Wheels of history turn in Lisbon's elevadores

LISBON (Reuters Life!) - Old brass relays set off bright sparks, electricity hums and creaking capstans pull the cables of Lisbon's 106-year-old Santa Justa street lift, whose engine room looks like the laboratory from a Frankenstein film.

A few hundred meters from the neogothic iron tower of Santa Justa, clumsy cable cars on distinctive asymmetrical chassis crawl up and down steep cobbled streets, clanging and with bells ringing, as they have been doing for more than a century.

This summer is a rare period when Lisbon's four "elevadores" are all working simultaneously after repairs and urban works.

Different in shapes but serving one function -- simplifying access to the upper town in the hilly Portuguese capital -- Lisbon's street elevators are national monuments. The motors and most moving parts date back to early 1900s when the machines swapped steam for electricity.

But they are more than just functioning museum pieces or charming tourist attractions.

City dwellers who work in the upper town still hurry to catch them in the morning to avoid a tiring hike up the cobbled pavement and to save their soles and heels. Riding an antique item doesn't bother them, as long as it keeps working.

"It's good, but when it breaks down, I miss it," said Audete Sirodo, a 61-year-old secretary, stopping briefly by the brass "National Monument" plaque of Lavra funicular after making sure the yellow carriage was still warming up for its morning ride.

"It had to be repaired twice over the past year or so, and walking this route on foot is very exhausting," she said.

Later in the day, the stern faces of Lisbonites on their way to work are replaced with carefree camera-toting tourists. They cram the wooden benches of the funiculars, whose lower end suspension is made much bulkier to eliminate leaning.

"It's quite amazing, you can see this is all authentic old stuff, it's history, wheels of history," said Paul Marano, a tourist from Chicago, after snapping a picture of the shining polished brake wheel of the Gloria funicular.

The funiculars are two tram-like carriages, or cable cars, linked via a steel cable going through a giant pulley, so the carriage going down lifts the other one using only minimum additional effort, applied via an electric motor.

The towering Santa Justa has two separately operated wooden lift cabins with huge brass switches and knobs. Tourists besiege it all day to get a glimpse of the city and the Tagus river from the top terrace, 45 meters (148 feet) above the ground.

"The mechanisms that were installed more than 100 years ago are functioning here, so in fact it's a live museum that is being used here by our clients daily," said Elio Serra, director of Carris public transport company in charge of the elevators.

Maintaining these rarities in working order to transport thousands of passengers a day -- Santa Justa alone moves over 3,000 in 200 rides -- has a price tag of nearly half a million euros ($717,300) per year, and requires daily checks of cables and motors, as well as manual lubrication of moving parts.

"Modern elevators would need maybe a fifth of that amount for maintenance," Serra said.

"But as a Lisbonite I know we have to preserve these historic pieces ... And it is satisfying to take care of a means of transport that represents not just mobility, but also brings satisfaction and good emotions, a live museum exhibit as it is."

(Editing by Paul Casciato)