Établissements Billard was a French railway rolling stock construction company founded in 1920 and based in

Tours Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the prefecture of the department of Indre-et-Loire. The commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabitants as of 2018 while the population of the whole metr ...

. It specialised in light railbuses and metre gauge and

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller struc ...

rolling stock. The business ceased trading in 1956 and later became

Socofer Socofer is the name for the railway construction company that before 1968 was known as Établissements Billard. Production * narrow gauge locomotives for: ** The French Army (type SCF 303) ** Leisure parks. ** Tourist railway A heritage ...

Production

Draisines

* Draisines : These worked on different VFILs, and for the "Big Companies" which became the SNCF.

Locomotives

* T50 * T75D * T75P * T75G These were designed for the French Military Railway. They were used, among other things, to service the

Maginot Line The Maginot Line (french: Ligne Maginot, ), named after the French Minister of War André Maginot, is a line of concrete fortifications, obstacles and weapon installations built by France in the 1930s to deter invasion by Germany and force the ...

. *

SNCF Class Y 7100 The Y 7100 class of small shunters originally had 210 members. The first 130 were built by Billard, with the remaining 80 by Decauville. They have the 0-4-0 ("B") wheel arrangement, 150 kW diesel engine The diesel engine, named after R ...

Railbuses

Railbuses for numerous French VFIPs (secondary railways) * Type A 80D, * Type A 135D, * Type A 150D, * Type A 210D, * Networks of the Compagnie des chemins de fer départementaux, including: ** Corse, ** Vivarais, ** Indre et Loire, **

Seine-et-Marne Seine-et-Marne () is a department in the Île-de-France region in Northern France. Named after the rivers Seine and Marne, it is the region's largest department with an area of 5,915 square kilometres (2,284 square miles); it roughly covers its ...

Tramways d'Ille-et-Vilaine Tramway may refer to: * Tramway (industrial), a lightly laid railway for uses such as logging or mining * A tram transport system (public transport vehicles running on rails) ** The tracks which trams run on (also a section of reserved track for t ...

Company * Overseas networks: ** Madagascar ** Réunion * French West Africa: ** Dakar Niger ** Dahomey * Ethiopia: ** Chemin de fer Franco-éthiopien received in 1964 two automotive cars of , for the Djibouti – Addis-Abeba line Several European networks Diakofto

* In Greece * In Spain ** A

Micheline Michelines were a series of rubber-tyred trains developed in France in the 1930s by various rail companies and rubber-tyre manufacturer Michelin. Some Michelines were built in the United States by the Budd Company. Most Michelines were self-pr ...

was built in the 1930s for the PO ** Three buses with bogies on a wide chassis worked on the Nord-Est. ** A series of railbuses with two axles were built for the CFD and the SNCF in 1949 and 1950 ** A series of FNC railbuses were deployed by the SNCF The solidity of the stock, and the simplicity of construction, means that many Billard engines are still working today.

Preserved Billard rolling stock

;Locomotives type T 50 type T 75, in several variants (with the series prototype, and some military examples) on the Tacot des Lacs, at the Train Touristique de Saint Trojan and later at

APPEVA The Froissy Dompierre Light Railway (french: Chemin de fer Froissy-Dompierre, CFCD) is a narrow gauge light railway running from Froissy (a hamlet of La Neuville-lès-Bray) to Dompierre-Becquincourt, through Cappy, in the Somme department ...

. type T 100, ;Railcars Meter gauge type A 150D * X153, Portes les Valence (bespoke). type A 150D * 212, Chemins de Fer de Provence * 213, Chemin de fer du Vivarais * 214, Chemin de fer du Vivarais. type A 80D * 313,

Voies Ferrées du Velay Voies ( el, Βοιές , feminine plural) is a former municipality in Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Monemvasia, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area ...

* 314, Chemin de fer du Vivarais * 315

* 316 Chemin de fer du Vivarais * 513 Chemins de fer de Corse. type A 150D2 Articulated * 222

. Trailer R 210 * 3, Chemin de fer du Vivarais * 5, MTVS ex autorail AM 20 des TIV * 7,

* 11, Chemin de fer du Vivarais * 22, Chemin de fer du Vivarais Standard gauge type A 75D * X901, Tourist railway of La Sarthe, originally Chemin de fer Mamers-Saint Calais * X903,

Trains à vapeur de Touraine In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and Passenger train, transport people or Rail freight transport, freight. Trains are typically pul ...

with a trailing car

Rebuilt and modernised vehicles

* XR 1331 ( Chemins de Fer de Provence), ex RL1, originally CP, rebuilt Garnero * XRD 1333 ( Chemins de Fer de Provence), ex RL3, originally CP, rebuilt original mail van * XRD 1337 ( Chemins de Fer de Provence), ex RL7, originally CFD Vivarais 33, rebuilt Garnero, mail van * XR 113 ( Chemins de fer de Corse) ex autorail A 150 D1, N°113, rebuilt Carde * XR 104 ( Chemins de fer de Corse) ex autorail A 210 D1, N°105, rebuilt Garnero, previously with CP * XR 105 ( Chemins de fer de Corse) ex autorail A 210 D1, N°106, rebuilt Garnero, previously with CP * XRD 242 ( Chemins de fer de Corse) ex autorail A 80 D, N°32, originally CFD Charentes * XR 526 ( Chemins de fer de Corse) ex autorail A 150 D2, N°526, originally Tramways d'Ille-et-Vilaine

Gallery

File:Autorail Billard 212 des CP - Juillet 1983-8.jpg, Railbus n° 212 ( metre gauge) of the Chemins de Fer de Provence line at the

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

terminus, July 1983. File:DraisineBillard1.jpg, Billard Draisine, preserved at the Belgian "Dendermonde - Puurs" File:Locotracteur Billard T75G No232.JPG, Locomotive type T75G N°232 preserved at the APPEVA museum (Chemin de fer de la Haute Somme),

of File:Billard P1010399.JPG, Railcar 214 preserved by the Chemin de fer du Vivarais, typical of many French secondary railways File:Korsikabahn Diskussion08.jpg, Trailing car XRD 242 from the Chemins de Fer Corse.

Notes

Sources

References

External links

Billard railcar A80D N°313 from Dunières-Saint-Agrève

{{DEFAULTSORT:Billard, Etablissements Defunct rolling stock manufacturers of France