Tramway du Cap-Ferret, Heritage railway in Lège-Cap-Ferret, France
The Tramway du Cap-Ferret is a narrow-gauge railway on the Lège-Cap-Ferret peninsula, running about 2 kilometers between a central jetty area and a beach location. The line follows the coastline and connects different zones along the bay and ocean sides.
The service began in 1879 as a horse-drawn line to move travelers along the peninsula. Decades later it switched to mechanical power, and the operation eventually became municipally managed.
The train is nicknamed the "petit train" and its beach terminus is the Plage de l'Horizon, also called the Plage du Petit Train. Passengers ride in open-sided baladeuses coaches built by the Établissements Carde, and the diesel locotractors were disguised as steam locomotives. At the beach end, remains of the Atlantic Wall stand near the terminus.
The line runs about 2 km from the Bélisaire jetty on Arcachon Bay to Plage de l'Horizon on the Atlantic, taking 12 minutes at up to 12 km/h. Services run every 30 minutes or less in the afternoon from April to September, with some morning departures in peak summer; the line is largely along the roadside.
The line's two diesel locotractors, Diema 020 units numbered 2 and 3, were disguised as steam locomotives when the service reopened in 1952, and the front of No. 2 still carries a tall black smokestack with a yellow "2". At the beach terminus, remains of the Atlantic Wall stand near the track.
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