I Went To Nowhere.

[Helene Anderson]

Or I was going to call this 'more flat photos' - LOL! I doubt I would ever get a job promoting this area as it is at times a bit sombre, a bit left out or is it that those are the places I look for here? At least sometimes it feels as though I have been to 'Nowhere'.


Country stations, there are a few, forgotten, with an ever diminishing number of trains. The nearest on to me I remember when the ticket ofice was open six days a week, with several station staff. Now it is open two half days a week.

In a village, perhaps so small it is a hamlet really, on the line between Poitiers and Angoulême. Goods train pass by, TGVs fly through and perhaps just three or four regional trains stop there each day.

A warehouse indicates that at one time there was activity there though that has had a 'To Rent' sign on it for ages.

I have seen a very old picture of the engine shed with the turntable but all that is gone, oh, the engine shed is still there, used for storage by the SNCF.

Old rails (pieces of), old sleepers are just piled up about the place. Probably piled up and left ages ago.

Yet just a few hundred metres north of here is a large warehousing complex (large for here). Perhaps I should ask there if it was them that used the old sidings that have been left?



A few more photos On Photobucket.

 

[Jerome Marot]

It is a good thing somebody is documenting those train stations. You may want to contact somebody to tell you where the really abandoned ones are. There used to be more train lines in your area than the only one which is left today.

 

[Ruben Alfu]

Hi Hélène,

I think this is an interesting subject theme. Do you plan to keep documenting this? For an outsider like me, it would be important to learn about the specific circumstances that lead to the decline of these country stations.


Regards,

Ruben

 

[fahim mohammed]

This is history and it needs documenting. The social and economic issues that lead to ( in this particular

instance the train stations ) the decline or abandonment of these places.

I am glad that you seem to be interested in preserving this page of history.

Regards.

 

[Jerome Marot]

For an outsider like me, it would be important to learn about the specific circumstances that lead to the decline of these country stations.

In a word: the rural population of France sharply declined after second World war and even more so in these parts. Agriculture, the main source of activity, was still operating as in the middle ages at the time of my great grand parents (my grandfather's words). With mechanization, about a 100th of the people are necessary today. No other activity grew to replace agriculture, industry actually declined (it is not an area with mines or good ways for mass transports of goods as e.g. the Rhone valley and small local industries were more or less devoted to local agriculture) and tourism was relatively inexistent (it gained a bit of importance in the 90s with British immigration).

So the people went away and with no travelers, so did the trains.

I am an example myself. My family can be traced from the same village for over 500 years. My grandfather is the first who left, right before the war. There was a small train line going through the fields down the village. Service stopped in the 50s, the rails are gone, only the levee on which they sat can be seen in the fields.

The station pictured here only stand because the line is a major one, connecting Paris to Bordeaux. But the trains do not stop any more.

 

[Helene Anderson]

Gosh, thanks for your comments. I had been to photo this station before but it hadn't really grabbed me, perhaps because I knew it. I had actually gone there to take photos of the branch line to Lussac Les Châteaux, rather the sidings that lead off the branch line to the grain silos (to the right in the photo). There are about ten to fifteen trains a year for the silos.

I have found a photos of the station from the 1950s, showing the turntable, St Saviol - click on the image for a larger version.

Line St Saviol - Lussac Les Châteaux, just after St Saviol​

There are a few trains a day that stop Jerome, TER* between Angoulême and Poitiers, with one train from Poitiers to Bordeaux. 06h55 from St Saviol. It might be interesting to do some more, certain there were a few more lines than there are now, Paris to Bordeaux or La Rochelle and Poitiers to Limoges are all that rest.

On the branch line the next station is Civray, closed perhaps in the 1990s, though people aren't really sure. The rails are in place still as far as Civray only. After there is Savigné, now a house, well hidden by fencing.

I have no plans to document any specific item(s) but I try to keep ideas rolling around in my head and look for things that are in decline or have undergone change that have a social impact, that affect the people in the area. One of the 'daft' photos I took was of the local Peugeot Grage, not a pretty photo but I took it, about three weeks later the garage closed down so I have perhaps the last photo of the front of the garage.

I had been wondering, since when had the 2002 calender had been in that concrete block?

I will keep my eyes open for more opportunties to record time in this way.

For those not used to France TER are the trains of the regions that tend to only run with in a specific region, sort of local trains.

 

[Ruben Alfu]

In a word: the rural population of France sharply declined after second World war and even more so in these parts. Agriculture, the main source of activity, was still operating as in the middle ages at the time of my great grand parents (my grandfather's words). With mechanization, about a 100th of the people are necessary today. No other activity grew to replace agriculture, industry actually declined (it is not an area with mines or good ways for mass transports of goods as e.g. the Rhone valley and small local industries were more or less devoted to local agriculture) and tourism was relatively inexistent (it gained a bit of importance in the 90s with British immigration).

So the people went away and with no travelers, so did the trains.

I am an example myself. My family can be traced from the same village for over 500 years. My grandfather is the first who left, right before the war. There was a small train line going through the fields down the village. Service stopped in the 50s, the rails are gone, only the levee on which they sat can be seen in the fields.

The station pictured here only stand because the line is a major one, connecting Paris to Bordeaux. But the trains do not stop any more.

Thanks so much Jerome!

Ruben

 

[Helene Anderson]

Spurred on by here I have been out yesterday (Thursday) to 'do' another station. I will deal with the photos later on today (it is now 00h31 here). Bizarre but it is very hard to find out about local history here, people have forgotten, or never knew or . . . . . It is a shame that so little seems to be documented in word or in picture.

 

[Jerome Marot]

Bizarre but it is very hard to find out about local history here, people have forgotten, or never knew or . . . . . It is a shame that so little seems to be documented in word or in picture.

That is because you do not know about the associations devoted to studying the history of the region.

In Charentes (Angoulême): Société Archéologique de la Charente

They should be able to direct you to neighboring associations in your area. Or you check on Wikipedia for your departement.

 

[Helene Anderson]

Did get given in Civray yesterday the telephone number for someone who deals with local history there, there is a small association, I'll have to follow that up at some point. There is the archives office in Poitiers also. I think it will pay me to have a look aroud as this might be interesting.

 

[Ruben Alfu]

Spurred on by here I have been out yesterday (Thursday) to 'do' another station. I will deal with the photos later on today (it is now 00h31 here). Bizarre but it is very hard to find out about local history here, people have forgotten, or never knew or . . . . . It is a shame that so little seems to be documented in word or in picture.

Well Hélène, I'm sure your photos and your questioning are already helping, at the very least, to spark curiosity. As you know, it's a process of discovering and learning for both, you and your audience. Ok, sorry for the preaching tone, and now I'm going to sound paranoid LOL, just a reminder to be careful if you are doing these photos alone, even if delinquency was not an issue in these areas, perhaps the physical conditions around the stations could be threatening.

Regards,

Ruben

 

[Helene Anderson]

I had never thought of delinquency! Could it be that I am the delinquent for having come from the big evil town, I grew up in (sarf) London. Plus I tower over a lot of people here.

I think things are pretty quiet here though. Thank you for your concern though Ruben.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hélène,

Maybe ghosts at least need the front door.

Asher

 

[Helene Anderson]

Who knows what spooky things happen at such sites at night, perhaps like the ghost train in "Oh Mr Porter" (1937) !

 

[Helene Anderson]

I went back today! Found something bright, well, yellow. The place looks sort of tidy and empty now, goodness knows what is going happen to the site, perhaps I should ask.

Though I had never seen one of these in real life, a machine that can go on the road and on the railway lines.