Velorails – pedal power on rails

Is it a bike? Is it a train? Les Richardson tells of a self-powered railway journey in October 1998.

We found the advert for Velorail in the Gite we had chosen for a particularly wet and windy week in France, circumstances having dictated that we took our summer holiday at the end of October. The gite was – as always – clean, comfortable and no place to keep two teenagers cooped up in all day whatever the weather.

The trip to Velorail was coupled with watching a fork-lift rescue flower tubs from the bank of the rapidly rising river in Mayenne centre- the intention to see the locks working was thwarted by their being flooded.

St Loup du Gast is a few kilometres North of Mayenne, at the southernmost part of Normandy – or maybe just over the border. The Velorail “station” was a tent and tent-style cover over the end of the single track. The velos, six in number, are 4-wheeled frames with small rail wheels, one or both of the rear pair being powered as in a bicycle. On top of this frame is a double deckchair for the passengers and a pair of uncomfortable bicycle seats for the drivers. The velo is fairly low geared but the uphill sections need effort.

Rules are simple- velos coming back from Ambrières have priority over those going outwards. If two velos meet, the outbound velo must be lifted off the rails to let the other pass. Overtaking is only really permitted at the terminus where a slower velo can pull beyond the turntable to let a faster one turn first. However if you wish to stop and look at the view you are requested to lift your velo off the track for others to pass.

The turntable is a small rotatable plate in between the rails which is lifted with a lever to lift the velo high enough off the track to allow it to be turned back to face the way it came. The pictures below show the velo on the turntable at right-angles to the track, and being lowered back onto the rails after turning.

We were lucky – we met a total of 2 other velos, both on the return journey. The weather had put others off on the last day of the 1998 season.

A highlight of the trip is passing over the high viaduct over the River Mayenne, the view being excellent.

There are other velorail sites in France, but the standard of advertising seems poor – we have yet to find one.

Les wrote the above some while ago. Here’s a site that shows them all.

The Velo looks fairly heavy, so I asked Les how difficult it was to move it on and off the track.

“They can be lifted by two people-just! More are better- the two that we passed were travelling together and the seven or eight people in the party had them off the rails in no time, though this might have been helped by them taking them off at a road crossing.

As the velo isn’t much wider than the rails just getting the thing about 3 feet from the rail will do- your top speed is a whole 10mph downhill with a following hurricane so stopping isn’t really an issue.

By the way, at road crossings you should stop before moving on.”