Moore's Trains - European Railway Photos - TGV French National Railway SNCF Intercity Express

European TGV French National Railway SNCF Intercity Express

European suburban & intercity express trains
My name is Craig Moore and I enjoy seeing trains thunder past, be they old restored steam engines to modern electric or diesel superfast intercity express trains. Many people have a fascination with trains from the child playing with his Thomas the Tank Engine Hornby railway set to the train spotting enthusiast. Europe is blessed with conservation groups who restore, maintain, preserve and run old steam engines, track, stations, points and signal boxes. They take the same care in restoring the passenger carriages as they do the wagons and trucks.

TGV French National Railway SNCF Intercity Express
The many design requirements were sometimes in conflict, Cooper had to find an optimal solution. The interior spaces had to be welcoming and comfortable, restful, quiet, easy to clean and fix, and smoothly integrated together to create a uniform atmosphere. Comfort was to be made accessible to all passengers while retaining a certain status and flair. The overarching aim was to design an interior space that was both relaxing and enjoyable.

By the late seventies, the design of the first TGV was complete. The first batch of production trainsets was ordered on 4 November 1976. Over the next twenty years, over 600 copies of Cooper's world-famous TGV nose would be built.

On 28 July 1978, two pre-production TGV trainsets left the Alsthom factory in Belfort. These would later become TGV Sud-Est trainsets 01 and 02, but for testing purposes they had been nicknamed "Patrick" and "Sophie", after their radio callsigns. In the following months of testing, over 15,000 modifications were made to these trainsets, which were far from trouble-free. High speed vibration was a particularly difficult problem to root out: the new trains were not at all comfortable at cruising speed! The solution was slow in coming, and slightly delayed the schedule. Eventually it was found that inserting rubber blocks under the primary suspension springs took care of the problem.

Other difficulties with high speed stability of the trucks were overcome by 1980, when the first segment of the new line from Paris to Lyon was originally supposed to open. The first production trainset, number 03, was delivered on 25 April 1980. On 27 September 1981, to great fanfare, the first TGV with paying passengers left Paris, after the inauguration by French president François Miterrand five days earlier. Thus began the long tradition of high speed ground transportation in France.

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