Trip to Lisbon, Portugal

[bill937ca]

I`ve just come back after a  late September week riding trams in Lisbon and Sintra, the Lisbon Metro and  the CP Sintra line.

 

Lisbon is the one of the oldest cities in the world, outdating London, Rome and Paris by hundreds of years. It`s a somewhat crumbling city that has a very dressy business culture.  English is spoken in Lisbon especially in hospitality related businesses, so much so that I rarely had to try to speak Portuguese.

 

I was expecting generally partly cloudy weather in mid 20sC, but instead after Saturday afternoon it was sunny and in the low 30sC. This nicely extended my summer!

 

The first order of the trip was to try to ride the former Sintra Atantico tram line.

 

The elusive Electrico de Sintra as it called today is a true piece of living history. A 14 km long 1000mm gauge tram line links Sintra with the Atlantic Ocean beach resort of Praia das Macas. The tram line is as it was in 1904: eight bench Brill open motor trams, gears growling as power is applied, hand brakes applied with a large silver brake handle, only blinds offer in-climate weather shelter, and un-welded track with rail joints every ten metres or so, much as it was when the line opened.

 

 

The ride is primitive and noisy with flanges squealing around curves, wheels pounding over rail joints and a herky-jerky ride. Dogs howl as the tram goes by. But what an experience!

 

Today the line serves to link the tourism of Sintra with the beaches of the ocean during Portuguese summers (which I would define as mid-July to mid-September). Trams generally run mid-July to September, weekends only. Trams ran every 55 minutes in 2011 with a one-way trip taking 45 minutes.

 

To reach Sintra I took the Comboios de Portugal1672mm gauge Sintra line from Rossio station.  Fare each way is 1.85 Euros, plus .50 Euros for the rechargeable fare card. The Sintra line uses Sorefame/Siemens 2300 class EMUs.  These EMUs are 4 car sets with two sets forming an 8 car train. Trains run every 20 minutes and the trip takes about 40 minutes.

 

http://www.cp.pt/cp/displayPage.do?vgnextoid=9ee56e29d6b74010VgnVCM1000007b01a8c0RCRD

 

Trains depart Rossio Station into the Rossio Tunnel and emerge at Campolide where there is a yard and workshop as you can see inbound below in this 2008 You Tube video.

 

 

Sintra is a resort town and the train station is a hub of tour and bus operations.

 

Lisbon, itself has four train stations.  Rossio, Santa Apolonia, Cais de Sodre and the ferry terminal near Praca do Comercio (which links to lines across the Tagus River).

 

Lisbon also has a four line Metro system.  The first Metro opened in 1959. Trains are 1435mm gauge, run left handed and use an overrunning third rail which is completely uncovered. Original stations were 40m long (2.5 cars) and work started in 1972 to lengthen stations to 70m (four car trains). Newer lines have 105m stations for six car trains. Now work is progressing on lengthening four car stations to six car stations.  The noise level is high in the Metro.  Rolling stock is 16240mm long, 22789mm wide with 40 seats and room for 122 standees and built by Sorefame. Trains are generally four cars.

 

But the big attraction in Lisbon was riding the 900mm yellow trams operated by Carris.  There is a fleet of 45 single truck cars rebuilt in the 1990s. You will find some of the steepest non-adhesion tram lines in the world here.  A 24-hour ticket purchased in any Metro station is 4.60 Euros. A single ride is 2.85 Euros.

 

Here`s a couple of videos I took on tram line 28E.

 

This is a tight turn in Chiado where the tram (and many other vehicles) swing out to make the turn.

 

 

The second video was taken at Rua da Conceicao é Rua da Madalena.

 

 

I did visit one model train dealer in Lisbon. A Gotta has two stores at Av. De Paris.  There are two train stores at that location, the first is strictly Marklin and the second store having a good selection of European train magazines, Auhagen HO scale kits along with some HO and N items.  When I told them I model N gauge Japanese along with Hon30 trams, they mentioned they had a couple of N scale Kato items including a Kato viaduct system. I picked up a copy of Today`s Railway`s Europe and a HO scale Auhagen kit.  

 

The shop is very close to the Green line Areeiro Metro station. From the station, walk south one block south on Avenida  Almirante and turn right onto Avenida de Paris.  The store is just half a block along the south side.

 

It was a very enjoyable week in Lisbon.

 

Photos below:

 

Electrico de Sintra at the Sintra terminal.

 

2300 class EMU in Rossio Station

 

A Gotta (hobby shop)

[westfalen]

Somewhere else to put on my 'gotta go there' list.

[disturbman]

Yes, this year, in Europe, we had a crappy summer but a superb Indian summer. Last week, temperatures must have flirt around 25-30°C in Berlin.

 

Lisbon is a beautiful city and I should go back there.

[bill937ca]

From time to time I have read of a connection between Portugal which once had a far flung empire and Japan.  This morning I came across a Wikipedia article on Japanese words with Portuguese origins.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_words_of_Portuguese_origin

[disturbman]

I think the Katsu-don was introduced by the Portuguese (who were the sailors of their time).

[bill937ca]

I should have added this video to my original post.  It shows just how primitive early traction was. Its amazing this has survived all these years.

 

 

With the Euro crisis capital spending has been heavily chopped.  Apparently the Lisbon-Madrid HSR link has been cancelled.  The Spaniards said `Say what?` when they heard this.

[pexinho]

IF anibody wants information of Lisbon or any place of portugal, contact me by PM, i'm hapy to give all information needed.

 

Information of Sintra Tram

 

http://www.cm-sintra.pt/Artigo.aspx?ID=3202

 

Oficial page about Lisbon trams and elevators

 

http://www.carris.pt/en/the-fleet-tram/

[Densha]

From time to time I have read of a connection between Portugal which once had a far flung empire and Japan.   This morning I came across a Wikipedia article on Japanese words with Portuguese origins.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_words_of_Portuguese_origin

Interesting. I didn't know this was applied to the Portuguese language as well. I knew about the Dutch part but not about the Portuguese.

[Dani]

I went some weeks to Lisbon and Sintra in last 3 years thanks to my job. Nice post, thanks!

 

Sintra is really a beautiful and charming town, and never miss to taste wines from there, "Duero" river zone or "Douro" in Portuguese, to accompany a good "picanya" or "porco preto". 

 

Cheers,

Dani.