SCF - autorails, permanent way and electric vehicles
History from the Information & Liaison newspaper, December 1979,
Transports Verney.
Railway Vehicles of the S.C.F.
The operation of railways of local interest (VFIL) was with foreign material until 1922, as could be seen on line from Pontorson to Mont-Saint-Michel. From the end of the war, MM. Baert and Verney foresaw the advantage which could be derived from the automotive engine for self-propelled vehicles on railways to replace steam traction. They acquired fifty GMC trucks: by lengthening the chassis, wheel replacement and adjustment to suit rail track these became the first self-propelled Baert and Verney railcars. Modifications and assembly of the body were made in the workshop of Delaroche and Turquet at Le Mans. The first railcar was delivered to the Finistère network on 11th July 1922 under the designation BV 1.
BV 52 was delivered, also to Finistère, on 11th April 1927. These 52 railcars can be thought of as the first creation of CBM. Indeed the workshop of Delaroche and Turquet (located Avenue de Sable, which later became Avenue Olivier Heuzé), was purchased by S.C.F. about 1929 for their own use and became "Atelier de Construction" before being called CBM, much later in 1977. At the same time as they built the BV railcars there they also repaired and maintained the rolling stock of the western rail networks.
For the eastern networks S.C.F. had a workshop in the Ardennes at Prix. In 1929 this workshop, having completed the rehabilitation of the Ardennes vehicles, found itself available for new manufactures. The existing railcars were no longer responsive to customer requirements given the recent growing competition from the motor bus.
The new railcars were mounted on frames built in the workshops of the Group with Panhard Berliet Willème engines. The body was made of wood and of course Mr. Francis Verney remembers fondly timber stocks which were dried for 7 years before being used. Later the new railcars would be equipped with a front bogie.
Fifty-one railcars were built completely in the workshops of Prix-les-Mezieres, called type SC; the last, built in 1938, was delivered to the Normandy network on 11th May 1940 even as Stukas were bombing the bridges of the Loire and the station of St-Pierre des Corps. But already, by a few months, the workshops of Prix had been moved into the workshops of Le Mans and which they had singularly enriched.
Pioneering work had been carried out in the workshops of the S.C.F. and if further proof were needed it suffices to point out the work of Michelin in Clermont-Ferrand at the same time to manufacture a suitable rubber tyred wheel for railcars. No doubt that without the war S.C.F. would also have built Michelines.
To nearly complete the story of the rail creations of S.C.F. we will add that it has built many trailers for its own railcars. In 1949, fifty-six trailers were delivered for SNCF and 6 railcars in 1950. It concluded in a sort of fireworks display by providing Turkey with 20 railcars and 20 trailers in 1954.
But since long ago, at that time, the main business of the workshops of the Avenue Olivier Heuzé had moved from rail to road and from railcars to motor buses.
Road vehicles of the S.C.F.
The inventiveness that S.C.F. had shown in the manufacture of rail vehicles was taken forward into its road vehicles.
In fact the road transport experience of S.C.F. was of long standing. In 1913 MM. Baert and Verney had put in operation their first bus service in the department of Ardennes. For example from 1927 S.C.F. created in Brittany bus networks A (replacement of train services) and network B (supplementary services to the local railways).
Beginning in 1934, in the workshops of Le Mans, bus bodies were mounted on chassis purchased elsewhere. It was not however in this type of manufacturing that S.C.F. exercised its talents: some bodies were anything but successful. In contrast to other manufacturers, now forgotten, S.C.F. demonstrated an exceptional capacity for creativity and a real inventive genius.
The 1937 exhibition of Arts and Techniques required the creation of a real fleet of small vehicles. Louis Renault wanted petrol vehicles and said it was not possible to operate electric vehicles. Louis Verney argued otherwise. Then he was offered the concession if, within a month, he could "make a 4 seater vehicle reaching 40km / hour on the level and be able to climb the Rue Magdbourg ten times without recharging its battery." That vehicle was built: chassis Renault (Celta Four), 48 volt battery, body of wood with hardboard coating. The S.C.F. won a Grand Prix Diploma.
Was it the spectacular success of 1937 that prompted the owners of the workshops of Le Mans to persevere with the construction of electric vehicles? Undoubtedly, when we built vans of 600/1000 and 2000Kg payload. But primarily S.C.F. patented the box girder system now not only used in the manufacture of railcars and electric vehicles, but also in our motor buses beginning in 1941.
Range of S.C.F. motor vehicles (Click on the underline to view the models)
LS
VSH