Rinxent, Ferques and Caffiers, Pas de Calais, France :: Fotopic.Net

Rinxent, Ferques and Caffiers, Pas de Calais, France

4th January 2005

A day trip on the ferry to France resulted in a few spare hours so a short drive was made to Rinxent, Pas de Calais, an area with huge Marble quarries, mostly rail-served off the SNCF mainline.

First stop on the map was a large factory complex in Rinxent itself, shown as rail-served. The site was in fact the derelict buildings of les Usines Métallurgiques de Marquise à Rinxent, a massive foundry complex. Some standard gauge track was found, still laid in cobbles within the site amongst some wonderful French industrial architecture. Found inside some of the buildings was the remnants of a hand worked 600mm gauge line, probably used for moving large castings and forgings from the furnaces to the machine shop floor. Because of the darkness inside the buildings, these photos did not reproduce suitably to be uploaded here. The complex is no longer connected to SNCF and some areas of the site are undergoing demolition and redevelopment.

North-East of Rinxent is the large quarry area of Ferques. One standard gauge branch worked by industrials runs from quarries at La Providence, paralleling the SNCF mainline to exchange sidings at Caffiers Station. This line is worked by a pair of modern 4wDH locos, can anyone identify them?

A third line, normally worked by SNCF Bo-Bo's runs to the Marble quarries of Ferques. Some industrial locos can be seen from a distance here too. This line also runs to Caffiers Station, on the other side of the SNCF mainline. At one point it is possible to cross all three lines, four tracks worth, firstly on a level crossing, the mainline in a cutting via an over bridge and final another level crossing.

Part of the foundry complex, showing the standard gauge internal system passing through one of the loading bays.	Typical French industrial architecture, with the track still set in cobbles in the foreground.	The loading bay from the other direction, showing the trackwork splitting into sidings.	The workers entrance.
Another part of the foundry, trackwork ran through the gap in the buildings, roughly where the pile of rubble is.	A pair of diesel-hydraulics working a rake along the branch to Caffiers station.	Heading towards Caffiers, shortly to parallel the SNCF mainline.	Arriving at the exchange sidings in Caffiers station.
Uncoupling to run round.	Running round, ready to take the last rake of empties back today, ready for the morning.	Sheeted over SNCF B-B electric loco 16510 parked at the end of the private siding, off the wires following a collision with a truck on the Caffiers level crossing in 2001. Thanks to Gordon Wiseman of the SNCF Society for the info.	All was revealed with a look under the tarpaulin. A crushed cab suggests quite a bad crash.
Nearby, a very bent hopper wagon, without bogies.	Side view of crashed hopper wagon.	Close up of damage, possibly involved with the accident damaged Bo-Bo loco?	A pair of SNCF Bo-Bo diesel locos stabled in Caffiers station, with a marble train behind.