February 24, 2013

0520 PORTUGAL (Lisbon) - Elevador da Glória


Elevador da Glória (the Glória Funicular) is a funicular that links Baixa (Restauradores Square) with Bairro Alto (Jardim / Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara), in Lisbon, and, according to the website cliqlisbon.com "is the most comfortable way to get to the interesting points of Lisbon located on the higher altitudes of the city and normally accessible only through the very steep streets." Operated by Carris (Companhia Carris de Ferro de Lisboa), it was opened to the public in 1885, at first as a water-powered system, replaced in 1886 by a steam-power one, and finally electrified in 1915 . In 2002 it was designated a National Monument, and transports annually over 3 millions of people.

The two identical carriages are numbered 1 and 2 and were built by the German company Maschinenfabrik Esslingen. They are composed of two wings of command (one on each end) and a passenger lounge with two bench seats backs to the windows, everything the same horizontal level - having a higher end (anterior downwards) and the other closer to the ground, such as Lift Lavra, which differs in many other funicular. The path has 265 m, in double track rail embedded in the pavement of streets, with a gauge of 90cm and central slot for cable connection.

About the stamp
About the stamp, issued with the occasion of the anniversary of 50 years from the fondation of ICS / GIS, I wrote here.

References
Elevador da Glória - Wikipedia
Elevador da Glória - cliqlison.com


sender: Marius Vasilescu
sent from Lisbon (Portugal), on 23.11.2012
photo: Alexander Bastan / 2012

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