France St.Mariens: Sited some 40kms north of Bordeaux, St. Mariens was once a junction of some importance with, apart from the Bordeaux-Saintes main line, services to Blaye (line in situ but out of use); Coutras (line in situ, used for freight at each end with the centre section a heritage railway), Libourne (completely gone) and Chateauneuf-sur-Charente (open for military traffic only, to Orignolles). Such a junction was deserving of a locomotive depot and indeed was provided with a half-roundhouse having 12 covered and 9 uncovered roads radiating from the turntable. It was reported to have still been in use in 1970, as a store for steam locomotives withdrawn from Nantes Blottereau depot and assumed since demolished. Not quite so! Here we see a three road section of the former roundhouse at St.Mariens, latterly in use as an aggregate depot, but now lying derelict with, surely, little time left before it disappears. 19 April 2006.

Roger Griffiths; jrcs@blueyonder.co.uk