Virtual Railfan Tour of Soviet Union 1974 - Supplemental - Paris Cab Ride

 What a change was Paris from Moscow.  I rode an afternoon turbo train from Gare St. Lazare to Caen afternoon.  Having made arrangements beforehand with the SNCF. I was sent off by the stationmaster and accompanied by an Inspector who had an intimate knowledge of these trains

The four car, 188 seat, set accelerated very smoothly. The engineer has two throttles, one for the turbine and one for the diesel engine, they could be controlled separately.  

We passed the basilique at Lisieux at 130 km/hr.  Riding at 160 km/hr was very good.  At Caen I had a look at the train with Inspector Goic then it was off the the Cafe de la Gare where I had a beer with him and the engineer.  There was lots of laughing, joking, hand shaking etc., which was quite a change from the USSR.

There was a last minute frantic search of a seat for me in the cab but we left Caen on time on the return.  In this direction we were at the diesel end and I could feel it changing gears (eight of them).  We had two four car sets with another engineer in the head end of the second set.  The engineers managed to coordinate their throttles to such good effect that we were running at maximum allowable speed all of the time. The cab signal system sounded a bell as we approach a signal (there was a crocodile which provided the signal to the train).  The engineer had a stand for his timetable on the central part of the control panel which was on the left hand side of the cab.  There was an automatic vigilance system whereby the engineer had move at least every two minutes otherwise there as a warning which would eventually set the brake. The speed recorder was removed every five days or so.  The train ran through curves very smoothly.

RTG TurboTtrain in the National Railway Museum at Mulhouse 2011

Coming into Liseux we had adverse signals while a freight train got out of our way. This cost us three minutes and the crew were obviously upset.  So much was Inspector Goic peturbed that he took over the controls and snapped a few instructions over the intercom to the second engineer half way back in the train.  The train responded to such good effect that we arrived back in Paris precisely on time - to the second.  I was welcomed back by the Stationmaster of the Gare St. Lazare who had been there to see me off.

Entering Gare St. Lazare, February 1974

I took a look at the trains leaving and arriving at the Gare St. Lazare, a place with which I was to become very familiar many years later. This day helped to brighten a hard but fascinating visit to the Soviet Union. There was a longer term medical problem - turns out I picked up an amoeba in my food  and the problem took about nine months to diagnose and resolve.