Solvay 50

Solvay 50, registration NY2780F, was built at Choisy-le-Roi in 1925 with a 20 hp Kromhout engine.  She was the last of six Solvays to be built at the yard (Solvays 45-50). The information on this page is taken from Vagus-Vagrant.fr unless otherwise stated.

It ended its career as a Panama barge in 1964. The small Solvay barges assigned to the Dombasle-Sarralbe service and the return trip carrying coal from the Saar to Dombasle were called the "Panamas". These boats didn't have a permanent crew. Their drivers were employees of the CGTVN (Compagnie Générale de Transports du Nord), the electric loco barge towing company, and later of Bargest. They would swap boats mid-journey when they met another one coming from the opposite direction, as did the locos. The control centre for this traffic had its office in Dombasle near the Pierre Escuras bridge. The first person in charge was Alfred Piant, whose sister ran the Spar grocery store at lock 22 in Dombasle. Two or three large Solvay barges ended their careers this way. Often, after years as Panama barges, they were scrapped in the dead end of the Dombasle port.

Here she is at the bottom of the pair of locks at Laneuveville-devant-Nancy. We have moored many times above this lock.  The two slag heaps at Jarville are no longer there and the whole area is covered with residential and commercial buildings:

Solvay 50 in the ice in the Montgon valley on the Ardennes canal: