The not so stupid question: the “lamp room”, what is this building located at the Rouen SNCF station?
Through Adrien filoche
Published on
You have probably already seen it when you arrive at the SNCF train station from Rouen (Seine-Maritime). Visible from the train and the platforms (in particular n ° 3, towards Le Havre), this dilapidated building made of bricks and stone to call out.
To the writing of 76 news, we therefore asked ourselves the next not-so-stupid question: what is this abandoned building? A single clue to enlighten us: the word “lampisterie”, flocked in large white letters on the wall.
For platform lighting
“The lamp room was the room where one stored, maintained and prepared the various lamps and lanterns for the lighting of the platforms, signals at the time when there was no electric lighting”, indicated the SNCF Normandie .
Today, the profession of lamp keeper has long since disappeared, especially with the advent of electricity. Previously, the railroad worker took care of the maintenance of the station’s lamps and lanterns, but also of the signaling for the trains.
The importance of lampists
He had to “regularly clean the burner of the lamp, the reflectors and the deflectors, make the windows shine and especially well fill the tank of the lamp which is inside the lantern”, we read on the site archives of the city of Saint-Denis.
The profession is thus described as essential. To sum up, there could not be a train that runs without a lamp operator. Hence the importance at the time for the railways, of lamp operators like the one formerly located in Rouen station and whose building remains visible!
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