View source for Decauville factory in Marquette-lez-Lille

[[File:Usine Decauville de Marquette.jpg|thumb|Usine Decauville, Marquette, Rue Pasteur, around 1923]]
[[File:Locomotive Builders Plate - Decauville, Marquette-lez-Lille, France, 1943 (Gerald and Lorna Dee Collection, Photographer Jennifer McNair, © Museums Victoria, CC-BY) (cropped).jpg|thumb|Manufacturer's plate, 1943]]
[[File:Decauville 1853-1953. A l'occasion de l'an-niversaire de la création de son Entreprise, la Société Nouvelle des Établissements Decauville Aîné a publié ces pages (Juin 1953) 04 (Usine Decauville à Marquette-lez-Lille).jpg|thumb|Deauville factory in Marquette-lez-Lille, around 1950]]
The '''Decauville factory in Marquette-lez-Lille''' produced [[locomotive]]s and [[construction machinery]]s from 1923 to 1968.
== History ==
The [[Decauville]] plant was opened in 1923 not far from the [[Massey Ferguson|Massey-Ferguson]] factory in [[Marquette-lez-Lille|Marquette]]. It was one of the four Decauville factories alongside those in [[Corbeil-Essonnes]], [[Aulnay-sous-Bois]] and [[Decauville factory in Moulins|Moulins]].<ref>[http://www.marquette-en-flandre.net/articles.php?pg=art61 ''L'Historie de Marquette lez Lille.'']</ref> The advantages of the location were the availability of extensive land and good accessibility for steel and iron via numerous railway lines. The [[Deûle|Deûle Canal]] was not used as the metal came by rail from [[Lorraine]].
In 1954, Decauville employed 400 people in Marquette, and in 1958 even 500. The site covered more than 80,000 m<sup>2</sup> (8 ha), including 18,000 m<sup>2</sup> in buildings, with good opportunities for expansion.<ref>[http://www.marquette-en-flandre.net/articles.php?pg=art61 ''Marquette-lez-Lille.'']</ref>
Instead of riveted products, welded products were increasingly manufactured. [[Shunting locomotive]]s were the main products on the site<ref>[https://rail.lu/materiel/decauvilleTE90.html ''Decauville TE90.'']</ref> as well as [[commercial vehicle]]s and construction and mining machinery such as forklift trucks, dump trucks, wheel loaders and construction compressors. Half of the production was exported.
At the end of the 1950s, the Decauville Group ran into financial difficulties due to the changing markets, and a new direction was taken in Marquette. The signing of an agreement with a German company for the realisation of large construction equipment was intended to revive the activity of the northern site. The Franco-German agreement came into force in 1963. Five years later, in the summer of 1968, the closure of the plant was announced, 45 years after its opening.<ref>[http://www.marquette-en-flandre.net/articles.php?pg=art62 ''Marquette: La fermeture des Ets Decauville.'']</ref>
Some local companies then tried to invest in the premises, but their activities were not sustainable.
== References ==
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{{Commons category|Usine Decauville de Marquette|Decauville factory in Marquette-lez-Lille}}
{{coord|50.672353|3.059049|region:FR_type:building|display=title}}
{{Decauville}}
[[Category:Decauville]]
[[Category:Defunct rolling stock manufacturers of France]]
[[Category:Marquette-lez-Lille]]