Günter Dinhobl (Hrsg.): Sonderband 7. Eisenbahn/Kultur – Railway/Culture (2004)
I. Für eine Kulturgeschichte der Eisenbahn / Towards a cultural history of railways - Michael Cotte: Railways and Culture: An Introduction
Michael Cotte Only one fundamental change could overcome this situation. Simultaneously, the new railway system from England was independent of weather and seasonal conditions. Industrial rhythm started to change from periodicity to continuity and a terrible competition started between the old and new factors. It was no accident that a group of Givors coal traders contacted Marc Seguin, at the end of 1825, to outline a railway line from Saint Etienne to Givors. By that time he had become a famous civil engineer due his successful Toumon-Tain suspension bridge over the Rhone River. Earlier, the mine engineer Beaunier designed the Andrézieux Railway line (1823-24) after the first report in the French language on the colliery railways in England by his colleague de Gallois3, also a mine engineer from Saint- Etienne. The track project followed hills along the Furans Valley, from Saint-Etienne to the Loire River. It was achieved in July 1827, using gravity to pull down the coal to the river and towed by animals to pull up the empty wagons. The general design of the line was very similar to a road, following the French mountain style and well-adapted to the valley relief, keeping in an almost constant gradient. Some sudden short curves along the line are a counterpart of such designs. Social Acceptance of the First Railways: Planning the Loire Railways This period extended from 1822 to 1827, till the Andrézieux line was completed and the Saint-Etienne & Lyon line became a true project. We may follow the general French opinion of the first British attempts, and the attitude of different social groups involved in the project: promoters, local and national elites, administration, people along the line project. When it rose, the Andrézieux project was not a great disturbance among the people, administrators and local elites. To promote the project, the social position of de Gallois and Beaunier was perfect, as official engineers of the French state in charge of managing both the Loire coal-field, the industrial development of the region and the new mining & engineering school of Saint-Etienne (1816). Those mine engineers represented the public administration for collieries and they supervised some private industrial projects such as the iron-works of La Bérardière or Janon. The Andrézieux line was a private project accepted by the state administration (1823). It was designed, built and later directed by Beaunier himself. The proposal was directly inspired by the British mine railways that tended to open up some collieries on 3 De Gallois: Des chemins de fer en Angleterre, notamment à Newcastle. In: Annales des Mines, 1818, p. 129-144. 50
