Colóquio Internacional no quadro dos 150 anos da inauguração do Caminho-de-ferro de Lisboa ao Carregado, sob a responsabilidade científica da Associação Internacional de História dos Caminhos-de-ferro em colaboração com o CEHCP


Railway Modernization: an historical perspective of the 19th and 20th centuries


When the European Commission liberalized the railway trade, it also emphasised the importance of trans-European railroad modernization. This should enable to transfer part of the road transportation to the railway in order to allow an improvement of passengers and cargo flows. This policy also had the aim of reducing the pollution levels in Europe.

A compared historical research about railway modernization should be kept up with the modernization of European railway's networks. Present day's debates led us to assume the relevance of this subject as the main theme of the Lisbon conference: an exploration of the several modernization processes that took place throughout the history of railways.

How important were these improvement processes through the years? Which obstacles have intervened in the railway modernization? Some of the stages have still occurred during the 19th century or in the beginning of the 20th century. These were the cases of the changeover of type, size and material of railroad tracks, as well as the introduction of new signalling systems or traffic management. Other phases came about between the two World Wars, like the introduction of the Taylor's model of management in the engines' and carriages' production and repairing, or the replacement of steam by diesel and electric power. More recent changes began to take place during the early 70's when high speed trains and cargo containers were introduced.

Technological innovation and the research that supported it derived from a range of teams who were integrated in different institutional environments. If we keep in mind the multiplicity of nationalities from which enterprises and technologies emerged from, it's possible to recognize the relevance of studying technological transference, as well as the responsibility of the leading enterprises in innovations' spreading. The role of those who were mediator's in this process, such as engineers or qualified workers, is also a relevant topic for this theme.

Sponsored by:
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia; CP - Comboios de Portugal; Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian; Fundação Luso-Americana para o desenvolvimento


With the support of the Secretaria de Estado dos Transportes


27 November 2006, Monday


9:00 - Dossiers

9:30 - Opening of the Conference

Welcome by the President of Comboios de Portugal or the State Secretary of Transports
Welcome by Luísa Tiago de Oliveira (CEHCP)
Opening of the conference by Michelle Merger (AIHCF)
Introduction to the subject of the conference by Magda Pinheiro

10:30 - Session 1: Modernization as a process
 
Augustus J. Veenendaal, Jr.: «Railway Modernization after the First World War in the Netherlands»
Bernd Kreuzer: «Modernizing the Austrian Railways after the Fall of the Habsburg Empire:Reorganization, Electrification and Coping with New Competitors»
Charles Loft: «Chromium Dreams: The political obstacles to railway modernization in Britain»

13:00 - Lunch at ISCTE

14:30 - Session 1 (cont.): Modernization as a process

Vasco Guimarães da Silva: «Railway development: the history of a reform à la Portugaise»
Ludovic Laloux: «Technological mutations of railways' fastening systems for the rails: a required modernization for an adjustment to the evolution of the market»
Albert J. Churella: «The Failure of Private Enterprise and the Role of the State in Railway Modernization: The Implications of the Pennsylvania Railroad for Modern European Railway Practice»

16:30 - Coffee break

17:00 - Session 2: Modernization as a result of technological transfers, failures and hesitations

Tomás Martínez-Vara / Francisco de los Cobos Arteaga: «Technological modernisation in networks with weak traffic flows. Safety in Iberian Peninsula railways during the XIX century»
A. Cardoso / M. P. Diogo: «From the École de Ponts et Chaussées to Portuguese Railways: The transfer of technological knowledge ant practices»
Boris Böttcher: «From the Steam-"Dragon" to the high-speed-Ice 1848-1998»



28 November 2006, Tuesday


9:00 - Session 2 (cont.): Modernization as a result of technological transfers, failures and hesitations
 
Reinhold Bauer: «The steam turbine locomotives of the Deutsche Reichsbahn. A failed innovation project of the interwar era»
Ralf Roth: «Delayed Modernisation - The Electrification of the German Railways»
Luís Lopes dos Santos «The introduction of Diesel traction, as modernisation element of Portuguese railways»

11:00 - Coffee break

11:30 - Portuguese Railway Archives
 
Rosa Gomes / Maria Andrade: «Comboios de Portugal»

13:00 - Lunch at ISCTE

14:30 - Session 3: Railways and the Modernization of Cities, workshops and voyagers

Colin Divall: «The modern passenger: constructing the passenger as consumer on Britain's railways, 1919-1939»
José Luis Lalana Soto / Luis Santos y Ganges: «Exploring the Modernizing Processes of Railway Workshop»
Rocío Robles Tardio: «Railway compartments and private domestic interiors: the places of the modern man»
João Castela Cravo: «Amadora, a town raised due to the railway»

17:00 - Coffee break

18:00 - Closing of the works

20:00 - Dinner



29 November 2006, Wednesday


9:00 - Intermodality in Lisbon: From Orient Station to the 25 April Bridge 



Registration Form


Railway Modernization: II Conference of IRHA
Lisbon ISCTE
27-28-29 November

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Registration - 60 Euros (including lunch)
Students - 10 Euros

Please send your registration to:
Centro de Estudos de História Contemporânea Portuguesa
Avenida das Forças Armadas
Edifício ISCTE
1649-026 Lisboa
Portugal
Phone: (+351) 217 903 094
Fax: (+351) 217 903 014
e-mail: cehcp@iscte.pt