By Clisson editorial staff
Published on
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For 12 years, Jacques Roussel, living in Loroux-Bottereau (near Nantes, in Loire-Atlantique) produces at 1/87 a Petit Anjou train diorama historically consistent with what it was at the start of 1900.
In a window 11 meters long, the Petit Anjou circulates (thanks to an electrified circuit) and connects the stations of Loroux-Bottereau and Saint-Julien-de-Concelles, in a reconstituted landscape, a journey of 4 km in reality.
This 74-year-old man, Lorousain pure juice, tells of his passion for the scale model:
When I was 45, when I stopped working, I spent my time doing crafts, for myself and then for my children. And on the advice of a friend who is an insurer, I bought a model box and built my first boat: a simple model that I enjoyed making. I even found it fascinating. It taught me to read a plan, to be patient and above all to think. I made five boats that took me a good year each.
From Loroux and St-Julien-de-Concelles stations
It was in 1997 that he discovered the existence of Petit Anjou via the review Free way. “It was a special edition on narrow tracks and therefore metric tracks (1 m wide) of departmental railways. It made me tilt. “
He decides to realize a diorama of this departmental train from Loroux-Bottereau and Saint-Julien-de-Concelles stations. When expanding his house, he dedicated an entire room to his project. “I joined the Friends of Petit Anjou association in Angers in 2008 (to be discovered on www.petit-anjou.fr). I started with their plans for the wagons and the Loroux-Bottereau station ”.
Le Petit Anjou existed from 1893 to 1948
Le Petit Anjou was a metric gauge secondary railway network, located in the departments of Loire-Atlantique and Maine-et-Loire, commissioned from 1893 to 1910 and closed in 1948. For reasons of economy , the track will be metric (1 m spacing between the rails, against 1.435 m for “large” trains) thus allowing the use of rolling stock that is lighter than that of “large” networks. With a track with steeper ramps and “tighter” curves.
Its network extends over 317 km of metric tracks between Maine-et-Loire and Loire Inferior (which will become Loire-Atlantique) with the objective of building a departmental network that will serve forgotten areas. The so-called commercial speed of the steam convoys was 15 km / h. With the competition of the road, the financial deficit appears in 1930 and is maintained thereafter. In 1939, the decision was taken to close the network. The 1939-1945 war will give a reprieve to the little train and allow it to render great services to the population. In 1947-1948, everything stopped. The network is dismantled. According to Jacques Roussel, “the Petit Anjou replaced the stagecoaches and the pataches, and was itself replaced by the coaches”.
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Joseph’s work is colossal and incredibly meticulous: the houses are made of cardboard and poplar wood slats, each brick is drawn in relief at the peak, the ridges are made with yoghurt pots, the characters with paper and wood glue handled with toothpicks.
“I represent reality”
“I am always looking for new materials, including in nature. The stone walls are made with hammer crushed gravel. Real earth is sifted. The very realistic vines are, however, entirely made with picked and dried foliage, ”he adds.
I represent reality, so it’s more difficult than model making which invents. I work from photos, postcards and testimonials. I also go there and I take my own photos from all angles, of the barns or old houses that still exist or of the Amossé café (the building that was the old station café, editor’s note). I make sure to stick to reality and I polish the details.
Thus, under the locomotive room in the Loroux station, he went so far as to make the repair pit. “I add period tools that I manage to reproduce from photos such as sulphating machines, carts, water collectors, hand pumps and even market gardeners’ frames which were widely used in the field. ‘time. “
You can also spot the fishmonger who sold on the quay, the fish freshly delivered and off the train, the leeks and green cabbages in the vegetable gardens.
Find a new part for your diorama
This diorama represents 12 years of work with full-time days in the winter months. And an investment estimated between 3,500 and 4,000 €. “The diorama can be completed endlessly. “
At the end of the year 2021, Joseph will move and will not have the place to install his showcase. To save what is done and make it last and evolve, he dreams of a model club in which he can transmit. “Ideally, we should be able to have a 70 m room2, to exhibit and make a workshop. In Loroux or Saint-Julien. “
Contact by email on [email protected].
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