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Origin and history

The Longueau railway rotunda, located in the Somme department in the Hauts-de-France region, was built at the beginning of the 20th century to meet the growing needs of the Compagnie des chemins de fer du Nord. Founded in 1883 near the Longuau station, this depot was originally designed for the maintenance of steam locomotives, with two rotundas built in 1883 and 1886. Its development was motivated by the saturation of the Amiens depot, requiring an extension of the infrastructure for freight traffic.

During the First World War, the depot housed locomotives such as the North 230-series Ten wheel and the 140 Pershing from the United States. A third rotunda was added in the interwar period to accommodate a diverse fleet, including 141 T and 040 T type tending locomotives. In 1938, Longau became one of the largest depots in the northern SNCF region, with 133 locomotives in service.

The Second World War marked a dramatic turning point: bombed more than fifty times in 1944, the depot was destroyed at 70%, with major losses in equipment and infrastructure. After the war, it was rebuilt according to a modern plan, including two reinforced concrete rotundas designed by engineer Bernard Laffaille and architect Paul Peirani. These facilities allowed the transition to diesel locomotives, marking the end of the steam era in the 1960s.

In the following decades, the depot evolved to a maintenance centre for thermal and electric locomotives, hosting series such as the BB 67400, X 4500, and later, the Régiolis. In 2003, Rotunda No. 1, the last representative of the four rotundas of the interwar period still in primitive condition, was included in the additional inventory of historical monuments. Today, the site remains a major hub of the Technical Fleet Supervision (STF) of Hauts-de-France.

The depot also played a social and cultural role, as evidenced by the Rail Festival organized in 2013, allowing the public to discover its railway heritage. Despite aborted expansion projects, such as the one in 2012 for a TER workshop, Longueau retains its strategic importance in the national railway network, with more than 500 motorized vehicles in management in 2021.

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