Loose_Grip/Pete's photos with the keyword: Paris

An animated rainy evening scene in the Boulevard Diderot outside the Gare de Lyon in Paris.

When we hit the beach these 3 biplanes (you have to look closely!) were formation flying along the coast. We had stumbled on the first day of the Le Touquet Air Show.

Going back over 53 years to my first visit to France for this broadside comparison with the previous post. Between turns on the commuter trains SNCF 141TC 2-8-2 39 lays up in the siding at the platform end at Paris Gare du Nord. Note the hose pipe topping up the sidetanks. Built in 1934 these big ex-Nord 2-8-2 tanks were impressive machines & at this time they were working the very intensive push & pull suburban services smokebox-first out of Paris. All were withdrawn by August 1970 when steam finished in Paris and only one example was preserved.

French commuter steam at Paris Gare du Nord as 141TC39 (ex-ETAT 42.039) departs rapidly northwards. These big 2-8-2 tanks, built by Fives-Lille in 1922, were impressive machines & at this time they were working the very intensive suburban services push & pull, smokebox first, out of Paris. While my then girlfriend had lectures on her year ahead as a French assistant in Verdun I hung around Gare du Nord & Gare de la Bastille taking in the Gallic steam atmosphere. The girlfriend ended up married to a frenchman, steam disappeared & the TGV arrives at these platforms now. C'est la vie!

SNCF 9200 class Bo-Bo 1.5kV DC electrics BB-9272 and BB-9266 stand at the head of their trains in the Gare d’Austerlitz in Paris.

This IFC tour was headed by SNCF 4-6-0 230G 353 and traversed all the sections of the Petite Ceinture that were still in place in 1985. Not that I really knew where I was as my knowledge of the geography of Paris was slim to non-existant at the time. This was the disused station of Avenue de Saint-Ouen in the north of Paris. HFF and keep safe.

The art nouveau dome and Christmas tree inside Galeries Lafayette on Boulevard Hausmann.

Dawn over the empty platforms of the Gare de Lyon in Paris.

As part of the commemoration of 150 years of railways in France SNCF organised a steam special from Paris Gare Saint-Lazare to St. Germain en Laye pulled by État 4-6-2 231 G 558. It is seen here beneath the fine trainshed roof by the buffer stops.

SNCF 141TB 2-8-2T 463 departs Paris Gare de la Bastille station with cylinder cocks wide open. Bastille was the terminus of the 54.1 km long line to Vincennes and Verneuil-l'Étang. This was my first visit to Paris or France. No sign of any greenery in those days but today the Promenade Plantée is a major tourist site bustling with walkers who can follow the line eastwards for 4.5km. The station itself is the site of l'Opera de la Bastille. Interestingly when I lived in Paris in the 1980s I told my french co-workers that there had been a station here until 1969 & I was not believed at first! "C'est pas vrai"!!

The fireman of SNCF 141TC6 fails to close the water valve quick enough! Instead of commuter tanks, TGVs arrive & depart from these platforms 45 years later !

Paris Gare du Nord 2-8-2T 141TC12 departs September 1969. A second 141TC simmers in the adjacent platform on the left. All the atmosphere of a main line capital terminus. With the services out of Gare de la Bastille these were the last suburban steam trains in France. Quite a change from the Eurostars that arrive at these platforms today. My girlfriend of the time studied French at Aberystwyth University & was in Paris for an induction course at the Sorbonne to prepare for her year as a teaching assistant in Verdun. While she studied I photographed. She obviously took the course very seriously as she ended up marrying a frenchman! Still I took my photography seriously too & I still have a liking for french steam, paticularly these modern looking tanks.