AMTP in Pithiviers, France

[Jeff Schumaker]

Congratulations, Alain, on a successful event.

Jeff S.

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

 Thanks Jeff but I did'nt take part in that event since I've not been a volunteer anymore for 6 years but I'll tell Seb the AMTP President about your congats.
A pic of the TDJ 2022 site a few days before the opening you can see a part of the track.

[John McNamara]

This is magnificent news. For a while AMTP seemed to be in decline; now it seems very prosperous and has good future.

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

Untill 2012 AMTP was really  on the wane. As of 2013 the association has started to know better days but it's really in 2017 with the election of a new leadership that AMTP is successful again. The officers are young the oldest is 41 the youngest 23  and the members of the BOD are young or middel -aged people.The leadership has a lot of drive and Seb the président is a go-getter but a hard worker as well. The atmosphere between the volunteers is really good and the financial situation is excellent. That is why the association has been able to take the TDJ 2022 challenge up and made it big during that off the charts long weekend. A pic of the  volunteers that were around at TDJ 2022

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

SAD NEWS FROM PITHIVIERS Burial ceremony last Saturday
Alain Elambert ,the former President of the AMTP, died in April 2020 .Alain was at the head of the association from 1999 to 2017. He joined the AMTP in 1984 and became a member of the BOD in the late 80's. He was the one that proposed to the AMTP and to the small town of Pithiviers le Viel to lay out the site of the end station Béllébat a disused military field. The site was on the territory of that townlet whose Alain was the deputy mayor. His proposal was accepted and after a tremendous amount of backstage work that took Alain busy for several years the works started in late 1994. A beautiful station was built and the track was extended in a wide loop around the site, a lot of trees and bushes were planted on. In June1996 the dedication of the station and of the new layout were held on the occasion of the30th anniversary of the AMTP. Thirty six years later, all due to Alain Elambert, the site of Bellébat is now a nice restful shady place in the greenery  and it looks like an oasis in the middle of the treeless and bleak  plain of the Beauce.
Alain had wished his cinders were thrown into a steam locomotive firebox and scattered through the stack all over the engine shed yard and along the main. Unfortunately given the C19 pandemic and other circumstances Alain's cindesr have had to wait untill last Saturday when a touching ceremony took place on the engine shedyard  during which his son threw the cinders into the firebox of the Brigadelok whose blower was fully open. Afterward a special took to Bellébat Alain's family,friends and quite a lot of AMTP's volunteers around 100 riders altogether. In the station a reception was held  and speeches were made to pay tribute to Alain and his work. RIP Alain. A picture taken in 2015 of the two bearded Alain ,Alain Elambert is on the left.

[Dave Buczkowski]

A fitting send off to a life well lived.
Dave

[Bill Baskerville]

Alain,
What a wonderful tribute to a man so influential and far sighted as Alain was. AMTP was fortunate to have such an industrious individual as their president.   

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

Thank you Dave and Bill for your replies. An original send off for Alain indeed because if he was a diesel locomotive engineer I never saw him on a steam locomotive. He very often manned the station but the job he most liked was to show around visitors the museum and engine shed. Of course he did  a lot of paperwork. Over 20 years he negociated the purchase of the rolling stock that did not belong yet to the association often for  next to nothing and he sold for quite a lot of money a 3 feet gauge locomotive that had been given to the association. He was really social and a good person  that never got angry with anybody. Sure Alain was a great and far sighted President.

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

 A picture I took in 2019 in Pithiviers Station at the foot of MTP  #10 a 062 locomotive built by the famous Decauville Co in 1903. That pic shows three generations of volunteers. On the right Alain Elambert 72 former President but still an active volunteer, on the left Sebastien Delefortrie 38 President since 2017 and in the cab Victor Clouzeau 18 a new volunteer. For the last saturday's special to Bellébat Sebastien thinking to that pic, he likes wanted to kind of re-enact that scene. The steam crew was the same ,himself and Victor, but as it was raining a lot he prefered to take the Brigadelok rather than # 10 for safety reasons and also for the comfort of the steam crew.

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

MTP and TERRES DE JIM 2022 Following of the reply # 239 above
It happens that Maxime a member of the AMTP BOD is a farmer member of the non political trade union Les Jeunes Agriculteurs, the young farmers, that has been in charge of the set up of the biggest openfield agricultural show in Europe Terres de Jim since 2013. Maxime was in the committee in charge of the setup of the 2022 TDJ show that would take place near Outarville a very small town in the middle of the Beauce and close to Pithiviers. Maxime proposed to replace the small diesel powered train fitted with tires that usually ran along the alleys of the show with a real steam powered train of the well known Musée des Transports de Pithiviers .The committee was carried away by the idea. Then we were in late July 2021 and Maxime told the AMTP BOD about that idea in September. The directors were reluctant t to involve the association  in TDJ because if as regards the  rolling stock there was no problem it was a whole an other story as regards the mile of portative tracks to lay around that openfied show because the association only had a few pannels of portative tracks. But fortunatly a few weeks later, Jacques, a member of the BOD knew that quite a lot of portative tracks were on sale in a disused clay quarry in the département of the Marne around 124 miles away from Pithiviers. Seb the AMTP President and Jacques drove to the quarry and on the spot reckoned that there was around 0.621 mile of portative tracks that could be salvaged  but the track pannels were in desrepair and still laid on the sticky ground of the quarry that was overun with vegetation.
Nonetheless the go-getting President talked the BOD into the association being involved in TDJ in September 2022. According to Seb this involvment would be at least a great publicity stunt for AMTP given that 100 000 visitors  were expected during the show.
Of course the task would be hard and long but do-able and finally the BOD agreeded to meet the challenge and Maxime told the TDJ  committee that they could count on the AMTP trains in September 2022 for the event.
Next time I'll tell you how a handful of dedicated volunteers managed to be ready for the show.

[Graham Buxton]

Great story! 

So what are the plans for the portative tracks* now that the show is over?

*(in the USA, its common for the term 'panel track' to be used. Commercial wide-gauge railroads often store panel tracks to enable fast wreck repairs. Even the WW&F has used some panel tracks, but much shorter than the  6/10 mile AMTP track. WW&F and MNGRR demonstrate some panel track in this earlier thread: https://forum.wwfry.org/index.php?topic=3504.0 )

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

Thank you Graham for your reply and link. For sure it's a great story. Pannel tracks will be kept by the AMTP to be used in future events like TDJ they  have already in touch with a big agricultural company that set up every year an outfield show. Actually each pannel track is 30.30 feet long and can be carried by four people. The few pannel tracks owned by AMTP before were also used to move rolling stock especially from or on a low loader truck. In early 2022 a permanent special access ramp was built in Bellébat  that now makes the moving of rolling stock easier and safer. I'm going try to send you a  couple of pics. Have a good day.

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

A pic from the " estacade" landing stage built in Pithiviers station with a pile of ties and a few pannel tracks to unload an heavy Polish steam locomotive and its tender in 2015.

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

And in early Septemer 2022 the new ramp in Bellébat endstation with #10 laid on a track pannel on a flat bed trailer en route to TDJ in Outarville 12 miles farther away

[ALAIN DELASSUS]

MTP and TERRES DE JIM 2022. TDJ 2022 . Following of replies #239 and 249above.
As I told you on the previous reply the pannel tracks were located 124 miles away from Pithiviers in a longtime derelict clay quarry overun with vegetation. The task would not be easy at all. We were in early November the weather was rainy and the days were drawing in quickly so to save time money and tiredness the associarion decided on renting a lodge close to the quarry every weekend until the task was over. Few volunteers were eager to go work in the quarry and finally four or five of them ,the same ones, did the job during several weekends. Fortunately the owner of the quarry lent them a forklift to load the two trailer trucks that hauled the pannel tracks to Pihtiviers where they were stored on flat cars and on the engine yard.
Christmas was coming soon with the Santa specials to run for two weekends on end, so the repair of the pannel tracks did not start until mid January. Then again only few volunteers came forward to give the small team that had salvaged the pannel tracks a hand therefore the repairs came along slowly. Given that the shop and engine shed were solid packed with the rolling stock the repairs were carried outside on the railyard almost every weekend rain or shine as of Febuary. That work was dirty and tedious  plus if the rails were in fairly good repair most of the ties and bolts had to be changed. Given the high price of the iron on the commodity market the association asked TDJ 2022 if this substancial 32.000 $ expense would fit its budget. At that time a contract was signed between the two associations. The AMTP commited itself to run two trains on a 0.94 mile long track during the three days of the show in September. In counterpart TDJ 2022 would totally fund the whole operation except for the hours the volunteers would put in. To be contnued.