Former route superimposed onto a modern map[1][2][3][4] Metre gauge railway (lines),[5] narrow gauge railways (broken lines)[6] and trench railways (dotted lines)[7]
The Réseau de la Woëvre was a 149 km (93 mi) long metre-gauge rail network that operated from 1914 to 1938 in France. A 66 km (41 mi) branch line to Commercy branched off from the 61 km Verdun-Montmédy main line at Vaux-devant-Damloup.[14]
History
The network operator of the Réseau de la Woëvre was granted a concession for non-profit operation by a law of 13 June 1907, and began operating it in 1914.[15]
The Société Générale des Chemins de Fer Économiques (SE) took over the operation in 1922. The company had opened its own network in 1914, shortly before the start of the First World War.
Route
The Réseau de la Woëvre, with a gauge of 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in), was a railway network built in the department of Meuse and operated between 1914 and 1938 by the Société Générale des Chemins de Fer Économiques (SE). It comprised a series of lines with a total length of 149 km (93 mi).
There were four sections:
Metre gauge
Verdun - Vaux-devant-Damloup - Montmédy (61 km), opened in 1914, closed in 1938[16]
Vaux-devant-Damloup - Commercy (66 km), opened 1914, closed 1938[17]
Standard gauge
Robert-Espagne - Haironville (11 km), opened 1933, closed 1971
Aubréville - Varenne-en-Argonne (11 km), opened in 1918, closed in 1937[18]
^Henri Domengie: Les petits trains de jadis : L'Est de la France, Breil-sur-Roya. Éditions du Cabri, 1992.
^"Loi declarant d'utilite publique l'etablissement, dans le departement de la Meuse, d'un reseau de chemins de fer d'iteret local, dit réseau de la Woëvre, compose des deux lignes de Verdun a Montmedy et de Commercy a Verdun." In: Bulletin des lois de la République française. 13 June 1907. Downloaded on 23 May 2021.