaires.fr/cartespostales/page1.html