Are there any loco hauled passenger services in the Lille area now?

[TravisM]

Just spent a enjoyable few days with my girlfriend and here father here in Lille but had a disappointing visit to Lille Flanders station to find only units working the services there.  Is this the case now or are there still loco hauled services being used.  I even took a quick detour to Deliverance yard and surprised to see very little there and appeared to see little use.  What a difference from when I was last there (albeit 16 years ago).

 

Julian Sprott

[Fat Controller]

I'm pretty certain the last loco-hauled local services have now been replaced by units of various types. 

Deliverance is now only used for laying-over freights, and for loco/crew changes; such marshalling of freights that does occur takes place in either Somain or Dunkerque Grande Synthe. The container terminal at St Saveur has been moved to a much bigger site at Dourges, near Lens.

There is an interesting blog of rail activity, mainly around Hazebrouck, here:-  https://lapassiondutrain.blogspot.co.uk/

[TravisM]

I'm pretty certain the last loco-hauled local services have now been replaced by units of various types. 

Deliverance is now only used for laying-over freights, and for loco/crew changes; such marshalling of freights that does occur takes place in either Somain or Dunkerque Grande Synthe. The container terminal at St Saveur has been moved to a much bigger site at Dourges, near Lens.

There is an interesting blog of rail activity, mainly around Hazebrouck, here:-  https://lapassiondutrain.blogspot.co.uk/

 

That's pretty much what I got the impression of.  Hazebrouck looks like a pretty interesting place to visit.

 

Julian Sprott

[Fat Controller]

That's pretty much what I got the impression of.  Hazebrouck looks like a pretty interesting place to visit.

 

Julian Sprott

It's probably one of the busiest locations in the region, being where the Dunkerque- Lens and Calais- Lille lines cross. There's a wagon works next to the station, now owned by Colas, which also does work on locos; it would appear that it's being extended.

[TravisM]

I just found this on the Hornby International website.  As I saw several, I wouldn't mind getting one but does anyone have any opinions on them and a good source to get one?

 

Julian Sprott

 

http://www.hornbyinternational.com/en/jouef/2098-sncf-electric-railcar-z24500-nord-pas-de-calais-hj2201.html

[Fat Controller]

I just found this on the Hornby International website.  As I saw several, I wouldn't mind getting one but does anyone have any opinions on them and a good source to get one?

 

Julian Sprott

 

http://www.hornbyinternational.com/en/jouef/2098-sncf-electric-railcar-z24500-nord-pas-de-calais-hj2201.html

I think the model shop in Carlisle, who advertise on here, may be Hornby International stockists.

[Andy Hayter]

Sadly I think you may struggle to find one of these. The link is for the 2011 website.

 

It looks as if they were released around May 2012*. Ebay.fr is probably your best bet.

 

Sorry for bring disappointment.

 

* My database shows the reviews in that month, but I did not record which liveries were on offer.

[TravisM]

Sadly I think you may struggle to find one of these. The link is for the 2011 website.

 

It looks as if they were released around May 2012*. Ebay.fr is probably your best bet.

 

Sorry for bring disappointment.

 

* My database shows the reviews in that month, but I did not record which liveries were on offer.

 

Shame that the site was so out of date as the model looked and had a quick look on eBay's French site; as expected, no luck.  I have emailed Hornby International to find out what their plans are and if they ever plan to re-run the model.

 

Julian Sprott

[Andy Hayter]

I don't think the site is so much out of date as abandoned.

 

Hornby International now have a completely new and different site for their international offerings. It is of course very bad practice for a company to do this - or better said to not delete an out of date site - but I guess there have been rather more pressing issues.

 

http://www.Hornby.com/uk-en/shop/brands/jouef-h0-1-87.html is the current web offering for Jouef.

[Gordonwis]

AFAIK there still some 22200 on push pull double deckers, may only appear in Lille at rush hour