About 40 minutes from Lisbon, Portugal on the Sintra rail line you will find the resort town of Sintra and in Sintra you will find the Eletrico de Sintra once known as the Sintra Atlantico.
The elusive Eletrico de Sintra as it called today is a true piece of living history.At times in the past the line has shutdown for various reasons. A 14 km long 1000mm gauge tram line links Sintra with the Atlantic Ocean beach resort of Praia das Macas. The tram line is as it was in 1904: eight bench Brill open motor trams, gears growling as power is applied, flanges squealing around curves, hand brakes applied with a large silver brake handle, only blinds offer in-climate weather shelter, and un-welded track with rail joints every three metres or so, much as it was when the line opened.
Today the line serves to link the tourism of Sintra with the beaches of the ocean during high summer (which I would define as mid-July to mid-September). Trams generally run mid-July to September, Friday, Saturday and Sunday only. Trams ran every 60 minutes in 2015 with a one-way trip taking 45 minutes.
J G Brill supplied a 13 car order in 1904, consisting of four eight-bench open cars, four eight bench trailers, three closed motor cars and two closed trailers. The trams are only 6 feet, 6 inches wide, the same length as the wheelbase of Brill 21E trucks. The eight-bench open cars can probably hold about 30 people.
Riding on the front platform with the motorman heading uphill into the Sintra terminal, August 2014.
At the beach side terminal in Praca das Macas, August 2014.
Departing the Sintra terminal, September 2012.
I believe the prototype for the red and yellow Bachmann G scale open trolleys is the Sintra open trolleys.
