The Yellow Train at Bourg Madame.

I had to go to the railway station at Bourg Madame in the Pyrenees in order to check some facts and quite by chance I managed to time my visit to coincide with one of the two daily departures of the Train Jaune.

This electric train runs on a single line, about forty miles long, from Villefranche, down on the Mediterranean side of the Pyrenees, up into the mountains to within strolling distance of the Spanish frontier.

The Train Jaune at Bourg Madame station on its way down to Villefranche,
14 September 2016.

The line was opened in the early twentieth century as a metre-gauge line and was designed to be powered by hydro electricity from the various dams and power stations built along the line. It is the only metre-gauge line run by the French national railway company, SNCF.

If you get the chance, take a ride. The scenery is delightful.