Museu Nacional Ferroviário do Entroncamento (Portugal)

This time the Railway Heritage Blog decided to make a virtual guided visit to the Portuguese National Museum of Entroncamento located in Santarém District. The guider is the Prof. Ana Cardoso de Matos of Évora University. She is member of the research center CIDEHUS - Centro Interdisciplinar de História, Culturas e Sociedades, board member of the IRHA - International Railway History Association, founding member of the AsIHF - Asociación Ibérica de Historia Ferroviaria and member of the editorial board of the Transportes, Servicios y Telecomunicaciones Magazine.

The original railway station date of 1862, but the whole infrastructure recived many improvements along the years. It became the most important railway station of the country in the XX century and became a part of the National Railway Museums of Portugal, which was created in 2005.

This visit is the episode number 28 of the Portuguese Tv programme “Visita Guiada” of RTP channel broadcasted on November 07, 2016. All the images used here were taken from the Portuguese National Railway Museum official website. (http://www.fmnf.pt/)

History

Along the visit the history of the Portuguese railway is described; the train importance to the technological, economic and cultural changes is mentioned many times. The arrival of this infrastructure meant the speed introduction and the start of the knowledge democratization. Even getting into the country 30 years after its development in England, the country delay had its reasons.

According to Prof. Cardoso, during the first decades of the 19th century, Portugal was affected by the French war and a civil war. Thus, the country did not have the political and economic stability required to get an infrastructure of this scale. Only during the 1840s, during the governance of Costa Cabral, it was created a Portuguese Public Work Company. Many industrials and important traders, like Eugenio de Almeida, got involved to this company, it was a very rich company constituted by big monopolies.

The Company was supposed to develop the roads country and to insert the railway, but this last task took some time to be achieved. Even concentrating the biggest capitalists, the company passed through a tough situation between 1849 and 1850, when it closed its door.

A year later, the Regeneration Government took place and started to provide some programs to regenerate the country. Some ministers were changed and, in 1852, the Public Work, Trade and Industries Ministry was created. The engineer Fontes Pereira de Melo was the head front, and like the usual engineers, he defended the technology progress, thus, he made some actions to enable the introduction of the railway into the country. The Tv show oppening phrase was “If I could, I would oblige the whole country travel by train during six months.”, written by him.

However, this position was not the same for everyone. Almeida Garret was against the railway because it could affects the country identity. Alexandre Herculano understood the progress that the railway could provide, but he was not totally in favor of it. Conde do Larradio thought it was too expensive. The Royal family was in favor. The queen D. Maria Pia was a foreigner, so she was in touch with this kind of transportation before, and, besides that, her sons gained a mini train to play with in the beginning of the 19th century, so they were attached to that idea too.

The first Portuguese branch connected Lisbon to Carregado. Marquesa de Rio Maior reported the first trip (1856) highlighting the chaos, the old machine could not support the whole train, so some wagons were left behind along the trip. Some years later other branches were built, one to Porto and another one until Spain.

The Exhibition

The visit started showing the D. Maria Pia wagon made in Belgium. It seems to be a carriage, and the professor explained its style as a transition between the old and the new world. Besides that, it was shown its fashion style conpatible to the royalty taste. The inside is covered by pledges velvet, embroidered flowers, a bedroom and plumbed water in a place reserved for the bathroom.

Next by this carriage there is the prince Don Carlos' carriage, a simple one, which he gained from his mother when he was 14 years old. This wagon has very different features from the first one. Two of the reasons for its clean style are: it was made for a young man and it was built in England (1877); thus it has slightly molded wood.

They passed by the D. Luis Locomotive too. Created in England, it was exposed in the Universal Exhibition in London, when it won a gold medal, and it got to Portugal in 1862.

During the visit we can notice the huge kind of exhibition this museum has. Signs, bulletins, magazines, touristic flyers, old tools…

The last wagon presented is a restaurant wagon created in 1970 to the presidential train.

The Railway and the Country

The railway opened doors to the construction of other kind of infrastructures, like the most famous bridges of the country, Maria Pia Bridge (1877), designed by Gustave Eiffel and the Luiz I Bridge, an amazing engineering work due to its interspace and structure. Both of them in Porto and well known in the international frame.

The engineering field was very influenced by the railway, many students were sent to other countries, mostly to the Parisian University Ponts et Chausses. During the 20th century some technical schools were created and even other industries started to choose their workers in these schools.

After an epidemic in 1913, the railway companies created sanatorium to take care of their workers and family. After the Second World War the companies were unified, which facilitated the creation of other social services to the workers. They were the pioneers of health care in the country. Egas Moniz, one of the railway doctors got a Nobel Prize. Where they did not have a medical center, they had medical wagons.

Even the Portuguese cultural habits changed after the development of the railway. The speed changed the landscape perception and inspired many artists like Eça de Quairoz. The first tourist train built was to Cascais (1926), thus from that moment on the families began to spend some time on the beach.

Final Considerations

The virtual visit guide was a nice experience, it showed the railway importance for the whole Portuguese country besides the frames of the physical museum. A part of the infrastructure is still working, but the museum seems to complement its current importance as an urban infrastructure. One day we will go to see it live. We will probably have other perceptions and catch much more information. If you already went there, share with us your experience.

If you liked and want to watch the visit, go to the link below. (We do not know until when this videa will be online.

http://www.rtp.pt/play/p2366/e258216/visita-guiada