” Warning ! Train accessible to travelers who have rented their seat and paid the special supplement. Only takes travelers for Dole (Jura) and beyond ”. The imposing Cisalpin sign, this tran-europ-express train which linked the cities of Paris and Milan in the 1960s to 1980s, is one of the beautiful pieces in the small railway museum of Jacques, a resident of Domérat (Allier) . It is with him that our series of articles on collectors of the Montluçonnais basin continues.
In his grandparents’ house
No need to ask where it is. It cannot be visited. Only a privileged few, among his friends, had the chance one day to enter this almost timeless place. More than an exhibition space, this museum is first and foremost a haven of peace.
“Often my wife says to me: ‘you are still there’. Sometimes I take a book and read. It’s my own little corner. “
Jacques (Collector)
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Housed in the old house of his grandparents, this museum represents twenty years of work for this Bourbonnais. What strikes the visitor the most is the care taken in the arrangement of the multiple objects. Everything is done with good taste, not a single wrong note.
Collectors in Montluçon (Allier): Jean-Michel Tomé, always at the top of the bill … musical
A poster from June 1, 1958
Take this station clock signed Henry-Lepaute, famous Parisian watchmaker. The collector turned it into a coffee table. The object is surrounded by three waiting room benches, in wood and imitation leather, much more comfortable than the current seats.
On the wall next to it, a poster dated June 1, 1958 states that more than forty trains stopped every day at Montluçon. “There were even night trains”, observes Jacques, who recovered his last object, a plate of a steam engine, three years ago at a secondhand market in Ainay-le-Château.
A duty of preservation
Not far away, we discover a cast iron stove recovered from the house of a roadmender on a disused line. The station chimney, also in cast iron, comes from Ardentes, in Berry. “It was a derelict station, everything was demolished”, specifies Jacques, who makes a point of “preserving” the railway past.
What I recovered would have ended up in the scrap yard.
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In the second room of the house, which is in fact the first, the collector has reconstructed a station office. There is everything: the wooden frame counter – it comes from La Chapelaude -, the desk with the utensils, the safe, the station master’s outfit placed on a mannequin, passenger suitcases, mechanics’ saddlebags …
Collectors in Montluçon (Allier): Gérard Alamarguy is passionate about wine bottle labels
A father and a grandfather railway workers
To explain such a passion, we have to go back to Jacques’ grandfather and father, who were both railway workers. The first worked as a train conductor for the Paris-Orléans company, then at the SNCF. “I have his watch and his wicker basket where he put his snacks.”
The second drove steam engines and the first railcars. “He often worked at night and slept during the day. It was a trying pace of work ”. Jacques, he did not take this path. It’s not that he didn’t want, it’s that he couldn’t.
“I had a few small sight problems. When I was 14-15, I could see myself doing this job. “
Jacques
(empty)
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The origins of this museum
The idea of setting up a collection on the rail came to him quite early, during several family trips to the Mulhouse railway museum. We are at the beginning of the 90s and Jacques starts to run flea markets in Allier, Creuse and Cher.
At the same time, he joined the Monluçonnais Rail Club where he was very involved. “When I started, it was the sixth exchange. Last year, we celebrated the thirty-third edition ”. In 2011, he also joined the Association of Alumni and Friends of Steam Traction (AAATV) of Montluçon where he takes pleasure in maintaining the equipment.
Collectors in Montluçon (Allier): maximaphilie … three passions in one!
“There is always that little adrenaline rush”
Today, the collector has calmed down a bit. Because beautiful pieces have become rare at flea markets. However … “there are still a few hand lamps”. In short, Jacques is in a middle ground:
When I find something that interests me, there is always that little adrenaline rush. But the days when I bought double and triple SNCF everything are gone.
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At 67, Jacques aspires to … a different way of life.
Collectors in Montluçon (Allier): Denise adores champagne capsules without moderation
Text: Fabrice Redon
Photos: Florian Salesse
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