Like the weather is sad. Bye bye Patrick. Patrick nickname was given because it was the name of the son of one of first drivers... Orange is finally the best livery ever of French high speed trains. Patrick was delivered at the middle of 1978, and running to mid of 1980 for testing purposes. During this test period, 15 000 modifications were made on trainsets (With the #02 TGV named Sophie) to be compliant before delivering others 85 trains of the "TGV Sud-Est" serie. The #03 was delivered at the end of April 1980 and latest was build and delivered in 1985/1986. In February 1981 shortly before the opening of the new High speed Line #1 (LN1 Sud-Est), the TGV SE #16 have made the first high speed train speed world record with 380 km/h (236 mph).
Pictures of French high speed conquest... With all kind of locomotives, trains and infrastructures that participated to improve rail speed and makes the best world records.