It all started with an e-mail from Kim Pedersen, President of the Monorail Society, who informed me that he received a message from a French filmmaker informing the Monorail Society of the existance of the original SAFEGE monorail car. The story went on to say that a group of individuals in the town of Saran had rescued the vehicle from the scrapyard and the monorail car was now stored safely away for a use as yet undetermined.

   As my specialty in the Monorail Society is the AMF Monorail, the news of the original inspiration for my monorail interest piqued my curiosity to say the least. I have been researching the AMF Monorail project for a number of years and managed to trace the AMF cars to Hitchcock, Texas, where they were seen in 1997 sitting in a pile alonside Highway 6. Unfortunately when I discovered this, it was now July of 1998 and the cars had been removed in the clean-up of a property upon which a bank had foreclosed. I am still seeking their whereabouts at this time, however back to the subject at hand.

   Upon hearing of the SAFEGE find, I had Kim send a message to Fabrice informing him of my interest. Of greater concern was the fact that I had the opportunity of travel to France coming up very soon. Could I make a side trip to Saran to view the remains, and get all the arrangements made in the short time remaining?

   Fabrice kindly responded and offered his help in arranging the tour of the SAFEGE car. While corresponding with Fabrice, he told me of another resident in the warehouse, which came from an air-cushion experiment of the 1970's that might also be of interest to me. This was the Bertin Company "Aerotrain Suburbain S44" vehicle. Fabrice related that the town of Saran was home to one of the three sites that tested the feasability of air-cushioned vehicle travel. A terrific site for more information about these projects is The Aerotrain and Hovercraft Site run by Pierre Bouillet.

   On the day I arrived in France, Fabrice left a message for me at my hotel in Versailles asking me to phone him. Finally I had the pleasure of speaking to him directly. He said that he was on business about 300 kilometers from where I was and though he could not accompany me, he had called the Mayor the day before and verified that all was on track. He asked my estimated arrival and would call Monsieur Dorchen to appraise him of my status. I extended my thanks again and headed off to Saran.

   The highways south of Paris are quick and in 65 minutes I was seeing the signs for the Saran exit. I drove east and started looking for the city hall. At the center of the village I saw a building that had the letters "MAIRE" emblazoned on the wall. I stopped some passers-by and they gestured to this building as the office of the Mayor.

   After stopping at reception, I found out that no one understood English. Luckily I had brought along a letter in French indicating who I was, why I was there, and who I was there to see. A few minutes later Monsieur Dorchen came down from upstairs and welcomed me. Again this was without benefit of English, but when I said "SAFEGE", he immediately took me to his office and showed me the pile of SAFEGE documents he had borrowed from the Mayor for my visit.

   Monsieur Dorchen offered to drive and we proceeded to a quiet area of town. We pulled up to a locked gate that had stong signs of a military presence about them. Monsieur Dorchen then pulled back onto the street and retraced our path for 500 meters. He turned into a lane and stopped in front of a gate that was barricaded with pieces of concrete. We continued on foot and came to the group of abandoned warehouses where, in one of them, the cars rest.

   The SAFEGE car is right against the door as we came in, making the transition spectacular. From a non-descript compound to this huge vehicle in one short moment was amazing. My excitement was at its peak as I started to photograph from all angles. While taking pictures I also inspected the car comparing features to those I had only seen in much copied documents. Finally I was able to touch and climb onto this piece of history.

   As you will see from the SAFEGE Photo Adventure link below, the vehicle is not entirely isolated from the public. Sadly the car has been the target of graffitti and vandalism. Still, the presence of this object overcame any detractions.

   Briefly, the two control cabs of the monorail car have had most of the equipment removed. There was a switch panel left in one cab console, and an overhead panel that had plates describing operating procedures for the cabin area environmental controls.

   The interior of the main cabin was sparse. The covering was missing from most of the floor exposing the subfloor joists. While it took caution to move about, the missing floor exposed the emergency staircase, which I had heard so much about and seen in the 1966 film, "Fahrenheit 451." The staircase was in its stowed position against the bottom of the floor, waiting for its next use. Will it ever come again?

   I closely examined the paint on the exterior, and looked into the fuselage wherever panels had been removed, exposing the sub-structure. I compared similar construction techniques with my photos of the building of the AMF cars, built in St. Louis by St. Louis Car Company, in 1963.

   Spending 30 minutes or so going over the car, I then inspected the Bertin S44 sitting next to the SAFEGE car. This vehicle has had worse damage inflicted upon it. From outward appearances, the entire interior had been set abalze and the shell was very fragile. I did not attempt to climb aboard this car. I did photograph this machine and it is documented, along with the Saran, Chevilly and Domarville stations, in the Bertin Aerotrain Photo Adventure link below.

   Observing some metal cowlings and fairings strewn about the warehouse, I photographed these objects though I knew not how they fit the vehicle before me. Only later when I visited Pierre Bouillet's Aerotrain site, did I realize that these parts were from two different vehicles, and the cowlings were from two different phases of the Saran experimental vehicle.

   Monsieur Dorchen graciously allowed me ample time to go wherever I wanted. He had brought along the Mayor's SAFEGE documents and we looked through them. They were large sheet drawings containing examples of station diagrams, track arrangements, car layouts, and other technical details. Very impressive.

   All this took about 90 minutes and I indicated I was ready to leave, though somewhat reluctantly. Then Monsieur Dorchen pulled a surprise out of his hat, he gestured to the Bertin car and inferred that a piece of SAFEGE beamway rested nearby. More excitement!

   We drove to National Road 20 and proceeded north. At a sign showing "Parc de la Forét" we turned east. Just across the bridge over the SNCF tracks, was a concrete track in the air, connected to a huge overhead platform. This, Monsieur Dorchen said, was the southern terminus of the 18.5 kilometer Aerotrain test track.

    All this was interesting, but then I spied the 15 meter long SAFEGE beam lying on the ground. Needless to say I took photos of it, which are in the SAFEGE Photo Adventure link.

   Monsieur Dorchen then took me to Chevilly and here the staircase to the top of the overhead Bertin station platform still remains. Chevilly was the main base of operations for this Aerotrain project. Here were the vehicle hangar, maintenance buildings, and the staging area, now long gone.

   There was also a unique structure underneath the station consisting of two pillars with large wheels mounted at the top. Around these wheels were cables, which were anchored into the ground on each side of the track, stretched up and around the wheels, and then paralleled the bottom of the track surface for about one kilometer. At that time we had no idea why they were there, but from Pierre Bouillet's web site, the answer was plainly made clear.

   From these cables had hung observation booths which were able to move laterally back and forth across the kilometer long cable. The booths were under the track to look for signs of deformation whenever the Aerotrain would roar by overhead. After a few trials, the obervation booths were abandoned when no appreciable movement of the track was detected.

   This I am afraid to say was the last item on the grand tour of Saran. Monsieur Dorchen drove me back to the city hall and I indicated my thanks to him and the Mayor. I left a copy of the SAFEGE sales manual for the Mayor's collection, which I had acquired a few years ago. Then we bid goodbye.

   I wanted to use the remaining light to photograph the last station on the line, so I headed north on National Road 20 and followed the track to Domarville, where the beam ends about 15 meters north of the station platform. Though the station and track are no longer in use, the station still provides a useful purpose, providing shelter for a local farmer's hay crop.

   That, fellow explorers, is the end of the adventure and I invite you to wander through the photo links below and see what I had the priviledge to view in person.