Have You Seen "Les Usines d'Ugine?" [3]

Blog readers who enjoy luge, bob-sleigh and ski-jump in their spare time (just like fbb - NOT) will remember that, in 1992, the Winter Olympics were centred on Albertville, France.

The modern city of Albertville was formed in 1836 by King Charles Albert of Sardinia, who merged the medieval town of Conflans, which has buildings dating back to the 14th century, with the town of L'Hôpital. Since then, Albertville has developed trade between France, Italy and Switzerland. Industries such as paper mills and hydroelectricity can be found along its river.

The 1992 Winter Olympics were organised in the Savoy region, with Albertville hosting it. Some of the sports venues were later adapted for other uses. Some sports venues still remain such as the ice rink ...

... designed by the architect Jacques Kalisz, although the town is more industrial than touristic.

The railway station, seen here in 1930s with buses and coaches lined up ready for passengers ...

... was substantially rebuilt and extended for the 1992 festivities.

La gare a été mise en service le 27 octobre 1879 comme terminus de la première section venant de la gare de Saint-Pierre-d'Albigny. La section suivante jusqu'à la gare de Moûtiers-Salins-Brides-les-Bains a été ouverte  le 1er janvier 1893.

Le PLM (Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée) a mis en service le 3 juin 1901, la ligne d'Annecy à Albertville ...

et l'a prolongé le 20 novembre 1913, be Moûtiers jusqu'à Bourg-Saint-Maurice.

The line between Annecy, Ugine and Albertville closed to passengers in 1938; although an unadvertised workers train ran from Albertville to Ugine until 1952. The remaining sections were electrified in preparation for the 1992 Winter Olympics.

Looking south from near the station we can see that passenger trains from from Chambéry via Saint-Pierre-d'Albigny to Moûtiers and Bourg-Saint-Maurice reverse direction at Albertville.

This somewhat dated video, with commentary in French, gives a taste of the passenger line; it ends with reference to the the busy ski season when TGV "specials" operate via Albertville in addition to the relatively humble TER multiple units.

You may hear the words "ligne de La Tarentaise" which refer to the valley through which the line runs.

But the diesel-worked freight line continues north to Ugine. After the suburbs of the town, the line plunges into a tunnel; and after the northern portal ...

... we notice the massive Health and Safety protection for road users!!

The one intermediate station ...

... Marthod, still stands but is in private ownership. The single track runs alongside the dual carriageway D1212, another construction for 1992, until the approaches to Ugine where a junction with the line to Ugitech works is made.

Here the two tracks into the factory complex cross the main road with the usual proliferation of safety features, huge warning signs, massive barriers, flashing lights and klaxons.

The sidings seem to be worked as follows. The SNCF "fret" loco hauls its load into a loop at the former Ugine station. Here the loco runs round the train, splitting it into smaller sections if necessary. The trucks are then pulled a few hundred yards back towards Albertville and reversed into the exchange sidings.

The wagons are then collected by the Ugitech loco and taken into the works complex. Readers with good interpretative skills might just be able to spot a line of wagons inside the works on the aerial picture ...

... and another four parked in the exchange sidings.

fbb just wishes he could remember the number of that main road from Albertville.

Between Ugine and Annecy the track is closed ...

... but open!

 Next Ugine to Annecy blog : Thursday 28th November 

Have You Seen "Les Usines d'Ugine?" [2]

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Trammann, a blog comment writer, included some pictures of the sad end of Sheffield's Castle Markets.

See "Developing Markets" (read again)

Happy memories : sad memories!

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There is an obvious railway station in Ugine [Episode 1, read again] ...

... photographed by chum David with a line of trucks in the platform and ...

... an SNCF "Fret" (freight) diesel loco, class 475. To grasp why the railway is still open from Albertville to Ugine, we need to meet this man:- 

Paul Girod (1878-1951) : Ingénieur diplômé de l'École de Chimie du Technicum de Winterthour il est engagé par la Société chimique des usines du Rhône puis par les *Faïenceries de Grigny." À l'automne 1898, âgé de seulement vingt ans, il est l'auteur de l'invention du procédé de fabrication électro-métallurgique du vanadium. En 1904 il développe ce qui deviendra Ugitech. Il y perfectionne un four à sole conductrice en 1904 et réalise en 1906 et 1907 la première fabrication des alliages complexes; silico-aluminium, silico-calcium, silicomanganèse, et de l'aluminium. Le 19 janvier 1909, il fonde la "Compagnie des forges et aciéries électriques Paul Girod" et le 1er mai 1909 met en marche l'aciérie d'Ugine : avec ses quatre fours électriques, elle possède la plus belle technique au monde. 

In summary (and in English) he was a superbly clever metallurgist who invented an electric furnace process which led to his opening, in 1909, of a metal works in Ugine.

He was a man of great social responsibility, providing medical facilities and even accommodation for his workers. He called this block (centre and right) his ...

... phalanstère; the idea named after the Greek word "Phalanx" for its distinctive shape.

A phalanstère (or Phalanstery) was a type of building designed for a utopian community and developed in the early 19th century by Charles Fourier. Fourier named these self-contained communities, ideally consisting of 500-2000 people working together for mutual benefit, after the phalanx, the basic military unit in Ancient Greece. Though Fourier published several journals in Paris, among them La Phalanstère, he created no phalanstères in Europe due to a lack of financial support.

The cottage-style main office block (left) still stands today on the road named after the company's founder.

Oddly, the map still shows a railway station at Ugine (blue logo top left). It closed in 1938!

Or did it?

The works covers a huge area today and manufactures stainless metal bars and rods.

Ugitech (the modern name for Girod's company) uses scrap metal as a raw material and much of this arrives, loaded in bogie open wagons, by train.

The site has / had a substantial internal rail network which fbb has highlighted on the aerial view.

 yellow  indicates SNCF metals,  blue  shows the main sections in use in the works and dotted  green  is one of the rivers whose waters supplied the power for the early days of the factory. Ugitech owns its own diesel loco (locos?) as exemplified by this picture:-

But the snap creates an as-yet unresolved mystery. What is that overhead electric stuff doing? Lorry-driving David has been dispatched to Ugine as soon as poss. to find out.

Tomorrow, we teleport south to Albertville to take a look at the railway between there and Ugine.

 Next rail blog : Wednesday 27th November 

Have You Seen "Les Usines d'Ugine?" [1]

A Further Foray into France.

But first, First:-

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Remember this from the Aberdeen "Platinum" blogs?

Today we have two sets of figures which support fbb's off-the-cuff "Hooray!".

First, First Mancehster ...

... where big First cheese Dave Alexander (centre) in company with chair of Transport for Greater Manchester Andrew Fender (right) and vice chair ditto Mark Aldred (left) are clutching the good news passenger-wise. The raw statistic represents an additional 150,000 passenger journeys every week.

Next, First in West Yorkshire.

That's Dave Alexander again (who's a clever boy, then?) supported by Metro West Yorkshire chair James Lewis ...

[NO! Not the antique James Lewis but this one]

... in reporting  5% growth; that's an extra 100,000 journeys a week!

Well done all concerned! Uncle Giles will be upping his Christmas present budget, no doubt.

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So, off we go to Ugine.

But not to play Connect4 (a game at which fbb's No 1 son was a killer, aged 9) ...

... or to enjoy the view, spectacular though it be. Our task is to experience Ugine's public transport, past and present. To be brutally honest, fbb had never heard of Ugine until his truck driving chum started to report his adventures thereat. So, where and what is Ugine?

Ugine est une petite ville de Savoie au pied des gorges de l'Arly. Elle est traversée par deux rivières, la Chaise et l'Arly, dont le confluent se trouve à la sortie d'Ugine en direction d'Albertville.

Just nip over the mountains to the north and east and you are in Switzerland.

There are just two conventional bus routes in and to the town which has a population of just over 7000. A trunk route 51 runs from Annecy in the north to Albertville in the south.

The brand, operated by Transdev, is "Lihsa" ...

... Lignes Interurbaines de Haute-SAvoie.

In style, the operation is more like a Scottish Citylink coach service, rather than a typical inter-urban bus route.

at Annecy station

The 51 timetable is well-nigh incomprehensible to UK bus passengers as there is just one table with all trips in a mélange mystérieux. At first glance it looks like an hourly service, but when you explore the niceties of the column heading notes, the truth emerges.

It pans out like this (through journeys Annecy, Ugine, Albertville only):-

Monday to Thursday : 9 trips

Friday : 10

Saturday : 7

Sunday : 5

An alterative service runs from Albertville, serving more parts of Ugine.

This offers 9 trips on Mondays to Fridays (of which the 0450 and 2050 are on request only) and 3 on Saturdays; none on Sundays.

Note that the "C" starts from the bus station (gare routi%egrave;re) whereas the 51 starts from the railway station (gare); apparently. fbb thinks these are the same place! The operator, CoRAL (another clever acronym) ...

... serves the Albertville region, urban and rural.

Also, at Ugine ...

... you might just spot the A3, A4 and A5. These are operated by ...

... and are pre-book only.  fbb is somewhat baffled by the timetables for these three routes; all three have two round trips shown on the "horaire" and all three leave Albertville at exactly the same time. Presumably there is some clever vehicle and passenger juggling at Ugine where the three services split? More research needed.

And that's it; the sum total of Ugine's public transport!

But what is this building?

It looks remarkably like a railway station building in the style of the pre-SNCF Paris-Lyon-Mediterranée company. It has a white-on-blue "Ugine" nameboard and a canopy. And there are tracks (and trucks!) there as well.

 Prochain blogue "rail" : Mardi le 26 Novembre 

Developing Markets?

So, after 737 years (depending on where you start counting) there is now no longer a market on or near the site of Sheffield Castle. Yesterday was the last day of trading. Buses will still leave from Castlegate but the markets building is shuttered and barred and will soon be no more.

The first momentous moves to modernity came with he opening of the Norfolk Market Hall on Haymarket in 1850.

This served the citizens of Sheffield for over 100 years but, during its first few decades, there were still dozens of open fresh food stalls littered around the surrounding streets.

So it was that in 1928 Sheffield Corporation started work on a new Castle Hill (indoor) Market, built in conjunction with the new Brightside and Carbrook [B&C] co-op's city store.

The markets were accessed via a suitably municipal-grandiose archway ...

... on Exchange Street. [Note the bus; it will (indirectly) feature in a P.S. to this blog.] The interior of the market hall was as grand as its entrance portico implied; well, a lot grander than grovelling around outside in the rain.

Doors led through to a light, clean and spacious meat and fish market, wonderful to behold!

But it was not to last. Having opened in 1930, the area received a direct hit from enemy bombs in the Sheffield Blitz of 1940. The B&C store was gutted (and, later, demolished) ...

... and temporary access was provided to allow the market to continue trading.

Roll forward to 1959 and the brand new Castle Market buildings were opened.

In his pre-marital days (late 1960s) fbb and his flat mate often bought their weekend goodies there. The meat stalls were always busy ...

... selling quality stuff. There was fruit and veg a-plenty ...

... fish of every imaginable shape, size and colour, plus at least three stalls specialising in ...

... tripe. And, yes, the stall-holder would take out a huge pair of scissors and cut you off a sheet. Health and hygiene, phooey! [For the record, fbb often admired those stalls but never partook, warned off by his future father-in-law's description, "no sooner have you got a bit swallowed, than it springs back into your mouth and you have to start again."]

But as the 20th century turned into the 21st it was increasingly apparent that traditional city centre markets were losing out to the dreaded supermarkets. Certainly, when fbb visited he Castle Market a few years ago, it was but a shadow if its former self. The fresh food stalls were fewer in number, there were more empty pitches and many many more stalls were selling tat.

Hence closure was inevitable.

The Moor

Busy City Street

Pedestrianised

Refreshed?

Tomorrow a much smaller market hall opens at the foot of Sheffield's once-popular shopping street The Moor, itself having suffered a steady decline in popularity exacerbated by the opening of the Meadowhell out-of-town "mall".

It is part of yet another scheme to rejuvenate the Moorfoot area. Travel South Yorkshire have produced a leaflet ...

... complete with map and index showing which services stop where.

Unfortunately the map plus index combination doesn't differentiate between different directions of routes so isn't as useful as it could be. It does, however, have one piece of useful advice:-

Only time will tell if the new Moorfoot Market will succeed. Or if the new market will bring extra business for Sheffield's bus network. fbb will keep you (blog) posted.

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P.S. A new model bus.

It's a model of a Guy Arab HWA 714 which ended its days with Harper Brothers of Heath Hayes.

But look closely at the front:-

It's missing its route number box (above the two destination apertures) and, what about that stripe on the engine cowling?

fbb only remembers all cream bonnets, although blue bits did exist from time to time. But was there ever a continuation of the bodyside stripe? fbb thinks not - unless anyone out there knows better! EFE does qualify their advertisement with the phrase "details may change"; so let's hope they get it right before fbb (and many others) shell out much fine gold to buy one.

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 Next international blog : Monday 25th November