The yard at the original PPF terminus at Boa Vista with Henschel 0-4-4-0 Mallet tank number E162 & Kessler 2-6-0T number E86 standing outside the shed on 1/10/1969.
Photo Mike Squire

The first narrow gauge line in Portugal was the 900mm gauge Companhia dos Caminhos de Ferro de Porto à Póvoa de Varzim e Familicão. It opened the line from Porto Boa Vista to Póvoa on 1st October 1875 with the branch across to Famalicão being opened throughout in June 1881.
Nearly 3 years passed before the second narrow gauge company, the Companhia do Caminho de Ferro Guimarães opened its line from Trofa to Guimarães in April 1884, with its extension on to Fafe eventually being opened in 1907.
Under government pressure the two companies merged at the beginning of 1927 to form the Companhia dos Caminhos de Ferro do Norte de Portugal. This resulted in the conversion of the line to Póvoa & Famalicão to metre gauge and construction of the link line from Senhora da Hora to Trofa which was opened in 1932. Work was also in hand at this time on an extension into central Porto which involved a new through station at Avenida da França alongside the old Boa Vista treminus & a tunnel through to the new terminus fronting the Praça de Trindade.
The final development of the metre gauge system took place after the creation of the CP in 1947 when the mixed gauge track between Trofa & Lousado was extended on to Famalicão which allowed the operation of some through circular services.
Steam operation of the services was phased out during the latter part of 1976 and through 1977 and replaced by a mixture of diesel locomotive & railcar diagrams with the locomotive workings being in turn phased out as more railcar sets became available. The more rural sections of the system were eventually closed with the line between Guimarães & Fafe being the first to go from 31st May 1986; to be followed by the section between Póvoa & Famalicão from 31st December 1995, although some services had not been running prior to this date. The next changes were brought about by the doubling of the Minho line & electrification through to Braga. Narrow gauge services from Porto to Guimarães were terminated at Trofa from 14th February 1998 & a temporary service provided on from Santa Tirso to Guimarães; the new broad gauge line to Guimarães already having been opened to Santa Tirso at this date. The first stage of the conversion of the Póvoa line to the standard gauge metro commenced with the closure of the section from Porto Trindade to Senhora da Hora from 28th April 2001 to allow work to commence. Closure of the lines on to Póvoa & Trofa for conversion took place from 29th June 2002, although the Trofa line was only converted as far as Maia. The final section of metre gauge in the Porto area was closed from 7th January 2003 to allow conversion work to proceed between Santa Tirso & Guimarães

The pictures in this gallery first portray the Póvoa line north from Porto Trindade then on to Familicão before returning to the Trofa link, the mixed gauge section of the Minho line, and finally the line to Guimarães & Fafe.

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