event

Traveling in an old locomotive through the Sarthe countryside. This is the activity offered Transvap for many years already. Founded in 1975, the association now has more than 80 volunteers. Ranging from 13 to 102 years old, all are attached to preserve, restore et run steam locomotivesbut also old SNCF railcars.

“Technology has evolved”

“There is know-how related to steam locomotives, and, overall, we need of welders et boilermakers. These are trades that still exist but there, we have to adapt to the plans of the time “explains the vice-president of Transvap, Yohann Rossignol.

Also a TGV and TER driver, he discusses the differences between driving an old train and driving a more recent machine: “Technologies have evolved, we have gone from steam to diesel, and now to electric. We have increased the speed of the trains, but the principle of railway safety is the same, management too. It’s just more computerized Today. »

100 candles soon to be blown out

In order to celebrate the centenary of the Chéronne, one of the two locomotives of the association still in operation, an animation is planned for Sunday, May 28th. A little walk on the rails will be offered to travelers in the countryside between Connerré and Prével. There will also be a picnic at midday, then a walk in Tuffé-Val-de-la-Chéronne, to explain the origin of the locomotive’s name.

“It is a French steam engine manufactured in 1923 in Paris, and during a large part of its career, she stalked coal wagons in the Cévennes, in the coal mines”, says the vice-president. Her association got her back forty years ago, “The volunteers worked hard to get it back on the road, and since then we have kept it in working order so that we can offer it to the public every summer. » Travel at low speed since the machine does not exceed 25 km / h. And journeys that take the form of marriage, baptisms, or even retirements.