Trains and other things: Longuyon, Lamadelaine, Uckange, Maizières-lès-Metz, Woippy

Today, I'm on my way to Lorraine region and also covering parts of Luxembourg

Carignan

This part of La Transversale Nord Est has minimal passenger services, only 3 TER services per day

Not many stops either. Margut - Fromy is a former station

Montmedy

Montmédy Citadel

Longuyon is a junction station between four railway directions: one for Valenciennes, where I came from; one for Longwy and further north into Luxembourg and Belgium; and the other two eastbound to Thionville and south to Onville/Nancy.

The station has seen its better days

After the war of 1870, the loss of Alsace-Lorraine changed the borders and brought part of the Mohon-Thionville line and the Thionville-Metz-Nancy axis into Prussian territory. To open up the Longuyon and Longwy region and restore the link between Nancy and the north of Meurthe-et-Moselle, a new line between Longuyon, Onville, and Pagny-sur-Moselle was awarded on 17 June 1873. Its construction was completed in 1877. (Wikipedia)

At that time, the steel industry was fully developed in the region, generating a lot of traffic (ore, coal, coke, cast iron, and steel). Longuyon also saw many long-distance freight trains pass through. The original passenger building was probably enlarged several times as the station grew in importance.

In 1911, the Longuyon connection was built, allowing the connection from the direction of Charleville-Mézières to that of Mont-Saint-Martin and vice versa without turning back at Longuyon station. This connection, now out of service, included a tunnel and a bridge over the Chiers River.

During the First World War, Longuyon was occupied by the Germans, who used the railway junction to supply the front. March 18, 1918, a bombing of the station causes two ammunition trains as well as wagons of benzol and poison gas to catch fire. The station and surrounding buildings are devastated. (Wikipedia)

Continuing further north to Luxembourg, here is the last station in France - Longwy

Now I'm in Luxembourg on the railway between Petange and Rodange, the station is Lamadelaine

Luxembourg has a network of 275km railways

Here is a train on the way to Belgium

1312 and 1311

When it comes to infrastructure, the difference between France and Luxembourg seems huge, here I feel like I'm in Switzerland

CFL has 20 units of Traxx P140AC1, a special version designed for passenger and freight trains. They were manufactured in 2005 and can be used in Germany and Luxembourg.

4008 and 4020

Rail works in Luxembourg, as well

But the primary closures are near Bettembourg, the traffic is completely disrupted between France and Luxembourg

Stadler Kiss - CFL version

Bombardier double-deck wagons, same as in Germany and Denmark

4017

Cargolux plane

4020 and 4008 are back

As mentioned, the line near Bettembourg is completely disrupted, but I had to visit it to verify myself. Here I am at Berchem station.

Yes, it is

Crossing the border to France, Hettange-Grande station. No passenger services here at the moment

Cattenom Nuclear Power Plant

Koenigsmacker station on the railway between Thionville and Trier

Not sure if there are any trains here

Yutz station, on the railway between Thionville and Bening

The railway is used by a cat today

I'm heading to the main line Metz-Luxembourg. The line is part of the European Corridor C (Antwerp - Basel / Lyon) and was to be equipped with ETCS level 1 by 2018. Due to delays in installation, the actual commissioning of ETCS took place on August 1, 2021.

Here I am at Uckange station

The region is full of former and current steelworks

The Blast furnace U4 is the last of the six blast furnaces at the Uckange steel complex. Witness to the tremendous economic boom of the entire region in the 1960s and 1980s, this "iron monster" died out in 1991 to come back to life and open to the public in 2007, after two years of work. It is one of the rare testimonies of the 20th-century steel industry preserved today in France. (https://www.hf-u4.com/)

It's nice to see something else for a change

I have now arrived at Maizières-lès-Metz where I'll spend the rest of the day and also the night at the nearby hotel

This is the line between Metz-Ville and Zoufftgen ( at the border with Luxembourg)

The part between Thionville and Woippy has 4 tracks

The line has extensive traffic, which is of great interest to me

Besides the large amount of TER trains between Metz and Luxembourg, there are freight trains on the line

37020 is an Alstom Prima EL3U, supporting 15 kV AC 16.7 Hz, 25 kV AC 50 Hz, and 1.5 kV DC

According to electrolokarkiv.de it has been hired to RRI - Rhenus Rail St. Ingbert GmbH since 2021

So, most probably, the train is heading to Germany through the Thionville–Trier line

There is a label with speed restrictions on the locomotive: F: 140km/h, D: 120 km/h and CH: 100 km/h

Zacns wagon

427008M

64 BB 27000 are suitable for running under midi catenary. They are recognizable by the presence of a wider 1.5 kV bow as well as by an "M" marking following their identification number. (Wikipedia)

427080

437048 with a container train from Switzerland?

The middle platform has no elevator

186 192

There are also TGV trains on the line, traveling from Marseille, Montpellier and Paris and heading to Luxembourg

1322

South of Maizieres Les Metz is Woippy. Between the two stations there is Le triage de Woippy - marshalling yard which is the largest in France

In 2020, the yard handles 600 to 1000 wagons per day. Around 25% of the tracks are unusable due to lack of maintenance. In 2022, the station is experiencing a resurgence in activity, with an average of 900 wagons handled daily.

In 2023, the yard will only operate at 75% of its capacity and employ 140 railway workers. It is planned to invest 80 million euros for the rehabilitation of the infrastructure. (Wikipedia)

427095

Is another train with semitrailers heading to Bettembourg?

Calsina Carre is a company from Girona, so I'm pretty sure this train comes from Le Boulou terminal near the border with Spain

TER BGC is a diesel railcar heading to Verdun

I'm back at Maizieres Les Metz, here is another train from Spain

427101E and 427104E, my guess is that "E" stands for ERTMS, which has been installed on this particular line between Metz and Luxembourg. But since this train is coming from the border with Spain it can be handy to have support for ERTMS when using the bypass Montpellier line also,