AJECTA Working Railway Museum

AJECTA stands for Association de Jeunes pour l’Exploitation de Chemins de fer Touristiques et d’Attraction. The organisation was founded in 1968 by a group of young people in the Paris region who realised many steam locomotives were at risk of being scrapped. In 1971 they took over the abandoned locomotive depot at Longueville, 90 km south-east of Paris. The complex is centred on a turntable with 20 engine sheds around it, built in 1911. The volunteers collected many locomotives there in a few years. The museum now has 12 locomotives as well as other rolling stock, some still under restoration. All of the locomotives operated on French railways and most were built in France between the 1860s and the 1950s. The oldest is a Schneider built at Le Creusot in 1862. The museum offers steam days and runs special excursions with historic locomotives and carriages on SNCF lines to public stations.