Cayeux-sur-Mer and the P’tit Train

On By geoffspagesIn France, Railways...Leave a comment

Sunday 20th May – two train rides… The CF Baie de Somme line from St Valery to Cayeux-sur-Mer only runs at weekends at this time of year, likewise the 600mm gauge CF Froissy – Cappy – Dompierre – “Le P’tit train de la Haute Somme”. It’s going to be a busy day.

We’d seen a steam departure for Cayeux on the previous evening, but on Sundays, a diesel locomotive hauls the service. Nothing modern though – a quaint 0-6-0 with side-rods, dating from 1951, resembling a child’s toy, and lovely old wooden coaches (that includes the seats…). The ride to Cayeux is very pleasant, through fields and quiet countryside, and marshy-looking low-lying ground nearer the sea, with numerous drainage ditches and water birds.

The CFCD is quite different. A last remnant of the trench railways of WW1, it runs beside the Somme from Froissy (whose museum is excellent) to Cappy. Here we exchange our steam locomotive for a diesel, for a run through a steep curving tunnel, then a zig-zag to gain height, to the roadside tramway to Dompierre. Great fun – well worth the longish drive.

The CFBS and the CFCD will be covered by “Rail Diaries” entries – once I’ve worked my way through all the photos. In the meantime, the blog pictures will provide a taster of things to come

A week in France

On By geoffspagesIn France, Railways...2 Comments

Saturday 19th May – we’re up at 5.00am, for the drive to Dover, and the 12.05 ferry to Calais. It’s raining. By 5.30pm, French time, we’ve booked in to our gite, and driven the five miles or so to Saint Valery to buy provisions. And il fait beau. We’re feeling a bit jaded from the long journey and the early start, but there’s a railway to check out – the Chemin de Fer de la Baie de Somme. Tomorrow we’ll take a ride. Or two.

There will be “Rail Diaries” entries – but not for a few days

Walking from Witchend

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“This is Witchend, isn’t it?”

My wife knew of the Long Mynd, and the eastern valleys or “batches”, as they are known locally, long before we first came to Shropshire. As a child, she had read and enjoyed Malcolm Saville’s “Lone Pine” stories. The precise locations used in the stories are mostly fictional, though Priors Holt, at the mouth of Nut Batch, is widely reckoned to be the model for Witchend. The gliders we would see on this walk come into at least one of the stories, similarly the rocky tors of Stiperstones, and its mines. But red kites – five were wheeling over Priors Holt Hill at the start of our walk – would have been a very rare sight in Shropshire when the books were written – there were then just a handful struggling on in mid-Wales.

The walk up the forestry road provides a very easy ascent to the Long Mynd plateau, joining the ancient Portway south of the gliding field. A much more modern path – the Starboard Way (!) avoids the gliders and their cables, and leads fairly directly to the top of Minton Batch, for a very pleasant descent. The path across the fields, back to Witchend, would have been slightly easier to follow had I not left the map at home…

The Malcolm Saville Society

Dry afternoon…

On By geoffspagesIn PhotographyLeave a comment

Making the most of a brief dry interlude – a wander with the camera, to the Severn at Jackfield and Coalport. A little light would have been too much to hope for…

A plaque on a brick plinth marks the site of the Caughley porcelain works, an undertaking which became better known when manufacture moved to nearby Coalport. Someone has placed small pieces of broken china atop the plinth – presumably found nearby