Illustrated books on the history, types and technology of trams in France.
Les tramways d'hier en France : 1950-1960
The book is inspired by the work of François Fontaine, for whom tramways and secondary networks are a real passion. Photography allowed him to build up an archive fund from 1948: his images transmit lively scenes full of humanity where everyone has their place.
This is also the uniqueness of this book: we discover cities of all kinds, their inhabitants and unusual corners through the tram networks. From Versailles to Perpignan, passing through about twenty cities, this book allows us to discover these vehicles in the 1950s/1960s, vehicles that for the most part disappeared at the end of those years, during a transition period with the bus and the trolleybus.
When Blaise Pascal invented urban public transport in 1662, he was probably far from imagining the immense success that his idea would one day meet. What a journey since his first Parisian carriage company to the current Bordeaux network! Well before being reborn in the 2000s, the Bordeaux tramways experienced a first golden age between 1880 and 1957.
Thanks to numerous unpublished documents, Val Tillet and Jacques Baillon trace this long history. This publication, rich in memories, will awaken nostalgia in the oldest and will undoubtedly capture the attention of all Bordeaux residents.
Information
Author:
Val Tillet, Jacques Baillon
Details:
128 pages, 23.5 x 16.5 x 0.7 cm / 9.25 x 6.5 x 0.28 in, paperback
On January 29,1966, the trams of line B ran for the last time in the streets of Lille, putting an end to a 92-year history, initiated in 1874 by the first horse-drawn trams. Thus disappeared the last major urban tram network in France, twenty years before the rebirth of this mode of transport in many cities and in the Paris region.
Through the author's photos, all unpublished, this book evokes the districts and municipalities served by the last tramway lines that ran through the Lille metropolitan area, as well as the technical installations and rolling stock of the network, without forgetting the "Mongy", an interurban tramway that still connects Lille to Roubaix and Tourcoing today. Passionate about railways and urban transport, Christian Buisson took many photographs of Lille's tramways in their last years of operation.
At a time when the city of Reims is acquiring a new tramway, Michel Thibault invites us to rediscover more than a century of public transport: omnibuses from 1872, horse-drawn tramways from 1882 to 1900, electric tramways from 1900 to 1939. Nearly 300 iconographic documents, mainly from the author's collection, share his passion for the city with us in a long walk through the six tramway lines that crisscrossed the city before the Great War. Then comes the time of modernity, when we move on to new works with the construction of a more ecological line of 11.2 km of route which should allow the people of Reims to travel in excellent conditions.
Michel Thibault, a tireless and passionate postcard collector and memorialist, has already written eleven works on the history of Reims.
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