Transferred to the Equipment and Maintenance Museum in 1998 upon the dissolution of ESMAT, these panels had been stored in one of the museum's storage rooms since then and were practically forgotten by everyone.

The arrival of Captain Lenoir, the new museum curator, led to a review of all the collections that had been stored for many years.

This is how these panels reappeared, almost certainly destined for destruction. “Les Amis de La Martinerie” were fortunate to have Marie-José Lescure on site, someone who knows us well and with whom we are often in contact. She quickly reacted to prevent their destruction and, with the captain's agreement, contacted us for our opinion.

A few days later, Dominique and Jean-Jacques were there for the retrieval mission. Michel, for his part, was present when the panels arrived at La Martinerie to prepare for their installation this Wednesday, December 17th, with the help of Philippe.

With the support of Captain Lenoir and Mrs. Lescure, we requested the possibility of borrowing all the photo albums so that we could scan them and allow our visitors to consult them without damaging the originals. This request should be granted soon.

We would like to take this opportunity to appeal to you: if you own photo albums from the CISM in Metz, Lunéville, Montluçon, etc., please feel free to entrust them to us. We will scan them and return them to you if you wish (or you can send us the photos).

For your information: the Equipment and Maintenance Museum has been redesigned, and we will be organizing a visit soon.

Click on images to enlarge
Photo credit: Jean-Jacques Bérenguier