European Railroad Discussion > Porto Trams: Line 18, up the hill into the city

After covering the riverside line 1 of Porto's trams, now let's see some photos of line 18.
(The line 1 thread is here: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?17,4747584 -- in fact, there's a line 18 car there, too.)
This line links the Carmo place in the western central area of the city to the riverside part of Massarelos. There it connects to line 1, and that's also where the depot, the maintenance shops and the museum are.
After a rather steep climb, the line forms a loop around several blocks and in the middle of that loop, it meets the other remaining line (22), which forms another loop through the city's center.
When I visited, in the wintertime, the line ran every 30 minutes, serviced by one of the Brill type single truck cars (some rebuilt in the late 30s/early 40s, some original). These cars are still quite authentic and not as strongly rebuilt as, for example, the Lisbon trams, the only visible modernization is that they have been retrofitted with magnetic track brakes to ensure braking on the steep parts of the lines.

Picture 1: the sun sets over the Atlantic ocean, and before the backdrop of the Arrábida bridge, a line 18 tramcar has gotten its trolley pole turned at Massarelos and is waiting for the connecting car of line 1, before it will start its journey up the hill (2/7/2019).

Picture 2: In front of the museum/depot building, which formerly housed the electric power plant for the tram system, another Brill-type car waits for passengers to board (2-20-2017). S.T.C.P. is the abbreviation of 'society of collective transports of Porto' (in Portuguese).

Picture 3: A few minutes later, this car turns left and leaves the riverside tracks of line 1 (there's a daylight view of that spot in the line 1 thread.)

More to come...
 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/16/19 09:37 by sys3175.

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In the lower part of line 18, the line truly runs as a street car, because there was no room to construct a separately running single track, which Porto's city government chose to do whenever possible. So, there's double track street running at first, before the tracks turn out sideways (protected by traffic lights) and the line continues uphill. All cars shown are Brill type 2-axle cars built in Porto's workshops around 1940.

4: Tram car coming upwards before the turnout, and...
5: ...grinding uphill in the going away shot (2/1/2019). There are two overhead wires here, one for each direction.
6: Interior of a Line 18 car. Many motormen like to stand while driving (2/20/2017).

There's going to be more...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/16/19 09:40 by sys3175.

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At the Carmo place (named after the Carmelite nunnery), Line 18 reaches its end and connects to the inner-city line 22. It's a pedestrianized zone there, between the monastery, the main University building and a park (im my planned follow-up thread of line 22, you'll see more of this).

7: Lines 18 and 22 have their scheduled meet at Carmo to ensure the connection (2/2/2019).

After this, Line 18 continues on it's loop and goes down the same way to get back to the riverside at Massarelos.

8: Tramcar #213 arriving back at Massarelos.
9: Detail of the Brill-type truck of #213 (both 2/20/2017).

So, that's the end of the line for now. I'd like to thank you all for the kind words at the line 1 thread, and if you think about visiting Porto, don't think again. It's a very hospitable city, safe, people are friendly, many speak English, the food is excellent, it's not very expensive and there are lots of things to see and do even if you don't really care about vintage tramways. The scenery is great, there are lush parks and gardens, you can take a train into the countryside, or relax at the beach. The only drawback is that it tends to rain a lot, but then, you can go visit a museum or a port wine lodge...

Thank you all for looking!


 

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Brings back some fine memories. Visited Porto in 2009 and rode these lines. Along the river line someone parked a car too close to the tracks and we had to wait for them to return before proceeding. Took maybe a 15 minute wait. Driver of tram said it happens all of the time.

Nice series.  Thanks.

The San Francisco Municipal Railway has ex-Porto #189 which has run as part of the Historic Trolley Fleet, on their routes "E" and "F".  I believe it is undergoing some restoration work at the moment. 
 

Really great set of photos, particularly #s 1,4, and 5. 

Thanks for sharing these,

Rich

Very interesting.