[3] Very high quality quartz glass can be produced from the dazzling white sand mined in the Arrondissement of Fontainebleau.

In 1891 Mrs Huot, the then owner of the site, applied for permission to build a narrow-gauge railway to transport sand between the quarries and the port of Fromonville on the Loing Canal.

The tunnels were driven without systematic planning and without special safety structures, as the sand was only manually mined in small batches.

[3] During the First World War, railway operations were suspended in 1914 and the tracks were dismantled for reuse on the Marne front.

It was then used by Decauville under the name of Hermanville for assessment, demonstration or hire on the Chemins de fer du Calvados.