Joaquin Lopez del Ramo photo
|
1501 on a special to Pocinho leaving Tua on April
24th, 1999. Joaquin Lopez del Ramo photo |
| 1507 takes a short nap in Barreiro, April 24th, 1996. I must tell,
this unit looked worst of all at that time. Rolf Stumpf photo |
 |
The 1500 class were introduced in 1948. 12 units were built and all are/were based at Barreiro. They kept a high profile until recently and were retired from scheduled passenger service on January 1st 2001. Before 1999 they could be found in any service in southern Portugal including Interregionals, Regionals, Suburbanos and freight. All RSC2's were rebuilt during the 1970s with 12-251C prime movers and are rated at 2000 HP.
During April 1998 1502, 1509 and 1511 were withdrawn and joined 1503, 1504, 1506 and 1508 in the scrapping line. This left only 1501 (last revision: Bar 4.98), 1505 (Bar 12.92), 1507, 1510 (Bar 12.96) and 1512 (Bar 1.94) on the active roster. CP needed spare parts to keep the rest their RSC fleet going...! So after all, at least some parts of the withdrawn units with live on for some time. No major overhauls were scheduled. 1507 and 1511 were used as shunters at Barreiro in 1998 and 1999 before they were finally stored. It is now told that the units are being retired in June after the last three 1500/20 soldiered on after the first retirement attempt in January 2001.
Darren Walker reports: During the Summer months 99 the remaining RSC-2 have settled down on their passenger only diagrams, the common workings being the Inter-Regionals (infrequent appearences) and Regional services between the Algarve/Alentejo to Barreiro, they are also common performers on the Suburban trains out of Barreiro to Setubal and Praias-Sado.
PTG tours made an ALCo 1500/20 farewell trip with 1510 in late March.
Darren Walker reports:
The ALCO Farewell started with the clean orange 1510 from the historic
city of Tomar down to Entroncamento then after running around we departed
north to the university city of Coimbra, however shortly after departing
from Entroncamento, 1510 suffered with what can only be described as loss
of power, moving at around 5 - 10 mph, blocking the main Porto - Lisboa
main line!!!! The driver shut down 1510 and restarted it and worked well
for the rest of the day! After running around at a wet Coimbra-B we set
off down to Serpins (after having a police escort over the street
tramway!) After arriving back at a now sunny Coimbra-B, 1510 ran round and
departed for Alfarelos and had a spirited run down the Linha do Oeste
before arriving at Lisboa Santa Apolonia late-evening.
March 2001 status:
| 1501 | serviceable |
| 1502 | O/S : dumped behind Barreiro depot |
| 1503 | scrapped |
| 1504 | scrapped |
| 1505 | O/S : dumped behind Barreiro depot |
| 1506 | scrapped |
| 1507 | O/S : dumped behind Barreiro depot |
| 1508 | O/S : dumped at the back of Barreiro works |
| 1509 | scrapped |
| 1510 | serviceable |
| 1511 | O/S : dumped behind Barreiro depot |
| 1512 | sold |
On January 1st 2001 the last RSC2 were officially retired from passenger service. 1510 and 1512 returned to Barreiro from the Algarve but 1501 and 1510 kept appearing with passenger trains as usual... The next "closing date" is now told to be the 10th of June - change of timetable.
| 1501 back in silver&green at Pinhal Novo was the 13.10 Beja -
Barreiro on the 8th May 1998. Barry Adams photo |
 |
Back to Portugal page
Last update 25.04.01