Établissements Billard was a French railway

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, Railroad car#Freight cars, freight and Passenger railroad car, passenger cars (or coaches) ...

construction company founded in 1920 and based in

Tours Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabita ...

. It specialised in light

railbus A railbus is a lightweight passenger railcar with an automotive engine. It shares many aspects of its construction with a bus, typically having a bus (original or modified) body and four wheels (2 axles) on a fixed base instead of on bogies. O ...

es and

metre gauge Metre-gauge railways ( US: meter-gauge railways) are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. Metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by several European colonial powers including France, Britain and ...

and

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

rolling stock. The business ceased trading in 1956 and later became

Socofer Socofer is the name for the railway construction company that before 1968 was known as Établissements Billard. History Socofer, a French company established in 1965, acquired the railcar fabrication business of Billard the same year. The Bill ...

Production

Draisines

Draisine A draisine () is a light auxiliary rail vehicle, driven by service personnel, equipped to transport crew and material necessary for the maintenance of railway infrastructure. The eponymous term is derived from the German inventor Baron Karl D ...

s : These worked on different VFILs, and for the "Big Companies" which became the

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (, , SNCF ) is France's national State-owned enterprise, state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the Rail transport in France, country's national rail traffic along with th ...

Locomotives

* T50 * T75D * T75P * T75G These were designed for the French Military Railway. They were used, among other things, to service the

Maginot Line The Maginot Line (; ), named after the Minister of War (France), French Minister of War André Maginot, is a line of concrete fortifications, obstacles and weapon installations built by French Third Republic, France in the 1930s to deter invas ...

. *

SNCF Class Y 7100 The Y 7100 class of small shunters originally had 210 members. The first 130 were built by Billard, with the remaining 80 by Decauville. They have the 0-4-0 ("B") wheel arrangement, 150 kW diesel engine The diesel engine, named after t ...

Railbuses

Railbus A railbus is a lightweight passenger railcar with an automotive engine. It shares many aspects of its construction with a bus, typically having a bus (original or modified) body and four wheels (2 axles) on a fixed base instead of on bogies. O ...

es for numerous French VFIPs (secondary railways) * Type A 80D, * Type A 135D, * Type A 150D, * Type A 210D, * Networks of the Compagnie des chemins de fer départementaux, including: **

Corse Corsica ( , , ; ; ) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the French mainland, west of the Italian Peninsula and immediately nor ...

, **

Vivarais Vivarais (; ; {{cite web , url=http://www.columbia.edu/acis/ets/Graesse/orblatv.html , title = ORBIS LATINUS - Letter V) is a traditional region in the south-east of France, covering the ''département'' of Ardèche, named after its capital Vivier ...

, ** Indre et Loire, **

Seine-et-Marne Seine-et-Marne () is a department in the Île-de-France region in Northern France. Named after the rivers Seine and Marne, it is the region's largest department with an area of 5,915 square kilometres (2,284 square miles); it roughly covers its ...

* Tramways d'Ille-et-Vilaine Company * Overseas networks: ** Madagascar ** Réunion * French West Africa: ** Dakar Niger ** Dahomey * Ethiopia: ** Chemin de fer Franco-éthiopien received in 1964 two automotive cars of , for the Djibouti – Addis-Abeba line Several European networks Diakofto

* In Greece * In Spain ** A Micheline was built in the 1930s for the PO ** Three buses with bogies on a wide chassis worked on the Nord-Est. ** A series of railbuses with two axles were built for the CFD and the SNCF in 1949 and 1950 ** A series of FNC railbuses were deployed by the SNCF The solidity of the stock, and the simplicity of construction, means that many Billard engines are still working today.

Preserved Billard rolling stock

;Locomotives type T 50 type T 75, in several variants (with the series prototype, and some military examples) on the Tacot des Lacs, at the Train Touristique de Saint Trojan and later at APPEVA. type T 100, ;Railcars Meter gauge type A 150D * X153, Portes les Valence (bespoke). type A 150D * 212, Chemins de Fer de Provence * 213,

Chemin de fer du Vivarais The Chemin de fer du Vivarais (, CFV) - often called ''Le Mastrou'' or ''Train de l'Ardèche'' - is a tourist railway in the Ardèche region of the South of France. The metre gauge line is long. The railway is renowned for its historical steam lo ...

* 214,

. type A 80D * 313,

Voies Ferrées du Velay Voies ( , feminine plural) is a former Communities and Municipalities of Greece, municipality in Laconia, Peloponnese (region), Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Monemvasia, of which it is a ...

* 314,

* 315

* 316

* 513 Chemins de fer de Corse. type A 150D2 Articulated * 222

. Trailer R 210 * 3,

* 5, MTVS ex autorail AM 20 des TIV * 7,

* 11,

* 22,

Standard gauge type A 75D * X901, Tourist railway of La Sarthe, originally Chemin de fer Mamers-Saint Calais * X903, Trains à vapeur de Touraine with a trailing car

Rebuilt and modernised vehicles

* XR 1331 ( Chemins de Fer de Provence), ex RL1, originally CP, rebuilt Garnero * XRD 1333 ( Chemins de Fer de Provence), ex RL3, originally CP, rebuilt original mail van * XRD 1337 ( Chemins de Fer de Provence), ex RL7, originally CFD Vivarais 33, rebuilt Garnero, mail van * XR 113 ( Chemins de fer de Corse) ex autorail A 150 D1, N°113, rebuilt Carde * XR 104 ( Chemins de fer de Corse) ex autorail A 210 D1, N°105, rebuilt Garnero, previously with CP * XR 105 ( Chemins de fer de Corse) ex autorail A 210 D1, N°106, rebuilt Garnero, previously with CP * XRD 242 ( Chemins de fer de Corse) ex autorail A 80 D, N°32, originally CFD Charentes * XR 526 ( Chemins de fer de Corse) ex autorail A 150 D2, N°526, originally Tramways d'Ille-et-Vilaine

Gallery

File:Autorail Billard 212 des CP - Juillet 1983-8.jpg, Railbus n° 212 (

) of the Chemins de Fer de Provence line at the

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million Draisine A draisine () is a light auxiliary rail vehicle, driven by service personnel, equipped to transport crew and material necessary for the maintenance of railway infrastructure. The eponymous term is derived from the German inventor Baron Karl D ...

, preserved at the Belgian "Dendermonde - Puurs" File:Locotracteur Billard T75G No232.JPG, Locomotive type T75G N°232 preserved at the APPEVA museum (Chemin de fer de la Haute Somme),

of File:Billard P1010399.JPG, Railcar 214 preserved by the

, typical of many French secondary railways File:Korsikabahn Diskussion08.jpg, Trailing car XRD 242 from the Chemins de Fer Corse.

Notes

Sources

References

External links

Billard railcar A80D N°313 from Dunières-Saint-Agrève

{{DEFAULTSORT:Billard, Etablissements Defunct rolling stock manufacturers of France French companies established in 1920