The Railway Network
This map show the extent of the historical railway network in the parts of the Dordogne, Gironde and Lot-et-Garonne that we are interested in. Please visit the Vallee du Dropt site to see an enlarged image. If you would like to see complete departmental maps then please visit the Rue du petit Train site.
We will tell our story with recourse to the railway timetables of the period. There were three main services.
(Mussidan) Bergerac to Marmande
This line was opened in 1886. At the time it was owned by the Compagnie du chemin de fer de Paris à Orléans (PO) which had control of the Paris Bordeaux and Paris Toulouse routes. The PO merged with the Compagnie des Chemins de fer du Midi in 1934. For passenger travel it closed in 1939 and for goods in 1953. Note that our nearest station would have been St-Aubin-Lauzun rather than Eymet, and we could have caught the train to St-Nexans, which would have been the stop nearest Bergerac airport.
Bordeaux to Eymet
This route became fully operational in 1899 when the Bordeau to La Sauve section (opened 1873) was linked to the Le Sauvetat-du-Dropt to Mussidan section (opened 1886).
Villeneuve – Castillonnès – Falgueyrat
This line was proposed in “Le plan Freycinet” which was launched in 1879 by the then Minister of Public Works, Charles de Freycinet. While most of the other 7,800 km of lines were completed by 1914, this stretch as an extension to the Villeneuve – Cancon service, also owned by PO, was only finished in 1930. It closed to passengers, after only 9 years, in March 1939. Goods trains, for some reason, continued running to November 1953 despite the goods service from Casseneuil to Castillones having closed in 1940. The opening of the line was reported in the Figaro of 14th October 1930:
“Inauguration d’une voie ferrée L’inauguration de la ligne de chemins de fer de Villeneuve-sur-Lot à Falgueyrat a eu lieu dimanche dernier en présence du directeur et du haut personnel de la Compagnie du P.-O. sous la présidence de ̃M, Pierre Marraud, ministre de l’Instruction publique et des Beaux-Arts. La ligne de Villeneuve-sur-Lot à’ Falgueyrat pré-sente un grand intérêt économique pour toute la région. D’exécution assez difficile, elle avait été déclarée d’utilité publique en 1901. Elle met en relations, la région de Villeneuve-sur-Lot avec la vallée de la Dordogne et Bordeaux.”
And we have obtained a copy of Le PO Illustré for November 1930, which devoted two pages to the opening of the line. This publication was the house magazine for PO employees. It seems that much was made of the opening and it was believed to have a prosperous future.