Le Crotoy station

The station at Le Crotoy was the first opened on the “Réseau des Bains de Mer”, on 1st July 1887.

It is identical to the station at Cayeux and typical of secondary railway stations built in France between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century: a central building (including accommodation for the station-master on the first floor), with gables facing the tracks and the courtyard, with a wing, and a semi-detached goods shed. The toilets are located in a small ancillary building.
This architecture is fully representative of an “economical” approach. On mainline networks and on the SNCF, the “passenger” and “goods” facilities were normally separated.

Le Crotoy station saw different types of goods being shipped (coal, wood, fertilizer, agricultural produce and machines, construction materials, livestock, parcels, etc), but in terms of tonnage, the two main categories were sugar-beet (outgoing) and sugar-beet pulp (residue, incoming). Sugar-beet pulp was used as livestock feed.
For example, more than 750 ten-ton wagons were unloaded at Le Crotoy during the 1928/29 sugar-beet season (October to January).
Shellfish was also shipped from Le Crotoy, and a dedicated wagon was even built prior to 1955 for this type of traffic. 

The outside appearance of Le Crotoy station has remained strictly unchanged, so it is frequently used for TV or cinema filming set in the period from 1890 to 1960. Indoors, the ground floor has been partially modified to improve services to the public, but the former station-master’s office has been restored to its original condition. 
The goods shed houses a small museum where various railway-related items are on display (signboards, signals, tools…).

The station trackplan has also remained identical to what it was in 1887, as follows:
- a central track (where service trains arrive and depart),
- a siding serving the goods shed, that used to feature a weighbridge for the wagons. This track can accommodate extra trains,
- a “goods” loop siding (or “team track” in US parlance), which runs through the station courtyard, and joins the other tracks at the far end of the station. Here again, this arrangement is typical of secondary railways,
- a loop siding, the most distant from the station building, which allows  locomotives to run round their trains,
- a siding serving the engine shed. It features three pits, one inside the shed for inspecting locomotives from below, and two outside (washing pit and ash-pit).
Only the turntable has been moved: originally, it was located outside the engine shed, it is now installed on the headshunt, at the south-west end of the station.
 

Saint Valery-Ville station

This station is the most recent on the Réseau des Bains de Mer, having been modified and enlarged in 1937. It replaced what used to be a simple halt, the main station at Saint Valery being previously that at Saint Valery-Canal.

Saint Valery-Ville differs also by its architectural style, totally different from other stations on the railway. Sometimes named “Deauville style”, it is typical of the 1930s and looks more like an elegant seaside villa than a railway building.

The decision by the Somme Département to invest in such an elaborate building on a secondary railway is exceptional for the times. It bears witness to a faith in the future of the “Réseau des Bains de Mer” that seems, looking back over almost 100 years, almost premonitory…

The structure features a main one-storey building, with a hip roof, and a side-wing which accommodates a large and well-lit ticket office, with a three-sloped roof. A small annex, with a zinc roof, used to be a parcels and luggage shed. This building now houses the water treatment facilities for the steam locomotives, and the toilets.

Unlike other stations on the railway, Saint Valery-Ville, does not feature a goods shed, nor a raised platform for unloading wagons. Judging by period photographs, it would seem that the station only saw parcels traffic. Bulky goods were handled at Saint Valery-Canal.

The trackplan hasn’t been modified since 1937 and features:
-         a central track used by trains to and from Cayeux, as well as by the “meal on board” trains; a water column was installed next to this track by the CFBS in 2015,
-         a loop siding adjacent to the station building, where parcel wagons used to be parked. The CFBS has installed a turntable for steam locomotives on this siding,
-         a second loop siding, furthest from the station building, used by engines to run round their carriages or by extra trains.
The main part of the station building houses the commercial and administrative offices of the CFBS.
 

Cayeux station

Cayeux station was opened on 6th September 1887.
It is identical to the station at Le Crotoy and typical of secondary railway stations built in France between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century: a central building (including accommodation for the station-master on the first floor), with gables facing the tracks and the courtyard, with a wing, and a semi-detached goods shed. The toilets are located in a small ancillary building.
This architecture is fully representative of an “economical” approach. On mainline networks and on the SNCF, the “passenger” and “goods” facilities were normally separated.

Before 1914, a second name-board, “Brighton-Plage”, was added to the front of the station building, facing the tracks, beneath the name “Cayeux sur Mer”. The seaside resort of Brighton-Plage was created by investors north of Cayeux, but its growth was stopped dead by the Great War, together with a project for rebuilding the railway station. In 1917, a storm washed away the sand from the beach, sounding the death knell for the French “Brighton”. After WWI, the local hotels were converted into cure or holiday centres.

A second project for rebuilding the railway station in the “Normandy” style was mooted in the 1930s, but here again failed due to the outbreak of WWII.

The two main categories of goods traffic were flint pebbles and sugar-beet.
The flint pebbles come from the natural bank located between Le Hourdel point to the north and Ault-Onival to the south. They were transported to Cayeux station using 2 foot gauge portable tracks of the “Decauville” type, laid along the roads and down the streets of the town. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were more than 100 lines of this type. The remains of a concrete platform, from where the pebbles were unloaded from the Decauville skips into the meter gauge wagons, can still be seen in Cayeux station (to the left of the station building, seen from the tracks).
Some of the Decauville lines used to extend as far as the pebble processing factory located opposite the station.

The sugar beet grown around Cayeux was shipped to a shredding plant located at Lanchères, between Cayeux and Saint Valery. In this plant, the beet was shredded and mixed with water before being sent to a sugar-mill via an underground pipeline. The pulp (sugar-beet residue), used for feeding livestock, was unloaded at Cayeux station by the farmers.

Cayeux also saw the usual types of goods shipped in those days: coal, wood, fertilizer, agricultural produce and machines, construction materials, livestock, parcels, etc.

On the outside, Cayeux station has remained strictly in its original condition. Inside, the ground floor has been partially modified to improve service to the public.
For many years, the goods shed was home to a local radio station, but is currently vacant.

The trackplan hasn’t changed since the CFBS took over the railway. It is almost identical to that at Le Crotoy and features:
- a central track (where regular trains arrive and depart),
- a siding that serves the goods shed. This track can accommodate extra trains,
- a “goods” loop siding (or “team track” in US parlance), which runs through the station courtyard, and joins the other tracks at the far end of the station. Here again, this arrangement is typical of secondary railways,
- a loop siding, the most distant from the station building, which allows  locomotives to run round their trains,
- a dead-end siding that used to serve the engine shed, since demolished because derelict. It features an ash-pit.
- a siding with a weighbridge (this siding doesn’t exist in Le Crotoy).

In the days of commercial services, there used to be other sidings which served the flint pebble processing factory located opposite the station. The powdered flint pebbles were loaded here and shipped all over France and beyond. A private siding, now lifted, was used for loading chicory that was processed in a factory at Saint Valery sur Somme.

A turntable is installed on the headshunt at the very end of the station tracks.