[PRCo] Re: Lisbon in the 1990s

[Fred Schneider]

Look for the green signals that look like traffic lights at the curb.


On Feb 24, 2011, at 10:45 PM, Herb Brannon wrote:

> There were several sections of both single track and gauntlet track
> operation. I looked at the videos a couple times over but could not spot any
> type of signal system to protect the single track sections. Maybe I'm not
> seeing them. What type of signal system is used on the single track sections
> in Lisbon?
> On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 21:27, Bill Robb <bill937ca at yahoo.ca> wrote:
> 
>> One more link, this one showing more tram like vehicles on the counter
>> balance
>> trolley lines.
>> http://www.carris.pt/pt/fotos-de-ascensores/
>> 
>> Bill
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Fred Schneider wrote:
>> 
>> "Carris also operates a completely vertical elevator to the top of the
>> mountain
>> but I cannot find any videos of it."
>> 
>> It's the Elevador de Santa Justa and one of your links led me to several
>> videos,
>> 
>> but first a web site with many large photos of the elevator, the
>> observation
>> deck and the connection to Carmo which until 1996 was the terminal of tram
>> 24.
>> 
>> http://www.galenfrysinger.com/lisbon_santa_justa_lift.htm
>> 
>> Videos
>> 
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXcViBCauQg&feature=related
>> 
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQi2nRPZjH0
>> 
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtm_SH6eOTo&NR=1
>> 
>> BillBill:
>> What you did here was to prove to me that at least several people were
>> "listening" when I posted some of those foreign videos.  It wasn't for
>> naught.
>> It does have an audience even if this is a Pittsburgh website.
>> 
>> Let me tell you guys something else.  For years after I worked as a theater
>> projectionist, I could not go to a movie theater without seeing every
>> mistake
>> the projectionist made ... focusing, framing, not coming in on cue.
>> 
>> 
>> I was having a similar problem here ... I've been running trolleys so long
>> that
>> when I saw those views out the front of a Lisbon car, I couldn't enjoy it.
>> My
>> eyes automatically looked at every pedestrian, every automobile near the
>> clearance line, ever vehicle about to pull out in front of the streetcar,
>> every
>> switch point.  S--t.
>> 
>> 
>> I went over there once in the 1990s with a friend who had a little problem
>> with
>> his mouth.  He did not quite understand that Europeans are linguists
>> compared to
>> 
>> us, and in particular, people in minority language countries like Portugal
>> (or
>> Norway or Finland or Sweden or Denmark) will study English as their escape
>> language.  We were coming back from a tour of the car overhaul shop in
>> Lisboa
>> with a student motorman and her instructor.  My friend, a former motorman
>> in a
>> North American city,  was running at the mouth, commenting out loud on this
>> lady's abilities as an operator.  I was trying to signal him to shut up.  I
>> used
>> 
>> several signals ... the finger over the mouth, the hand over the mouth, the
>> finger drawn across the neck and finally, "Damn it all, Dick, shut your
>> f-u-c-k-i-n-g mouth."  Nothing worked.  He simply figured she didn't
>> understand
>> English.  Well, half way into town the car stopped.  The instructor got off
>> to
>> use the phone.  The lady turned around, winked !
>> at me.  Then she looked at my friend and said, "Does my performance meet
>> with
>> your lofty expectations for me?"  You could have scraped him off the
>> floor.
>> Literally.  He had a mini stroke later that day and collapsed on the street
>> the
>> next day.  Lesson ... do not assume because you are in a non English
>> speaking
>> country that people don't understand you.
>> 
>> 
>> Your interest in Lisboa seemed to be concentrated on the two axle cars.
>> 
>> The articulados were coming on line when I visited the city:
>> 
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gARMj2HfkKg&NR=1
>> 
>> Some of the earliest rail abandonments were caused by subway lines:
>> 
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSBE2zCMS8Q&NR=1
>> 
>> Lisboa may be the only remaining place in the world (not sure ... welcome
>> the
>> correction) where you can ride a counter-balance trolley line.  They are
>> called
>> Elvador or Elvadoros in Portuguese.  There are three in Lisboa, the Gloria,
>> the
>> Lavra and the Bica.
>> 
>> 
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgOX1cLOYRs&feature=related
>> 
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-zuQxRu3fc&feature=related
>> 
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T9LIza7INI
>> 
>> Carris also operates a completely vertical elevator to the top of the
>> mountain
>> but I cannot find any videos of it.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Feb 23, 2011, at 8:15 PM, Bill Robb wrote:
>> 
>>> How about Lisbon in the early 1990s before LRVs on Route 15?  There were
>> still
>> 
>> 
>>> 1906 vintage bogies on the flat lines and single truckers on numerous
>> hilly
>>> routes with gauntlet track, single track operation and much more.  Today
>> there
>> 
>> 
>>> are still single truckers, LRVs and a tram museum at Santo Amaro depot.
>>> 
>>> Line 25 at the Aquas Livres Aqueduct, 1996 or earlier.
>>> 
>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQyLxA7dZPo&p=5EE2361DE48E7CD6
>>> 
>>> Line 18 to Ajuda September 1991 (still running).
>>> 
>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQsoUECZCV8&p=5EE2361DE48E7CD6
>>> 
>>> Central and east end lines, September 1991
>>> 
>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88i2_bNdclE&p=5EE2361DE48E7CD6
>>> 
>>> Today on Tram 28 (runbys, window ride and cab ride).
>>> 
>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0ZNvZHWQ9g&p=5EE2361DE48E7CD6
>>> 
>>> Bill Robb
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Herb Brannon
> In Cuyahoga Valley National Park
> 
> 
>