Prototype A few photos from otherwhere

Neil

Western Thunderer
Intrigued and baffled. The paving looks Portuguese, the poster on the wall might imply Spain or a vineyard.
 

Richard Gawler

Western Thunderer
I think the building is old and is now a museum, but not dedicated to the tramway. The rails are a modern installation along the route of a lost tramway.

So, perhaps a local museum, housed in a former tramway building, and located in Portugal?
 

simond

Western Thunderer
I think the building is old and is now a museum, but not dedicated to the tramway. The rails are a modern installation along the route of a lost tramway.

So, perhaps a local museum, housed in a former tramway building, and located in Portugal?

Yes, old
Not strictly a museum, certainly not tramway
Rails not modern
Yes, Portugal

Still pretty warm
But not hot…
 

Richard Gawler

Western Thunderer
Certainly not a tramway, and no flangeways either. I suggest the two rails are not part of a transport system at all but are marking some kind of boundary. So my new guess is, there is a water service pipe below the ground between them. The rails show maintenance crews where to open up the ground.
 

Richard Gawler

Western Thunderer
I have never been to Portugal but I have looked at dozens of photos in the last few days. I am still baffled so I shall withdraw now, knowing it looks like a lovely place with some particularly good driving roads.
 

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
I have seen and read somewhere some seafront grand hotels built halfway or at top of hills also included a horse drawn or electric tramways to convey their guests and luggage from the bottom entrance gates of the hotel grounds to the hotel building.
 

Dog Star

Western Thunderer
I have seen and read somewhere some seafront grand hotels built halfway or at top of hills also included a horse drawn or electric tramways to convey their guests and luggage from the bottom entrance gates of the hotel grounds to the hotel building.
Somewhat similar to the goods "lift" up the side of the rock upon which sit Mont St. Michel.
 

simond

Western Thunderer
Ok, I’ll put you all out of your misery

It’s in the Taylor’s Port House on the south bank of the Douro in the city of Oporto. I wasn’t able to establish a provenance but it appeared to stretch up from what is now “WOW” (World of wines) to the main sheds where the barrels are stored for aging. My surmise is that a horse tramway existed for the purpose of bringing the wine barrels up from the river to the shed.

No cigars, but I think a round of Port is in order :)

More photos of Porto to follow.

Sadly, I didn’t get good photos to demonstrate, but the funicular just inland of the famous Dom Luis 1 bridge is a tad unusual, it changes gradient a little less than half way up - it’s around 45 degrees at the bottom, and more like 15 at the top.

The bridge is actually quite scary if you’re not keen on heights….


The funicular appears in the Wikipedia photo
 

simond

Western Thunderer
IMG_7777.jpeg
Classic street tram - still running but the city is pretty dug-up at present as they’re extending the metro, so limited in services and routes
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Booking hall at Main Station. Impressive architecture…
IMG_7785.jpeg
And ceramics

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Lots of ceramics

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And trains!
 
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simond

Western Thunderer
IMG_7788.jpeg
An EMU, apologies, no more detail at present.

IMG_7789.jpeg
Booking hall seen from platforms. It’s lovely.

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Not sure why a crowned, throned king is the obvious decoration for a terminus, but…

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Obviously a maritime nation, the locos have port & starboard buffers…

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Top of the cliff above the funicular

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View from the Dim Luis bridge

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Metro on the bridge

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Trying to capture the steepness of the funicular

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40, maybe 45 degrees

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An old street tram point, just outside the upper station
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
Right I think I can add a bit here. There was on the south bank of the Douro in Porto a broad gauge rack railway, the Elevador de Gaia which linked the main line at Villa Nova de Gaia to the quayside on the Douro. It's use was primarily for the port wine traffic and as far as I can tell from the indistinct map I have it ran past Taylors Port House and WOW. The line was loco worked initially by a pair of 0-4-0s built by Kessler of Esslingen, supplemented by a Borsig in 1906 and another Borsig in 1921 which effectively replaced the original pair. Apparently passengers were carried until 1906 and regular services finished in the late thirties but may have seen occasional use after that. The quayside lines were lifted in 1958 and the rack section in 1960. Most of this information has been gleaned from an LRTA publication The Tramways of Portugal but I've found one photo on the internet here.
 
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