Pas de Calais et de l'Aisne 0-6-0 Locomotives in France

Class unknown (Locobase 7420)

Data from Titre Exposition universelle internationale de 1889 a Paris. Rapports du jury internationale. Auteur - Volume France. Ministere du Commerce, de l'industrie. Picard, Alfred, ed. Volume Groupe VI - -Outillage et precedes des industries mecaniques. Electricite (5e partie) Classes 60 a 63. Rapport sur le materiel des chemins de fer. tables beginning on p. 183 ([] (accessed 1 September 2005))

Also see A. Sampite, Les Chemins de Fer a Faible Trafic en France (Paris: Baudry et Cie, 1888), p. 44-49

The Velu a Saint-Quentin was the longest of the 4 lines in this Ligne de Intereret Local at 52 km. While the other components adopted the Batignolles design shown in Locobase 9142, this railway bought a sextet from Cail.

Class unknown (Locobase 9121)

Data from A. Sampite, Les Chemins de Fer a Faible Trafic en France (Paris: Baudry et Cie, 1888), p. 49. See also [] for a history of these Freycinet Plan railways.

Sampite's book is a survey of the secondary lines that spun out in a network all over France after the passage of the Freycinet Law of 1877. According to the rural rail website:

"This law identified two categories of railway lines; those in the national interest, being, principally, the main lines linking the prefectures, known as RESEAU D'INTERET GENERAL, and the little rural railway lines linking the sous-prefectures, and smaller towns and villages, being in the local interest and constituting the RESEAU D'INTERET LOCAL.

This new law simplified the formalities of construction of railways lines of all kinds out in the countryside and a plan was set to construct some 9,000 km (5,650 miles) of secondary lines by the end of the century.

By 1914, in fact, a total of some 18,000 km ( 11,250 miles) of secondary lines had been constructed in rural France. Each of these secondary lines was seldom more than 20-30 km long, but they were often linked together in a a kind of departmental network via the main prefecture. Sometimes the lines crossed into neighbouring departments, although this was always difficult to arrange."

The Achiet & Marcoing (32 km) and the Boisleux a Marquiong (26 km) were two of the Lignes de l'Interet Local running in the Calais district. Locobase 7420 shows the Cail design adopted by another short line in the same network.

These were indeed light lines with rail weights running 25 kg/meter (50 lb/yard).