The Tortillard
(The Twister, a Small Local Train)

After the Paris-Rouen-Le Havre and the Rouen-Dieppe railways were opened, a vast quadrilateral area was left with no railway network. The locals demanded a railway service in order to maintain the important industrial activity  in the valleys of the Sâane and the Vienne, the lack of a railway connection inevitably leading to industrial decline.

On June 19th 1906 a convention was signed between the Prefect of Lower Seine and M. Laborie, an Parisian engineer who already ran several railway lines in the Eure and in Algeria. This led to the creation of two metric lines (1 metre instead of the national 1.445 metres). These lines were the following :

• Ouville-la-Rivière to Motteville via the Saâne valley

• Ouville-la-Rivière to Clères via the Vienne valley passing through Bacqueville- en-Caux and Tôtes.

This was a communal line from Ouville to Gueures, where the line branched into two.

The running of these lines was at the operator’s own risk; if the lines were profitable the profits were shared between the operator and the Department; if they ran at a loss the operator was not entitled to state aid.

The Ouville-la-Rivière line opened on March 16th 1912, and the Gueures-Clères line opened on April 30th 1913.

The Gueures-Clères itinerary was the following : Gueures Town (0 km, altitude 21 km); Thil-Manneville (1 km); Hermanville Church Square (3,9 km); Lamberville, Bacqueville (8,2 km); Lamberville (Vienne valley); St Mard (12,4 km); Beaunay (Beauval-en-Caux); Bennetot (St Genevieve, RN27 crossroads); Biville-la-Baignarde (17,9 km the line followed the RN 27 for 10 km ; Tôtes station (21,7 km); Tôtes Stop; Varneville-Bretteville; Beautot (the line here left the RN27); La Houssaye-Bérenger (29,2 km, the line crosses the Motteville-Serqueux) ; Grugny Asylum; Clères (34,7 km, altitude 111m).

The line was 37,5 km long and faced several difficulties; it ran through valleys, climbed up from the valley of the Vienne, with a ramp of 25° in Bennetot, and a ramp of 23-25° between Varneville-Bréteville and Clères. The journey lasted 1h30 with sixteen stops along the way.

The lines faced problems from the very start. The number of passengers on the three daily return journeys (plus an extra one on Sundays and public holidays) was too low and freight traffic was lower than anticipated.

Financial difficulties accumulated during the First World War and on May 11th 1925 the operator offered the lines for sale to the Department. On June 27th the Department bought the network for 50 000 francs.

The financial problems continued and on November 1st 1936 the branch was suspended and then declassified on August 24th 1939. SATOS buses then took over passenger transport.

Pour aller plus loin :

• Histoire du tortillard (Fonds Patrice Bizet)

• Valmartin - Le tortillard (Fonds Patrice Bizet)