[PRCo] OT: Lisbon (was Re: Milano)

[Donald Galt]

On 26 Apr 2002 at 11:40, Fred Schneider wrote:

> 
> Some of the most difficult operation I've ever experienced with straight air (manual lap) that I've ever watched was in Lisbon, Portugal.  My best estimate is that it probably takes 15,000 to 20,000 miles to make a motorman in that environment ... not the 30 days it might have taken here.   
Virtually every person I watched, would start a car by releasing air and pulling power simultaneously, and then immediately making a very light brake application and lapping just to keep the brake shoes just barely on the wheels.  These motormen had to be able to run 20 feet or
> less from the bumper of the automobile ahead of them, or some other motorist would fill the space.  And they had to be able to stop in the minuscule amount of space they allotted for stopping.   And, damn it, they did it.
> 
.............

Harald Jahn a few weeks ago posted a couple of videos at ABPR 
(and received some flak about the file sizes) of operations on 
Lisbon's line 28 in the Alfama. The longer one particularly (34 megs) 
is notable for showing interaction between trams and pedestrians, 
motorists and motorcyclists, as well as operation at close intervals 
over the largely single-tracked line. Well worth the couple of hours it 
took to download over my 56K. Harald doesn't have space to store 
his videos at http://www.tramway.at, but might be amenable to 
furnishing them to those interested.

Don