History takes the train
Audio 02:31
The train has made history in many ways ... REUTERS / Charles Platiau
By: Marina Mielczarek
7 min
It was on a train that Gandhi, victim of a racist passenger, created his concept of "non-violence".
It was on a train that Sissi, the Empress of Austria, traveled incognito to buy dresses in Paris or Geneva.
It is also the Swiss who travel in a mountain train known to be the slowest in the world!
These anecdotes, hitherto unknown to the general public, are told in the latest book by historian Sophie Dubois-Collet, The story takes the train.
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Take a Camembert, take a train.
A priori
no relation ... And yet yes!
Sophie Dubois-Collet has a knack for putting ideas back in place.
Without the train, Parisians would never have tasted the cheeses of Normandy.
And when you ask her why she got interested in trains, this former history teacher says it straight out: because no human invention has transformed the landscape so much.
Visitors to the Palace of Versailles will die in the fire
It was in England and France that it first appeared to transport coal.
Little by little it replaced the carriages and stagecoaches.
This is why on May 8, 1842, visitors to the Palace of Versailles went there by train.
Unfortunately their tickets will only have been round trips, they will die in the first serious train accident.
“
In addition
,
the weather
was fine that day
,” explains Sophie Dubois-Collet, “
visitors are taking their time.
Then, at 5:33 p.m., they go to the station, direction Paris.
But when leaving Meudon station, the train then runs at 40
km / h, which is already good for the time, she
says
.
The train derailed, the locomotives passed one above the other, the fire caught, and as the wagons were locked, the passengers could not get out.
Among the victims, the famous explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville, his wife and his young son.
"
This accident at Versailles will be a landmark.
Therefore, six-wheel locomotives will replace the older, much more unstable four-wheelers.
Finally, speed will be limited on descents and the doors will never be double-locked again.
A train station in the Vatican, but very little used
Sophie Dubois-Collet went through the Vatican archives to discover that it was the French who designed the first special pope train!
Three cars adapted to reach Rome, including a wagon with terrace for blessings in front of the crowd.
In addition to the loves and dislikes of the various popes of the 19th century, these 40 extraordinary railway stories tell us that the Empress of Austria, Sissi, loved the train.
So as not to be embarrassed, she traveled under a false name, in richly embroidered wagons with sofas and gilded furniture.
The historian explains to us that concerned about her figure, Sissi took her cook for daily soups, but she also had her maids and even her two favorite horses on board.
Gandhi, the train in South Africa
But it is certainly this train that Mahatma Gandhi took in South Africa that will move the great history of humanity.
“
Mahatma Gandhi
,” recounts Sophie-Dubois Collet, “
was a young lawyer in South Africa when he took this train in which a traveler called the controllers to kick him out of the car.
The man in question refused to travel in the presence of a colored man.
Gandhi who had paid for his ticket was thrown from the train with his suitcase.
Refugee in a freezing station, he waited for another train and spent the night conceiving his concept of non-violence
!
"
The Glacier Express, the slowest train in the world
By reading
Sophie Dubois-Collet's
The Story Takes the Train
(published by Éditions de l'Opportun), you will discover the slowest express in the world.
This train travels in the north of Switzerland, in the canton of Valais.
It still exists to the delight of tourists from all over the world.
True to herself, the author is preparing a second book, also devoted to transport.
This time it's the plane.
And to believe Sophie Dubois-Collet, he too has secrets to reveal to us!
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