European Railroad Discussion > Lisbon Portugal freight?

Good evening.

I'll be in Lisbon next week for work, and potentially have some time free on Thursday or Friday.  Is anyone by chance familiar with freight operations around the city?  Research I've done indicates Medway has a terminal at Bobadelo.  I see a passenger station there, but am unsure how much from the freight terminal would actually pass there.  There is also another station to the north, Santa Iria, which looks like it may potentially get traffic headed into and out of Bobadela if the general traffic flow is from the north.

I'm open to other suggestions if anyone has anything to offer.  I would prefer to stay relatively close to Lisbon but would consider somewhere I could go via passenger train, as I will not have a car.  As always, any input is greatly appreciated.

Mike Derrick
 

There were a couple of articles about Portugal in Today's Railways Europe last year. IIRC the ports of Setubal and Sines, both south of Lisbon, are originating points for freight. Setubal is relatively easy to get to, it's immediately south of Lisbon over the Tagus bridge by Fertagus train. Sines is further south and I think it's freight only. Trains heading north (towards Porto) or east (towards Spain) pass through Entroncamento, a major junction 107 kms north east of Lisbon, that might be worth a look. Plenty of trains stop there.

ShortlinesUSA Wrote:
> I'm open to other suggestions if anyone has
> anything to offer.

Well, the first suggestion that comes to mind is to get your employer to send you to Sweden so you can visit Hallsberg.  But for this time of year Portugal sounds like a pretty good choice.

I.  In addition to Medway, take a look at Takargo  [ takargo.pt ].  Their website shows them still operating ex-CP MLW's, inter alia.  They have maps showing each line haul;  you have to select the commodity, then the route.  But they are being bought out by Captrain/SNCF.......

II.  I second the suggestion for Entroncamento for a number of reasons:
   A.  Medway appears to have a large shop facility there, as does CP itself;  there's a very large roadway depot there too.  Take a look at some satellite photos.
   B.  There's a nice footbridge over everything -- and it leads to the National Rwy Museum, which apparently is now open every day except Monday, 10 to 6.
   C.  Trains from the south, which is still not electrified, have to enter or pass through the station to reverse to go north.  Some of the Takargo runs pass through here.

Have fun !

SZ

 

Thank you both for the responses.  Entroncamento does look like the place to go.  I even thought to myself-- "Well, if nothing else, there's a museum."

SZ, I wish I had that level of sway in my destinations.  I'll go where they send me, and will like it (or not). ;-p

Mike
 

ShortlinesUSA Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thank you both for the responses.  Entroncamento
> does look like the place to go.  I even thought
> to myself-- "Well, if nothing else, there's a
> museum."
>
> SZ, I wish I had that level of sway in my
> destinations.  I'll go where they send me, and
> will like it (or not). ;-p

Entronc was a very busy place when I went (albeit 20 odd years ago). If you can stay over a night there’s a cool hotel on the square outside the station.

If you have time the ride up to Covilha is fantastic as the line follows the Rio Tejo for a section.

Unfortunately the trains are not now in the hands of the outrageous 1931 class diesel locos any more. They were arguably the loudest engines in passenger service in Europe at the time.

Englishman in America
>
> Mike
>  

Posted from iPhone

I spent about 6 hours at Entroncamento today, riding the CP Intercity service in both directions. A very pleasant ride, and second class was fine for the one hour journey (at least for me).

Definitely a worthwhile visit for freight fans.  I did not get a chance to walk through the museum, but it looks like the grounds and collection is extensive.  Very few people were walking around through there, and it was not clear to me where the entrance was looking from the pedestrian bridge.  Most gates into the facility were closed.

If anyone is looking to visit for freight photography, morning was definitely busier, and the sun favors this time of day for moves out of the north end.  Yard shunting seems to be primarily at the north end of the yard, as well.  Things were nearly dead for freight by mid afternoon.  I only saw one freight that went through the station and continued toward Lisbon without going into the freight yard during my entire visit.  Freight movements to and from the south (direction of Lisbon) seemed to outnumber movements out of the north end of the yard.  That said, the photography at the north end of the yard was plentiful, and you could move around between the pedestrian bridge and station platforms with ease. 

I also took a walk over to the automobile bridge at the north throat of the yard when I saw the departure of an intermodal train was imminent to get a different photo angle.  That was a good move that also netted an inbound intermodal train from the direction of Porto, as well as a diesel hauled freight (tank wagons) from the line coming in from the east.  The bridge has sidewalks and pedestrians use them; however, they are quite narrow and not really conducive to staying for a very long time, as people cannot get around you without stepping into the street.  I didn't feel unsafe with the traffic going by, but did feel a bit bothersome to pedestrians.  The sidewalk on the north side of the bridge is used much less, and I opted to move over there if I could when pedestrians approached on the south walk.

It'll be quite awhile before I have photos to share, as I still use 35mm slide film, and send it away for processing once I have a handful of rolls.

As always, the assistance of the forum members here made this all possible, and is greatly appreciated.