Technicentre Paris Austerlitz / Atelier Masséna Carriage Works Open Day | 20th September 2025

On a very wet 20th of September 2025, European Heritage Days (an initiative funded by the EU which opens historically significant places normally behind closed doors to the public) organised an open day at the Technicentre Paris Austerlitz, otherwise known as the Masséna Works (Atelier). There was lots to see, including a variety of locos, a model railway and the works themselves completely open to us all, including an orchestra!

The purpose of the event was to celebrate 50 years of service for SNCF's iconic "Corail" coaching stock which is maintained here in central Paris. The number of Corail coaches in service is dwindling, but they can still be seen on plenty of routes, notably a lot of Intercités services from Paris to the south and across the south as well, but not for long as the new Z 26700 "Oxygène" units are currently being built and in testing to replace them.

The event was completely free of charge to enter, you just had to sign up in advance. There was also a free shuttle train laid on by ‪@APMFS‬ using their two CC 6500 locos (6549 & 6558) between Austerlitz station and the works, which was awesome! They are a French railway heritage society who do some great work; you can find their website here: https://www.apmfs.fr/

At the station, there was another European Heritage Days event taking place, the Orient Express Experience, with the train in the adjacent platform and SNCF BB 67400 number 67470 at the front, which was nice to see.

If you wish to find out more about the locos featured in this video, I have provided links to their respective Wikipedia articles and the timestamps they appear in the video

0:01 BB 67400 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCF_Cl...
1:15 CC 6500 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCF_Cl...
(information about 6549: https://www.apmfs.fr/accueil/le-patri...)
(information about 6558: https://www.apmfs.fr/accueil/le-patri...)
7:45 Z 26700 "Oxygène": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCF_Ox...
8:15 (& on the right at 10:22) BB 7200: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCF_Cl...
8:44 on the left, 2D2 5500: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCF_2D...
on the right: BB 26000: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCF_Cl...
9:38 141 R: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCF_Cl...
9:52 & 12:50 BB 22200: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCF_Cl...
10:10 Y 8400: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCF_Cl...
11:24 A1AA1A 68500: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SNCF_Cl...

Information on the Corail coaching stock: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corail_...)

I hope you enjoy the video and feel free to comment down below!