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
- Founded inTours1
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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
Links
- WikipediaÉtablissements Billard
- More imagesWikimedia Commons
- WikidataQ3591602
Sources
The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.
- 1
- 2WikipediaÉtablissements Billard on Wikipedia
- 3
- 4Wikimedia CommonsÉtablissements Billard photo by Fibo.cdn, CC BY-SA 3.0