Viaduct at Cluis

I had to drive up to Chateauroux recently, and on the way back, I made a little detour to look at this viaduct. It's on a disused single track line that ran from Argenton-sur-Creuse to La Chartre, both in the Department of Indre.

Built between 1897 and 1901, it is 200 metres long and 43 metres above the valley floor. It had a very short service life, - the line was opened to traffic in 1903, passenger services ceased in 1939, and freight services in 1952, barely fifty years after construction!

This section of railway was part of a "Grand Design", first discussed as far back as 1868, to link the Atlantic port of La Rochelle with Geneva, but endless arguments about the best route, local politics, landowner's objections, and so on, meant that only parts were completed, and work didn't start on this section until 1894. The low population density locally, and a far from prosperous rural economy, meant that the line could not survive alone, and early closure became a certainty.

1956 Agfa Karat IV, f2/50mm Solagon lens, x2 yellow filter. Polypan F in Gainers original, stock solution, 8mins@21C. Scanned @2400dpi on Epson V500