The Amboise Tramway
Tram and two carriages, Photographer unknown
On display in Amboise Museum is a wonderful model of the tram which once trundled at 23kmh along what is now Quai General de Gaulle and Quai Charles Guinot.
Model Tram.
Culture vultures groan when something that was here is no more. Not this time. Especially when told twenty-seven trees were felled and (going by old postcards) the magnificent Chaptal Column, paid for by local vintners, was destroyed.
Jean-Antoine Chaptal revolutionised wine-making in France by advocating adding sugar to increase the alcohol content. At his home in Château Chanteloup he cultivated sugar beet.
His name is one of seventy-two French scientists engraved on the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
After years of disputes, in 1913, trams finally started operating four round trips a day. Amboise to Blois took almost two hours.
Amboise, the terminus, had a waiting room, office and accommodation for the station manager, a goods hall, a station platform and a machine storage shed for the water supply.
1913 was very unfortunate timing. WWI, 1914-1918 stopped play. Occupying Germans requisitioned the electrical equipment, steam locomotives and fuel.
A reduced twice a day service resumed in 1920. The venture was not profitable. After years of disputes, the Company which operated the service, due to financial difficulties, stopped trading in 1934.
The Exhibition and model will be on display until September 2022. Engineers will love it.
Post by Pamela, photography by Mark.
