I imagine most of us have a stretch of rail that function as our “home line”. That’s where we go to try out a modification to our railbike design or let a newcomer try railbiking. The home line is hopefully near our home, to enable several short visits. Now that I have two homes – one in Gothenburg Sweden, and one in Roquebrune sur Argens in Southern France (check them out on Google Earth) I consequently have two home lines, which both deserve a presentation.

Home Line

by Arne Nilssen

    My Swedish home line became that some ten years ago when my then closest railroad was scrapped. The length of my home line has over the years shrunk to only about 9 kilometres as parts of it were successively ripped up. It now is without connection to the rest of the Swedish rail system. It runs between Ambjornarp and Sjotofta both located about 110 kilometres East of Gothenburg. Driving there takes an hour and half, which is OK even for an unsuccessful test run. In the beginning I was the only railbiker using it, and occasionally I had to cut away brush or a fallen tree. About five years ago the Village Community started to rent railbikes (dressin in Swedish) as a service to tourists. They also built a picnic area halfway down the line at a lake and they clear the right of way from vegetation once a year. The five or six railbikes are stationed in Ambjornarp where the station building is converted to a restaurant and café. The station in Sjotofta has become a private home.

    As you can see, this is a pretty line going through typical Swedish countryside. In the fall there are mushrooms to pick if you know where to look. It is good to know it will remain in this condition for the foreseeable future. It suits my needs very well and I pay for a token rental every year as a small thank you for the use of the line. (It is however owned by the county). Both Dick and Ken have been there with me.

    My French home line is quite different. It goes between Brignol and Gardanne a distance of appr. 40 kilometres) and is kept in perfect condition by SNCF (the French State Railways) as a wartime backup route to the coastal mainline between Nice

a wartime backup route to the coastal mainline between Nice and Marseille. War isn’t all that bad after all, unless it really happens of course. The section East of Brignol to Carnoules also used to be without traffic, but is nowadays used by a tourist train. However my brother and I rode it several years ago as well as the now reactivated line from Cannes to Grasse.  In contrast to the Swedish line its French counterpart has heavy rails and a ballasted roadbed. I don’t know for how long it will be in this state; the biggest risk supposedly is that the tourist traffic gets extended.

    This part of France called Provance is quite mountainous and therefore has fewer railroads than most other areas of France – which also means fewer to abandon. The scenery along the line is quite nice for most of the distance with great vistas and picturesque villages and towns. There are a couple of tunnels and lots and lots of wine fields along the route. Unlike in Sweden the station buildings are boarded up and rapidly falling into disrepair. I’ve seen this in many other places in France and it is a shame. I have about 80 kilometres to drive to my French home line, but if I somehow loose it I will have much longer to drive to find another stretch of rusty rail.

  Speaking of rust or more correctly the absence of it, in June I railbiked on the most traffic intense mainline in Sweden right through the Central Station of Stockholm. But that is another story.