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The Moselle is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France, Luxembourg, and western Germany. It is a left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it joins at Koblenz. A small part of Belgium is in its basin as it includes the Sauer and the Our.
The Saar is a river in northeastern France and western Germany, and a right tributary of the Moselle. It rises in the Vosges mountains on the border of Alsace and Lorraine and flows northwards into the Moselle near Trier. It has two headstreams, that both start near Mont Donon, the highest peak of the northern Vosges. After 246 kilometres (153 mi) the Saar flows into the Moselle at Konz (Rhineland-Palatinate) between Trier and the Luxembourg border. It has a catchment area of 7,431 square kilometres (2,869 sq mi).
The Chemin de fer Arnaud, now Chemin de fer Arnaud Quebec is a private Canadian short line railway owned by Société ferroviaire et portuaire de Pointe-Noire (SFPPN) operating in the province of Quebec.
The Compagnie des chemins de fer du Midi, also known in English as the Midi or Southern Railway, was an early French railway company which operated a network of routes in the southwest of the country, chiefly in the area between its main line – which ran from Bordeaux, close to the Atlantic coast, to Sète on the Mediterranean – and the Pyrenees.
Rive-de-Gier is a commune in the Loire department in central France.
La Grand-Combe is a commune in the Gard department in southern France.
The Canal de la Marne au Rhin is a canal in north-eastern France. It connects the river Marne and the Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne in Vitry-le-François with the port of Strasbourg on the Rhine. The original objective of the canal was to connect Paris and the north of France with Alsace and Lorraine, the Rhine, and Germany. The 313 km (194 mi) long canal was the longest in France when it opened in 1853.
The Canal de la Meuse is the current name of what used to be the northern branch of the Canal de l'Est. It is a canal in northeastern France, predominantly made up of the canalised river Meuse. The Canal de l'Est was built from 1874 to 1887 to provide a waterway inside the new border with Prussia after the Franco-Prussian War, Overall, the canal had a total length of 394 kilometres (245 mi). In 2003, the northern and southern branches were officially renamed Canal de la Meuse and Canal des Vosges respectively.
The Canal de la Sarre, originally called Canal des Houillères de la Sarre, connects the Canal de la Marne au Rhin in Gondrexange to the canalised river Sarre in Sarreguemines in northeastern France. For convenience this entry covers the entire waterway in France, including the canalised river. The canal is 63 km long, and the French portion of the canalised river Sarre is 12 km long, making a total of 75 km, with respectively 28 and 2 locks.
The Freycinet Plan was an ambitious public works programme, launched in 1878 by the Minister of Public Works Charles de Freycinet, principally for the construction of railways, but also for canals and maritime ports. In its initial codification – which very largely was superseded – the plan foresaw the hypothecation of 3 billion francs to the railway lines, 1 billion to the canals and 500 million to the ports.
The railway from Paris-Est to Strasbourg-Ville is a 493-kilometre-long railway line that connects Paris to Strasbourg via Châlons-en-Champagne and Nancy, France. Officially, the line does not start at the Gare de l'Est in Paris: the first 9 km until Noisy-le-Sec is shared with the railway from Paris to Mulhouse. The railway was opened in several stages between 1849 and 1852. The opening of the LGV Est high speed line from Paris to Baudrecourt in Lorraine in 2007 has decreased the importance of the section Paris–Sarrebourg for passenger traffic.
The Compagnie anonyme de Châtillon et Commentry was a French steelmaking company, formed as a limited company in 1862 from the Société Bouguéret, Martenot et Cie., a creation from the combination of several French iron makers in 1846.
The French National Railways used to run a considerable number of 1,000 mmmetre gauge lines, a few of which still operate mostly in tourist areas, such as the St Gervais-Vallorcine (Alps) and the "Petit Train Jaune" in the Pyrenees. The original French scheme was that every sous-prefecture should be rail connected. Extensive 600 mm gauge lines were also built for the sugar-beet industry in the north often using ex-military equipment after the First World War. Decauville was a famous French manufacturer of industrial narrow-gauge railway equipment and equipped one of the most extensive regional 600 mm narrow-gauge railway, the Chemins de Fer du Calvados. Corsica has a narrow-gauge network of two lines following the coast line, that are connected by one line crossing the island through highly mountainous terrain. The petit train d'Artouste, a tourist line in the Pyrenees, uses 500 mm gauge.
The Givors canal was built between 1761 and 1781 to carry coal, other goods and passengers from Rive-de-Gier to Givors on the Rhone, running beside the Gier river.
Paulin Talabot was a French railway and canal engineer. Educated at the École Polytechnique, Talabot started his career building canals. Inspired by George and Robert Stephenson's steam railways in England, he built a line to transport coal from the coal mines at La Grand-Combe to the Mediterranean at Nîmes, which opened in 1839. He visited England and became friends with Robert Stephenson, with whom he surveyed a route for a Suez Canal in 1847.
Count Fernand de Saintignon was a French steel maker. He was descended from an old aristocratic family, and became owner of a steel company with operations in Luxembourg and Lorraine by marriage. He was also interested in scientific subjects, and published several papers. He developed a spa around a source of pure, hot water discovered accidentally while exploring for coal deposits.
Georges Rolland was a French geologist and industrialist, a member of the Corps des mines, who worked in Algeria in the 1880s. He made important discoveries about the underground hydrology of the Sahara. He was a leading advocate of a trans-Sahara railway to link French colonial possessions in West Africa. After returning to France he explored the geology of the Briey iron ore basin in Lorraine. He married the heiress of a Lorraine steelworks, and became president of the Société métallurgique de Gorcy and the Aciéries de Longwy, and director of various other enterprises.
Charles Emile Wickersheimer was a French mining engineer who served as a deputy in the National Assembly from 1885 to 1889, elected on a left-wing platform, and was again a deputy for a brief period in 1893. He became a chief inspector of mines, a member of the public railway network, and was responsible for the Paris quarries.
Stéphane Christophe Mony was a French railway engineer, company president and politician. He was involved in the Saint-Simonian movement when a young man. He was trained as an engineer, and he and his half brother Eugène Flachat built the Paris-Saint Germain and Paris-Versailles railway lines between 1833 and 1840. He was then appointed head of the Commentry mining company, later Commentry-Fourchambault, a position he held until his death. He was elected to the legislature towards the end of the Second French Empire, from 1868 to 1870. He did not succeed in getting reelected in the French Third Republic.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 McKnight, Hugh (2005). Cruising French Waterways, 4th Edition . Sheridan House. ISBN 978-1-57409-087-1.