- Tramway de Fontainebleau
The Tramway de Fontainebleau (CTF) was a tramway system in
Fontainebleau ,France .As a royal town, Fontainebleau benefited from an early
Metre gauge tram system. At its greatest extent the network comprised three lines with the first one linking the Château to the station from 29 September 1896. On 20 August 1899 an extension was opened toVulnaines and a third line toSamois opened in 1913.The initial fleet consisted of eight small two-bogie tramcars, capable of carrying 36 passengers, plus six trailers. The motor cars were equipped with two 25hp motors which gave them relatively high power. In 1910, three more tramcars were bought (numbered 12 to 14); these possessed a Brill truck 2.4m wide, and were capable of carrying 39 passengers.
In 1924 the CTF purchased four tramcars from the
Tramway de Melun , these were subsequently sold to theTramway de Cannes after a fire had destroyed most of Cannes' fleet.The extensions to Vulaines and Samois closed in 1937 and the oldest tramcars were scrapped. The following fifteen years were uneventful and no changes to operations were made. Even though the tramway was generally well kept, the
bus was proving to be easier to operate and the tram closed on 31 December 1953.Tramcars in preservation
Fontainebleau tramcar n°11 is currently preserved in Paris by
AMTUIR .The car was put into service around 1900 on the
Tramway de Melun and was one of the batch purchased by Fontainebleau in 1910; it was withdrawn in 1945.The tramcar was rescued from a scrapyard in
Maisons-Alfort and preserved on 26 October 1957.References
*"Histoire des Transports dans les Villes de France", Jean ROBERT
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.