Seeing locomotives, wagons, and passenger cars rescued is synonymous with the fact that these railroad assets were lucky not to have been reduced to scrap metal somewhere in the country.
To this day, railway-related assets remain abandoned in remote areas, completely destroyed, and “forgotten” even by government agencies and railway managers. When remembered, it is common to be dismantled with a blowtorch and literally turned into trash.
However, there are also examples of locomotives and rolling stock that have managed to be preserved after their actual journey through the railroads and states. Brazil’s railway past has been marked by bankruptcies, takeovers, mergers, and incorporations of companies by the government, often resulting in gridlock in areas served by the railway or accelerated relocation of trains to areas still served by branch lines or main lines after their closure.
One example is Fepasa (Ferrovias Paulistas SA), which originated from five struggling railway companies: Mogiana, Paulista, Sorocabana, Araraquara, and São Paulo Minas.
One example is the Garden Car, which currently operates in Trem das Aguas between San Lorenzo and Soledade de Minas in Minas Gerais.
The bridge, made from an old platform wagon, already had three other destinations before accommodating tourists in the interior of Minas Gerais. It was originally used on the tourist railway between Pedregullo and Refina in the interior of São Paulo, but when it was discontinued it was transported to Cruzeiro in Vale do Paraiba and operated in Torrem da Serra.
However, the service was also discontinued and the trains were redirected to Passa Cuatro (MG) for service on the Mantiqueira Mountains Railway. It did not stay there, but was taken to San Lorenzo, where it was restored. It is currently operated by Trem das Águas.
The story is made even more iconic by the steam locomotive, a classic steam locomotive that appeared on the Leopoldina Railway. It passed through eight other locations, including Rio, Minas, and São Paulo, before transporting tourists on the Mantiqueira Cordillera Railway, which operated regular passenger and tourist lines.
Its historical trajectory is only known because the ABPF (Brazilian Railway Preservation Association) discovered records of the steamship’s commissioning in 2011 at the National Railway Museum in York (UK).
Built in 1928 by the British company Bayer Peacock, it arrived at Baixada Fluminense, powered by wood or coal, and operated as an express train between Rio’s Barran de Maua station and Vitoria.
It is the main line of the Leopoldina Railway, with a total length of 598 kilometers, and in 1931 the total track length exceeded 3,000 kilometers.
However, after the New York Stock Exchange crash (1929), coffee, Brazil’s main export at the time, suffered a major blow, and the company faced a severe crisis.
As a result, the vehicle was transferred to Lede Mineira de Viação and parked at Porto Novo in Alen Paraiba (MG).
Then in the 80s it went to Ouro Preto (MG), where it was used as a tourist route, but it did not flourish. He returned to Porto Novo and from there went to Miguel Pereira (RJ), but there he encountered problems with the steam pipes, so he went again to Porto Novo.
From there, he went to Tres Ríos (RJ) and in the 1990s to Visconde de Itaboray (RJ) and Guapimirim (RJ). Due to further interruptions in train service, the train was given to ABPF and operated as a tourist route in Cruzeiro.
It was still in use on the Trem das Aguas River until it was shut down for six years from 2012 to 2018 for restoration. From here it was finally transported to Passa Cuatro (MG), where it was used on the Serra da Mantiqueira railway. This train is still in operation.
This was also the case with another passenger vehicle that was in the hands of ABPF in 2021 and scheduled for scrapping.
Although not as old as many of the association’s collections, the wagon, manufactured in 1965, is of historical importance as it was the first vehicle registered with the ABPF and in the past belonged to the Vitoria a Minas Railway.
It just wasn’t destroyed by luck – that’s important. In 2010, the director of ABPF Campinas Helio Gazzetta Filho traveled to Espírito Santo to visit the Vale factory that operates trains between Belo Horizonte and Cariacica on Espírito Santo, and found a train in poor condition lying on its side. After negotiation, it will be handed over to the association.
Link exists: Did you like this text? Subscribers can access it for free up to 7 times a day from any link. Click on the blue “F” below.
About The Author
