Jean-Patrick Charrey
Role
- Webmaster of www.trainsofturkey.com
- Administrator of this Wiki
- Author of many pages, in particular the History section
You can reach me at the following address
About me
I discovered Turkey when I was working there in 1991/1992. I was, at the time, part of the team in charge of the Divrigi Iskenderun railway electrification. I was then a junior engineer, in charge of technical coordination between the job sites and the design offices.
In these years, it was already too late to see regular live steam engines but TCDD still had the flavor of an old time railway, the kind of flavor that is encountered in branch lines in Western Europe. Then the network impressed me: a mountain network with steep gradients and adverse weather conditions. And a huge network: almost 2000 Km from Istanbul to Kars or Tatvan. Finally, I discovered that the Turkish railways had a rich history that ties to most of the key events of the 20th century and that was little known or researched, hence the idea of this site (more about site history here).
I currently have a full time job as Information Technology manager in a company manufacturing and servicing elevators. This is quite far from railways. I am French and I live in Paris, France.
Trains of Turkey.com?
This website reflects my varied interest about railways. This as evolved as lot since I started train spotting in the late 1970s. As I grow old, I am more and more found of narrow gauge & industrial railways. At the moment, I more into the early history of railways that the present. I have also a strong interest in railway geography and I contribute a lot to www.Openstreetmap.org
Trains of Turkey.com is a very long term project. I have no plans to stop but I do hold updates for long periods from time to time. I work on this site only on my spare time; which can sometime be very minimal, at least not enough to dig out all available material.
Trains of Turkey.com was also a fun way to discover Internet and it's evolution through time. From the pioneer years when I started until today, the changes have been tremendous and I quite enjoyed living this "hand's on" by doing this little project.
Finally, thanks to this website, I had the opportunity to meet many great people with a like minded interest for Turkish railways.
Railway Modelling
My past is in modelling: this is where it all started for me. I was given an HO toy train (Jouef, a French brand now part of the Hornby portfolio) that I liked very much. I did quite a lot of plastic models too, mostly boats but I always returned to trains. It is through modelling that I discovered the world of railways, to which I had otherwise no connection.
I was somewhat engaged into HO modelling until my college years. I fully stopped when I started a professional life, mostly because of lack a time but also because I lost interest. However, I always kept a strong interest for real railways. I returned to toy trains, this time as a family activity I did with my sons while they were young. We played in IIm scale using LGB rolling stock.
I am quite proud to be an honorary (and distant) member of the first railway modeler club in Turkey.
Your webmaster posing in front of TGV set 325, the fastest train in the world at the time of the picture. Taken in October 2006, at Villeneuve Saint George depot. Photo A. Charrey | 
My younger son playing with our nimble toytrain from LGB. Nov 2006. Photo JP Charrey |