Railways of the Blanzy mines

With such a wide variety of railway facilities on a single mining site, Blanzy in Burgundy looks like an open book dedicated to mining haulage technologies.

Vincent Lepais

CENTRAL FOLDER The canal du Centre, or canal du Charollais, was built between 1783 and 1793. Passing at Montceau, not yet renamed Montceau-lesMines, it was vital to connect it to the early mine shafts of the Blanzy basin, for shipping the coal. In 1834, the mines produced 800 000 hectolitres (hl) of coal. The original projects for connecting them to the canal dated back to 1828 but were implemented only in 1835. Several very short lines were built, connecting the shafts to the canal. Some were short-lived, closing at the same time as the shaft that supplied them. The routes were made as direct as possible, and were usually 500 to 1300m long. The 80cm gauge tracks called upon 10 kg/m rails laid on wooden sleepers. Skips having a capacity…

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Voie Libre International (Digital) - 1 Issue, OCTOBER / NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2023 - 115

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