Private company

Établissements Billard

French manufacturer of railcars

Établissements Billard was a French railway rolling stock construction company founded in 1920 and based in Tours. It specialised in light railbuses and metre gauge and narrow gauge rolling stock. The business ceased trading in 1956 and later became Socofer.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1920Founded1
  • Founded inTours1
Draisine Billard RB
Photo: Fibo.cdn, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons4

Établissements Billard was a French railway rolling stock construction company founded in 1920 and based in Tours. It specialised in light railbuses and metre gauge and narrow gauge rolling stock. The business ceased trading in 1956 and later became Socofer.2

Products and brands

Production

Draisines

Draisines: These worked on different VFILs, and for the "Big Companies" which became the SNCF.

Locomotives

T50

T75D

T75P

Read the full text

T75G

These were designed for the French Military Railway. They were used, among other things, to service the Maginot Line.

SNCF Class Y 7100

Railbuses

Railbuses for numerous French VFIPs (secondary railways)

Type A 80D,

Type A 135D,

Type A 150D,

Type A 210D,

Networks of the Compagnie des chemins de fer départementaux, including:

Corse,

Vivarais,

Indre et Loire,

Seine-et-Marne

Tramways d'Ille-et-Vilaine Company

Overseas networks:

Madagascar

Réunion

French West Africa:

Dakar Niger

Dahomey

Ethiopia:

Chemin de fer Franco-éthiopien received in 1964 two automotive cars of 550 horsepower (410 kW), for the Djibouti – Addis-Abeba line

Several European networks

In Greece

In Spain

A Micheline was built in the 1930s for the PO

Three buses with bogies on a wide chassis worked on the Nord-Est.

A series of railbuses with two axles were built for the CFD and the SNCF in 1949 and 1950

A series of FNC railbuses were deployed by the SNCF

The solidity of the stock, and the simplicity of construction, means that many Billard engines are still working today.

Rebuilt and modernised vehicles

XR 1331 (Chemins de Fer de Provence), ex RL1, originally CP, rebuilt Garnero

XRD 1333 (Chemins de Fer de Provence), ex RL3, originally CP, rebuilt original mail van

XRD 1337 (Chemins de Fer de Provence), ex RL7, originally CFD Vivarais 33, rebuilt Garnero, mail van

XR 113 (Chemins de fer de Corse) ex autorail A 150 D1, N°113, rebuilt Carde

XR 104 (Chemins de fer de Corse) ex autorail A 210 D1, N°105, rebuilt Garnero, previously with CP

XR 105 (Chemins de fer de Corse) ex autorail A 210 D1, N°106, rebuilt Garnero, previously with CP

XRD 242 (Chemins de fer de Corse) ex autorail A 80 D, N°32, originally CFD Charentes

XR 526 (Chemins de fer de Corse) ex autorail A 150 D2, N°526, originally Tramways d'Ille-et-Vilaine

From Wikipedia’s article on Établissements Billard, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Timeline

  1. 1964Dissolved Dissolved1
  2. 1920Founded Founded in Tours1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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