Although the major part of the Corgo line has been closed since 1989, the section to Vila Real that remained until 2009 ran through the most dramatic landscape of the whole line. Here high above the Rio Corgo LRV 2000 railcar number 9501 forming the 14.06 Vila Real to Régua approaches the station at Povoacão on 25/3/2007.
Photo Tony Bowles
After several false starts it fell to the CF do Estado's Minho e Douro division to construct & operate the Corgo line. Work started in 1903 and the line opened to Vila Real in May 1906. Because of its mountainous nature, the line was mallet operated from the start, with the first 4 of what ultimately became 10 0-4-4-0 tank engines supplied by Henschel & Sohn for the opening. The remaining 6 were supplied the following year for the opening of line on to Pedras Salgadas and the anticipated opening of the first section of the Tamega line to Amarante. The extension on to Vidago opened in 1910 but political wrangling then delayed the opening of the final section into Chaves until August 1921. With the increasing line length & train weights, the first of the 2-4-6-0 mallet tanks arrived from Henschels in 1911 and gradually took over the Corgo line trains. The 0-4-4-0Ts were then used on the shorter line workings up until the formation of the CP in 1947, following which they were all soon transferred to Porto, where some had previously been on hire in any case.
The 2-4-6-0Ts had sole charge of traffic on the line for the next 30 years until full dieselisation achieved in fits and starts during 1978. From the mid 1980s the line was gradually run down in common with many of the narrow gauge lines. Both passenger services north of Vila Real and all freight services ceased from the beginning of 1990. By the spring of 2007 a motorway was virtually complete from Chaves to Régua & beyond, so transport in the Corgo & Tamega valleys has moved on. Services on the remaining section of line to Vila Real were suspended indefinitely from 29th March 2009 on safety grounds along with the service from Livração to Amarante
Plans existed from early in the 20th century for another metre gauge line south from Regua to connect with the broad gauge Beira Alta railway at Vila Franca das Naves, part of an ambitious scheme to provide an interconnecting railway network in the north of the country. Approval was eventually given to start work in 1920 but it was not until 1933 that the bridge over the Douro was completed with that over the Varosa up the side valley towards Lamego completed in 1932. Land in Lamego was allocated for a station and although the line was forecast to open in 1934 no buildings were ever constructed and the track was never laid. The project was finally abandoned during the second world war, with the bridge over the Douro being converted to road use in 1947.
The pictures in this gallery portray the line northwards from Régua through to Chaves both during the operating era & afterwards as far as the section north of Vila Real is concerned. The coverage between Régua & Vila Real does include quite a few pictures of the LRV railcar operations of recent years; as they like steam & diesel locomotives before them have now disappeared into history.
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