The Chambéry tramway was from 1892 to 1932 an up to long
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 tighter curv ...
Chambéry
Chambéry (, , ; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Chambèri'') is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Savoie Departments of France, department in the southeastern ...
in
Savoy
Savoy (; ) is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south and west and to the Aosta Vall ...
in
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
.
History
The Chambéry tramway was a network of four lines arranged in a star around the Chambéry railway station in Savoy. It was built at the suggestion of the entrepreneur Philippe Cartier-Million from
La Motte-Servolex
La Motte-Servolex (; ) is a commune in the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. It is part of the urban area of Chambéry.Decauville railway at Exposition Universelle (1889), he chose a gauge of , which was unusually narrow at the time.Johannès Pallière, Le lac du Bourget: Lac majeur de France, La Fontaine de Siloé, 2003. , pp. 333–334.
In October 1890, he obtained the concession for a line between Chambéry and La Motte-Servolex and founded the ''Société anonyme des Tramways de Savoie''. The first tram was put into service on this line in August 1892. Three other lines were opened until 1910: 1897 to Challes-les-Eaux, 1906 to Cognin and 1910 to
Le Bourget-du-Lac
Le Bourget-du-Lac (, literally ''Le Bourget of the Lake'' o is a commune in the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in eastern/south-eastern France.
It lies near the Lac du Bourget and from Chambéry.
Climate
Le Bourget-du-L ...
. In the same year the company filed for bankruptcy.
The network was taken over by the ''Savoie General Council'', which reorganized the network and operated it first through an escrow account and then through the ''Régie Départementale''. A decree of 8 February 1913 authorised the ''Régie Départementale des tramways de la Savoie'' to take over the operation of the network under "direct management". In 1929, the section between Challes-les-Eaux and Saint-Jeoire-Prieuré was closed down, whereupon the tramway ended up again at its former terminus in front of the Casino, where it had been before the line was extended in 1905.
Due to increasing wear and tear and decreasing traffic, the steam tramway was finally closed down and replaced by a trolleybus between Chambéry and Chignin and by buses on the other lines. The trolleybus was tested between Chambéry and Chignin in July 1930 and finally put into service three months later on 6 October 1930.
This led to the closure of the steam tram on the line to Challes-les-Eaux. The locomotives were mothballed at the Chambéry depot. The rails were lifted and stored on the west side of the hangar of the Challes-les-Eaux airfield and then sold to the Barlet-Ravier company from Chambéry on 21 January 1931. The line to Challes-les-Eaux was decommissioned by a decree of 1 October 1931.
The decision to completely shut down the remaining line to Le Bourget-du-Lac was made on 28 September 1932 and came into force on 1 January 1933.René Rey and Bernard Rozé: ''Les Tramways départementaux de la Savoie: (étoile de Chambéry).'' Chemins de Fer Régionaux et Urbains, No 103, 1971.
Rail vehicles
*No 1,
0-6-0
is the Whyte notation designation for steam locomotives with a wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and no trailing wheels. Historically, this was the most common wheel arrangement used o ...
delivered on 15 February 1896 by
Corpet-Louvet
Corpet-Louvet was a steam locomotive manufacturer based in Paris, France.
History
Founded in 1855 as Anjubault, based in the Avenue Phillippe-Auguste in Paris, the firm was taken over by Lucien Corpet in 1868. Corpet's daughter Marguerite married ...
, No 673, ''Challes-les-Eaux''
*No 3, 0-6-0 with two cabs, delivered on 30 July 1894 by Corpet-Louvet, No 623, ''La Motte Servolex'', unladen weight 11.280 t
*No 5, 0-6-0 1905 supplied by Buffaud and Robatel, empty weight 10 tons
*No 6, 0-6-0 1905 supplied by Buffaud and Robatel, empty weight 10 tons
*
0-4-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents one of the simplest possible types, that with two axles and four coupled wheels, all of which are driven. The wheels on the earliest four-coupled locomotives were ...
Orenstein & Koppel
Orenstein & Koppel (normally abbreviated to "O&K") was a major German engineering company specialising in railway vehicles, escalators, and heavy equipment. It was founded on April 1, 1876, in Berlin by Benno Orenstein and Arthur Koppel.
Ori ...
*2 railcars with 2 axles
*2 railcars with bogies
*Open and closed bogie passenger and freight wagons