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MEANING OF THE TUA VALLEY LINE IN THE CONTEXT OF 

PORTUGUESE WOLFRAM

Maria Otília Pereira Lage

PAPER (pdf) 

Abstract:

"I went to Porto, lead ore to sell

Went down by train

Up by Car

I do not care "

This popular quatrain, sung in Carrazeda Ansiães in the 1940s, is taken as "evidentiary paradigm" of the central argument of this paper whose conceptual and methodological framework is that of micro-history based on oral sources.

Tram / trains and mining / minerals remained a closely related technical-economic and socio-historical, since the dawn of the current world economy. Will have such historical evidence found at the Tua Line with the transport of tungsten Montes, especially in the 1940s in which this metal ore, highly profitable commodity, then explored in hundreds of mines and alluvial deposits of the northern and central Portugal, by large segments of the population governed by Portuguese businessmen and hundreds of domestic and foreign dealers, was responsible for the Portuguese trade surplus?

The Tua Line (135 km narrow gauge), Portuguese audacious feat of engineering, was inaugurated in 1887 (section Foz-Tua to Mirandela, 55 km) and in 1906, arrived in Bragança (80 km-stretch Mirandela Bragança) where ever graduating to Puebla de Sanabria (Spain) as expected. A pressure group of landowners, which challenged the diversion of the main routes to the Beira Alta line managed to leverage its success as well in connection with the Line of Douro.

A few years before, had been registered / concession in Ribeira, district of Bragança, in 1868/1871, the first mining of tungsten / tungsten, metal ore twentieth century, for its many technological and industrial applications, of which Portugal was the main European producer. Tras-os-Montes, thus became, symbolically, a pioneer in this ore mining and marketing of high strategic potential, the "black gold" of intense exploitation during the World War II, fought over by two warring blocs, Allies and Axis. In 1930-1940, the geographic area of the tungsten / tungsten was already served by railways that served the flow of ore, to Porto and Lisbon, interfaces are exported internationally, in addition to its transport, better known by means of trucks, vans , light cars, animals and vehicles craft. Thus, a significant portion of mining production transmontana, would be transported to the Port, along the lines of the Douro, Tua and Sabor. By that time, when the Portuguese railways have lived a situation of crisis for lack of fuel and competition from road transport, the Tua Valley Line, transportation of passengers and growing outlet for agricultural products transmontanos was target of several repairs and his holding passed to the CP.

In this historical context, what the economic and socio-cultural of the Tua Line in local and regional effects of national and global scale?

Keywords: Regional History / Line of the Valley of Tua / Rail / Tungsten

C. V.:

Maria Otília Pereira Lage

Recent Position: Teacher of Universidade Lusófona do Porto and researcher of  Citcem - University of Porto.

Institutional Adress:. Universidade Lusófona do Porto R. Rua de Augusto Rosa 24, 4000 Porto, Telephone: 808 200 739

Adress: Urbaniz. Mãos-à-Obra, Lot 1e Hab. 11, 4435 Rio Tinto, Teleph. 229721283; tel. 919244840, otilialage@sapo.pt

Academic degree: Postdoctoral in Historical Sociology, CES, Universidade de Coimbra • Ph.D. in Modern and Contemporary History, and Master's degree in History of the Populations, Universidade do Minho • Degree in History in UPorto