European Railroad Discussion > Along the Douro River in Portugal: Day One

My Portugal adventure began at the current end of the Douro Valley line of the Comboios de Portugal (CP) at Pocinho. This line used to extend all the way to Salamanca, Spain and there used to be a meter-gauge line originating here to the northeast. Threatened with closure at one point, this line is seeing extensive upgrading and hosts five trains a day, each way, between Porto and Pocinho.

1. Our tour group waits at the well-kept station in Pocinho for the arrival of the train that originated at the São Bento station in Porto.

2. While I had done a little research prior to the trip, I was not prepared to see a train with a vintage diesel, in the classic CP scheme, with a short string of vintage carriages. Here it is arriving and passing the freight house. Does anyone wonder where the Burlington Northern got the idea for their broad, diagonal nose stripes?

3. The 1400-class diesels are of English Electric design and were built in 1967-1969! Presumably rebuilt at least once along the way, they appeared to be well cared for. Note just to the left, the end of a meter-gauge 2-4-6-0T steam locomotive turning to rust. These lines operated with steam into the early 1970s.

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4. Evidence of coming tie replacement on this broad-gauge line. The rock cliffs were also being stabilized as shown in this image.

5. Crossing one of the many bridges on the line along the Douro River. Interesting tie-downs on each tie.

6. Neither was I prepared for the level of scenery on this line, particularly on the Upper Douro. It reminded me at times of the Thompson River canyon in western Canada, running along rock ledges with many tunnels.

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7. Several of these old freight houses remain along the line.

8. Later that day I am back at the station for photography. Here a westbound train arrives at the station in Regua. The station was closed for remodel and the ticket office was in a modular-type temporary(?) building nearby.

9. The same train departing and showing the mixed consist of two vintage carriages in fresh CP red and white, a vintage carriage in heritage CP blue, and one stainless carriage (built in Portugal in 1972 under license with the Budd Company of Philadelphia, PA, USA).

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10. A going away shot of the westbound train. The sign at the left describes the infrastructure improvement program that will electrify the line from Marco de Canaveses to Regua that will allow the retirement of the current DMUs used on that segment.

11. This shot was high on my list and taken from what I named the pedestrian bridge of death because it was old, steep, narrow, and a bit scary. The bonus was that the eastbound train showed up with the blue CP heritage unit leading.

12. And here is one of the aforementioned DMU sets arriving into Regua.

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13. Later that same day, the blue CP heritage unit returns from Pocinho. The long tiled-roof building is the former freight house, now home to restaurants and boutiques.

14. A roster shot of the 1400-class diesel in the blue heritage scheme.

15. An overview of Regua (from the pedestrian bridge of death). Note the meter-gauge 2-4-6-0T steamer rusting away. Just out of view to the left, that is a dual-gauge turntable. And a little bit around the corner past the big highway bridge is where the meter-gauge Corgo line diverged northward along the Corgo River.

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Excellent shots, all of them!

I rode those trains in 1980 and it was the same EE road switchers and coaches.  Amazing.  

All great pictures.

The last time I went bashing over there in 2003, we had a Portuguese Wardrobe (1426) on the overnight to Faro.

We were expecting a 1931 class loco (very, very noisy) but got lots of whistling instead!

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