40 kilometers south of Grenoble, the site of the Matheysin plateau is home to a large mineral deposit. Exploited since the Middle Ages, the coal mines shipped their production in rudimentary conditions until the creation of a Royal Road during the 18th century (the current road Napoléon). However, exceptional rolling and lack of maintenance got the better of this road development.
It is therefore quite naturally, with the invention of the railroad, that germinated the project that will link La Mure to Grenoble.
A train of coal cars (serial H), towed by an autoengine Sécheron, gets ready to leave the site of La Motte d'Aveillans.
Because of very important slopes that the line had to follow and many incidents of land, the choice of metric gauge quickly appeared as the right option to the engineers
Therefore, the future line was classified in the category of secondary lines of general interest. Non granted, it shared this status with the railways of the island of Corsica.
The public inquiry closed in February 1880, the route was declared of public utility on March 27, 1881.
The project, immediately endurtaken, lasted three years with exclusively manuel means.
Originally designed for the delivery of coal (120,000 tons of production per year in 1884), the line also had a much more modest role with goods and passengers transport.
Passengers transport ended in 1947. Coal transport in 1988.
In 1904, an extension of the line southward until Gap was declared of public interest. The realization of this project took however an extraordinary time, and the exploitation was opened to the public only in 1932 . And only on half of the initially planned route, because the terminus was situated in "Corps", small village at the feet of the famous place of pilgrimage of Notre-Dame de la Salette. Disused in 1947, the section was dismantled in 1952.