European Railroad Discussion > The CP in Coimbra (2): Coimbra B.

    Coimbra B. is located on the Lisbon - Oporto main line, about 2000 m north from the town station.  It was also connected to town by the tram system from 1911 until that line succumbed to a road improvement project in 1954;  I walked it one way.  I have been unable to find out exactly what the "B" stands for;  J. H. Price refers to it as Coimbra Junction, which is a good title.  My guess is that it is "bifurcacáo" after the French usage;  this would seem especially logical if there were a control point there before the station was built.  [ Incidentally, one translation of junction into Portuguese is entroncamento, so clearly another word was in order;  and some touristy publications now refer to the town station as Coimbra A ! ].

1)  A general view looking at the north exit;  a Lisbon - Oporto express behind a 2550 class has stopped, and a dmu is moving into a Coimbra-side platform to form the shuttle to town.

2)  One of the ten English Electric diesels, Class 1800, basically a BR class 50 simplified for export.

3)  Another EE product, the class 1400, or its license-built version, towing a dmu set on the main;  these were essentially BR Class 20's uprated and of course larger.  The first ten were built in the UK, the remaining 57 in Portugal.

To be continued......

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4 - 5)  There was a nice bridge on the main line just south of the station;  I had to wait a while, but I did get a pair of passenger trains, one local, one regional.  The use of the most modern motive power on trains composed of ancient rolling stock, or conversely steam with stainless cars was quite common in my experience.
    The geography in the bridge area has since changed out of all recognition since my visit.

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Very interesting photos and narratives.  Thanks for your posting.
ALLEN

6)  A typical older coach, though with corridor access to the lavatory

7)  A lineup of older stock, the yellow first class stripes having been applied but with little other changes over the years.  The wonderful teak composite is still vacuum braked, and note the heating arrangement below the buffer beam -- obviously for a mild climate !

8)  The builders' plate of that composite.  Bacalan -- one of the best known French coach builders.

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9)  One of the earlier coaches built by Sorefame in Portugal under Budd license;  this car probably ran in the Sud Express from time to time in its earlier years.  Note that it's not air conditioned.

10) One of the later products, and second class.

This concludes my 1973 visit to Coimbra and environs.  I enjoyed my look back, and hope fellow TOérs did also.

Best, SZ

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Excellent set, thanks. Were those DMUs in 1 and 3 built by Allan of Rotterdam? They look very similar to a metre gauge railcar I rode from Espinho to Sernada da Vouga in 1981?

Yes, they were built by Allan & Co.;  here's a view of the meter gauge version at Oporto.  They had numbers in the 300 series [ 301 - 319 ? ] that duplicated their broad gauge brothers [ 301 - 325 ], just with an E prefix.  CP steam locos were the same way.

Best, SZ

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