{"id":1372,"date":"2022-01-18T12:49:38","date_gmt":"2022-01-18T12:49:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ernstkers.nl\/blog\/?p=1372"},"modified":"2025-10-19T12:58:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T12:58:10","slug":"the-lisboa-cable-trams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ernstkers.nl\/blog\/the-lisboa-cable-trams\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lisboa cable trams"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a>
Cable tram no.4 of the Estrela line. The photo was taken in 1913 on the last day the line was in operation.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Lisboa is built on hills. Mule or horse trams could only go up the steep gradients with the use of extra animals. As the animals were the largest cost of the whole tram operations, it was a too costly affair to have many or long steep inclines within the network. In 1873 in San Francisco a system was introduced employing a cable running continuously in a conduit below the track, which could be picked up or released by a gripper with metal jaws suspended from the car and passing through a slot in the road. Many such systems were built in America and other countries. Also in Lisboa three cable tramlines were constructed, all with a gauge of 800 mm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Estrela<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Nova Companhia de Ascencores Mechanicos de Lisboa<\/em> (NCAML) which operated already the Lavra and Gloria funiculars<\/a>, opened its first cable tramline on 15 August 1890. The route was from Largo de Cam\u00f5es via Rua do Loreto, Largo de Calhariz, down the steep (12% over about 200 m) Cal\u00e7ada do Combro, Rua dos Poias de S\u00e3o Bento and up the steep (10% over about 500 m) Cal\u00e7ada da Estrela to Largo da Estrela. The length was 1.7 km. The depot and winding house were located at Estrela. The installations came from the Maschinenfabrik Esslingen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Maschinenfabrik Esslingen works photo of a grip car with trailer combination as used on the Estrela line.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Photos, included a works photo of Esslingen, show open grip cars with closed trailers. There were six of these combinations with capacity for 8 on the grip car and 24 in the trailer. Most of these combinations were replaced in 1896 by larger closed cars which were operating as single units with the gripman on the front platform. They looked quite similar to the trailers but had five windows instead of four. The line was double track over most of its length, but single track in the narrow Rua dos Poiais de S\u00e3o Bento. The system used a side slot in the left rail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Estrela with in front of the church an open electric tram and at the right cable tram no.2. The depot of the cable trams was just behind the building visible in the background<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The trams were unidirectional which meant that they had to be turned at the termini. At Cam\u00f5es was a turning loop in the north-east corner of the square. The tramcars went through the loop by gravity taking advantage of the local existing light incline. At Estrela a turntable was used that also was connected to the spur into the depot.
The cable tramline, nicknamed “Maximbombo”, was closed on 3 July 1913. On 1 March 1914 the replacing electric tramline 28 was opened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gra\u00e7a<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Gra\u00e7a cable tram at the Arco de Santo Andr\u00e9<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Gra\u00e7a cable tramline was opened by the NCAML on 26 March 1893. It had its downtown terminus on Largo Fernandes da Fonseca where now is the northern end of Martim Moniz at the corner of Rua da Palma. The about 1000 metre long route, with for over 400 m a gradient of \u226510% and an average gradi\u00ebnt of almost 7%, went up through Rua dos Cavaleiros, Cal\u00e7ada de Santo Andr\u00e9, passing under the Arco de Santo Andr\u00e9, up the Cal\u00e7ada da Gra\u00e7a to terminate at the north end of Largo da Gra\u00e7a. Depot and winding house were in Rua da Gra\u00e7a, almost 200 m from the terminus. The line had double track, but interlaced at the narrowest points. The system used a central slot and the cars were bi-directional. The two tight curves at the top of the Cal\u00e7ada de Santo Andr\u00e9 and the bottom of the Cal\u00e7ada da Gra\u00e7a couldn’t be passed with use of the relative fast moving main cable. On this section an auxiliary slow moving cable was used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Gra\u00e7a cable tram no.2 on Largo Fernandes de Fonseca, about 1908<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Photos show two types of cars. The originals were closed cars with five or six top curved windows at each side, longitudinal benches and roofs with a clerestory. After 1897 also a half open type with cross-benches and flat roofs was used. The line was closed on 25 May 1913. The Arco de Santo Andr\u00e9 was demolished to give space to the replacing electric tramline, opened on 1 January 1915. It didn’t go up all the way to Gra\u00e7a but connected at the top of the Cal\u00e7ada de Santo Andr\u00e9 with the already existing short branch at S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 of the electric line via Rua do Limoeiro and Escolas Gerais to Gra\u00e7a.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Gra\u00e7a cable tram no.7 on Largo da Gra\u00e7a<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It’s unknown how many cars were available for the NCAML cable tram lines, but after they were closed (Gra\u00e7a 25 May 1913 and Estrela 3 July 1913), there was an advertising of the NCAML in the Diario de Not\u00edcias of 8 July 1913 offering for sale 13 closed and several open cars. The ad said they were suited for use as e.g. beach house or guards shelter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S\u00e3o Sebasti\u00e3o<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The third cable tramline, the ascensor de S\u00e3o Sebasti\u00e3o, was the sole realised line of the Companhia de Via\u00e7\u00e3o Funicular<\/em> (CVF). The line was opened on 15 January 1899. The downtown terminus was on Largo de S\u00e3o Domingos aside to the Teatro Dona Maria II. From there it followed the route Ruas Portas de Santo Ant\u00e3o – S\u00e3o Jos\u00e9 – Santa Marta – S\u00e3o Sebasti\u00e3o da Pedreira, with the terminus on the Largo de S\u00e3o Sebasti\u00e3o da Pedreira. The winding house and the depot were just across the Estrada de Circunvala\u00e7\u00e3o (now Rua Marques de Fronteira) about 200 meter from the terminus. The length of the line was about 2.6 km and it had double track except for a short section in Rua de S\u00e3o Jos\u00e9 with interlaced tracks. A side slot in the left rail was used for the cable and the cars were bidirectional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Drawing of a S\u00e3o Sebasti\u00e3o cable tram (CCFL)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Although no photos are known, it appears there were on the moment of opening in 1899 four open cross-bench cars with six benches. Two closed cars were added to the fleet in the first half of 1900. All six cars were locally built. While both the Estrela and Gra\u00e7a lines had long gradients of at least 10% over large parts of their routes, the S\u00e3o Sebasti\u00e3o line did only have a few short sections of about 7% but was for about half its length close to only 2 to 3 % and had no gradient at all for the rest of the line. During its existence the line suffered major technical problems causing several times complete shutdowns. On 3 January 1901 the cable broke. The CVF was also financially broken. The tramcars remained paralysed on the street for many months but the line was never reopened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lisboa is built on hills. Mule or horse trams could only go up the steep gradients with the use of extra animals. As the animals were the largest cost of the whole tram operations, it was a too costly affair to have many or long steep inclines within the network. In 1873 in San Francisco […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,224,134],"tags":[161,108,133,141,162,30,14,94],"class_list":["post-1372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-lisboatrams","category-trams","tag-cable-tram","tag-history","tag-lisboa","tag-lisbon","tag-maximbombo","tag-portugal","tag-tram","tag-tramline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ernstkers.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ernstkers.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ernstkers.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ernstkers.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ernstkers.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1372"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.ernstkers.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3855,"href":"https:\/\/www.ernstkers.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1372\/revisions\/3855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ernstkers.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ernstkers.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ernstkers.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ernstkers.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}