One of the machines of the Cévennes Steam Train will run between Alès and Nîmes, Saturday, October 9
Rail lovers remain grown-up children for life. Especially when they’re just flaunting twenty-five springs like Quentin Schneider.
Eldest son of Stéphane, current co-manager and technical director of the International Company of Steam Express Trains (Citev), the company that operates the Cévennes Steam Train (TVC), the young man fell into the boiler as a child and , since then, he has been burning with passion for steam engines.
So much so that surrounded by twenty other rail enthusiasts, all volunteers, he will soon realize a collective project launched in 2019.
More crossed on this rail network since 1989
“The idea is to operate one of the TVC machines, the 140 C 27, which is too big for the TVC. In any case, only one machine runs on a daily basis, explains the young man. We all grew up with it. the 140C; we saw it running, being repaired, modified and we want it to be able to run again on the SNCF tracks in Occitanie, which has not happened since 1989 “, explains the one who, in the civil , is an engineer in mechanical studies in nuclear dismantling.
“During the week, in Pierrelatte (Drôme), I work on futuristic robots to laser cut structures, like in Star Wars, and on weekends, we work on 100-year-old scrap…”
The illustrious 140 C 27 will thus make its maiden voyage on SNCF track, without a wagon, on Saturday 9 October, between Alès and Nîmes.
In the previous week, it will be sent from the Citev workshops in Saint-Jean-du-Gard, “by the Capelle company, because we want to work locally, we love the Cévennes and we want promote them “, underlines Quentin Schneider.
Who, with his friends, gave a serious blow of young people to the Gadeft, the grouping of assistance to the development of the tourist railway operations, the ancestor of the Citev.
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