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Train at Nova Granja yard

Locomotives BB36-7 720 and 715 leading an empty train of covered hoppers, flat cars and 84 GDE class gondolas wainting licence to go into Nova Granja yard.
Date: October 16, 2010

Hot Spots in Minas Gerais

If you are a railfan and would like to get some hints on where to find good places to photograph trains in Brazil, go to my web site and download the first article of the Hot Spot series covering the best locations in Minas Gerais State to watch trains.
Use this link to see the article http://minasgeraisrailways.ning.com/page/hot-spots
Have Fun!

MRS and FCA

Locomotives 2567, 2591 and 2512 of FCA leading an empty train for grains on the way to Pirapora, crosses in the km 628 with a locotrol of cement of MRS with DPU locomotives 3792 and 3648 in the tail of the train.
Date: 30 July 2010

Locomotive axle and wheels

A locomotive axle and wheels of FCA recently revised and ready to be installed at Divinópolis shops.

Freight car Builders Plates

Some freight car builders plate.

Old EFCB Watch Towers

The old watch tower near Corinto station was demolished sometimes after this photo, circa 1998.


The railroads of the past were more conscious and interested parties in solving the social problems created by the passage of the trains by the urban centers that the companies of the modernity. Watch towers of protection of the crossing level were common in the main crossings inside of the cities, although the traffic of automobiles in that time were infinitely smaller than today. Interesting to notice although the floating capital in the companies and in the society of that time it was also much smaller than today. Then, what did in the society allows the railroads to demolish protection watch towers change as the ones what see in the pictures? These remaining works of the Central do Brasil railroad are a lesson to the modern concessionary companies of railroads of the present. The accidents continue to increase in urban crossing levels. Will it be that the wage of a guard of crossing level costs so much for a railroad, that it prefers to leave the fault of the accidents to the pedestrians and vehicles, and not assuming the responsibilities to it attributed? Such companies should follow the example of the companies of the past. Only the old Central do Brasil contributed more with the social than all of the companies of the modernity together .Imagine, then, the all made by the others.


The watch tower at Pedro Leopoldo is one of the last in operation condition in the Centro Line of old EFCB.

Traction Efforts in the Interior

A BB36-7 and a Dash 9 leading an empty train heading for the shipment of limestone near Matozinhos, MG. This couple has a traction effort of 6,800 metric tons.


Traction effort of couple of locomotives in the interior, among Captain's Eduardo and Prudente de Morais stations.

Dash 9 + Dash 9 = 7,200 tones
Dash 9 + DDM45 = 7,000 tones
Dash 9 + BB36-7 = 6,800 tones
DDM45 + DDM45 = 6,800 tones
DDM45 + BB36-7 = 6,600 tones
BB36-7 + BB36-7 = 6,400 tones

Coal Train

Vale coal Train at Km 628


MRS cement train at the yard




Today morning I found a Vale coal train leaded by GE BB40-9W 1261 and 1266 at the yard. It was doing a meet with MRS cement train leaded by C36-7 3855 and C26-7MP 3656.

Soy Train

Locomotives U20C 2682 and GT26CU-2 2973 leading a train of soy bound for Captain Eduardo. Distinction for the HDT class hopper recently painted in the FCA new colors.
Photo in Vespasiano, 24maio2010

The train movement of grains in the line of the FCA between Pirapora and Santa Luzia, in the station of Captão Eduardo, it has been increasing to each day that passes. The movement in the station of Vespasiano today it was quite big, with three trains cruising in the place, occupying all the lines of the yard.

Back to the Good Times

Vale BB40-9W #1159 waiting licence to departure from Vespasiano yard on way to Tubarão port, in Vitoria ES.



Vale #832 and #1159 leading train J on way to Tubarão port, in Vitoria ES.



The trains of Vale are back to the "sertão" after a year moved away of the area.
Since the beginning of the international financial crisis that affected the world in 2009,Vale start to collect rent of their locomotives given in to FCA for traction of the grain trains, and the point of exchange of wagons in the route of the"sertão" was established in Capitão Eduardo station, in Santa Luzia MG. FCA, then, allocated the GT26CU-2 in the area above Capitão Eduardo, making the traction of all of the heavy trains in the area. But the excessive problems presented by old GT26 in the traction of heavy trains, allies to the great number of soy wagons in the daily yard switching operations in the tight yard of Capitão Eduardo, did FCA and Vale to decide for retaking of the "direct" trains. Those trains come out complete from Wilson Lobato's yard to Vitória ES. With that, the locomotives Dash 9 and DDM45 visited the area of the "sertão" again. Today the grain train J (soy) was being leaded by DDM45 #832 and BB40-9W #1159, both in reverse tracion heading for Costa Lacerda, where they will be turned in the turntable or be substituted for other locomotives, that will take the train until the port of Tubarão, in Vitória ES

BR Tank Cars

BR tank car in Wilson Lobato yard in december 28, 2003




BR tank cars used to carry dark petroleum derivates parked in Wilson Lobato yard in october 11, 2004.



For where will walk the tank cars of BR so commonly sighted in the nineties? Would them been scrapped?

Steel bridges to Ferrovia Norte Sul - FNS

A truck with part of a bridge of twenty meters fueling at gas station in Vespasiano, MG. Other bridges are in the yard of the company waiting the embarkment to the state of Tocantins, where the SPA engineering is acting in the construction of a passage of FNS.

The company JM Engenharia of Vespasiano, MG is producing bridges of steel for the North and South Railroad. The company is partner of SPA Engineer Co., of Belo Horizonte,MG which is responsible for the construction of one of the passages of the referred railroad.

SPA is the owner of the famous locomotive Alco RSC-3 of old Cia Paulista - CPEF, today in operation in FNS.

MRS Stations

Jeceaba station - FJR, in the Paraopeba line.


Main line: km 0,000 a km 625,144

FGI= Ilha de Guaíba
FBA= Brisamar
FOS= Santa Rosa
FGD= Guandú
FQS= Posto km 64
FBP= Barra do Piraí
FAT= Arisitdes Lobo
FBJ= Barão de Juparanã
FAL= Aliança
FPS= Paraíba do Sul
FBN= Barão de Angra
FTR= Três Rios
FSA= Souza Aguiar
FOT= Cotegipe
FMT= Matias Barbosa
FJF= Juiz de Fora
FMP= Mariano Procópio
FFB= Francisco Bernardino
FBF= Benfica
FDT= Dias Tavares
FSD= Santos Dumont
FMQ= Mantiqueira
FJA= João Ayres
FAS= Antônio Carlos
FBC= Barbacena
FEV= Engenheiro Drummond
FET= Engenheiro Simão Tamm
FCY= Carandaí
FPE= Pedra do Sino
FPK= Km 460 Panorâmico
FCL= Conselheiro Lafaiete
FMO= Mário Castilho
FDM= Joaquim Murtinho
FCR= Casa de Pedra
FJR= Jeceaba
FBV= Belo Vale
FMD= Moeda
FMS= Marinhos
FML= Melo Franco
FAF= Alberto Flores
FBR= Brumadinho
FSN= Carlos Newlands
FMC= Mário Campos
FSO= Sarzedo
FZN= Sarzedo Novo
FIE= Ibirité
FBO= Barreiro

Dr Joaquim Murtinho to Açominas branch

FDM= Joaquim Murtinho
FOB= Ouro Branco

Dr Joaquim Murtinho to Lafaiete Bandeira branch

FDM= Joaquim Murtinho
EMP= Miguel Burnier
ELF= Lafaiete Bandeira

São Paulo branch ( FBP/OSG )

FBP= Barra do Piraí
FPU= Pulverização
FVR= Volta Redonda
FBB= Barbará
FBM= Barra Mansa
FSE= Saudade
FIA= Itatiaia
FCZ= Cruzeiro
FCP= Cachoeira Paulista
FGU= Guaratinguetá
FAD= Aparecida
FRA= Roseira
FCT= Coruputuba
FTA= Taubaté
FCA= Caçapava
FSJ= São José dos Campos
FRE= Remédios
FST= São Bento
IEF= Manoel Feio
OSG= E. S. Gualberto

Rio de Janeiro branch( Arará to km 64 )

FAR= Arará
HHS= Herédita de Sá
HCB= Costa Barros
HRS= Rocha Sobrinho
HJA= Japerí
FQT= Km 64

Rio de Janeiro branch( Costa Barros to Deodoro )

HCB= Costa Barros
HRO= Rocha Miranda
HHG= Honório Gurgel
HDE= Deodoro

São Paulo branch( Santos to Jundiaí )

ISN= Santos
ICB= Cubatão
IAA= Areais
IPG= Piaçaguera
IRS= Raiz da Serra
IPA= Paranapiacaba
ICG= Campo Grande
IRG= Rio GRande da Serra
ICP= Capuava
ISA= Santo André
ISC= São Caetano
IIP= Ipiranga
OBR= Brás
ORO= Roosevelt
OLU= Luz
OBF= Barra Funda
ILA= Lapa
IJN= Jundiaí

São Paulo branch( Ouro Fino to Suzano )

IRG= Rio Grande da Serra
IOF= Ouro Fino
ISU= Suzano Novo
OSU= Suzano

São Paulo branch( São José dos Campos to Estudantes )

FSJ= São José dos Campos
FJI= Jacareí
FSZ= São Silvestre
FGA= Guararema
OES= Estudantes
OMC= Mogi das Cruzes
OSU= Suzano

São Paulo branch ( Piaçaguera to Conceiçãozinha )

IPG= Piaçaguera
IBA= Barnabé
ICZ= Conceiçãozinha


I would like to thank my friend Michael Roberto Silva for his advices to produce this article.

PREFIXES OF MRS TRAINS

A scum train leaded by a mixed of GM and GE locomotives arriving to Horto Florestal yard in 2006. Photo from Gutierrez Lhamas


We are accustomed to hear prefixes of trains, but most of the time we didn't get to understand them. Each railroad has its prefix code and now we will study the prefixes used by MRS.

We will begin for the load type that the train is transporting, that in the prefix, it is designated by the first letter:

A - Sugar
B - Train Expressed (with schedules of departure and arrival defined, as well as their routes)
Example: BPU
C - several Loads (type general load, but with less preference regarding the same ones).
Examples: CCC, COC, CEC, CFC
E - Special Administrativo/Extra (Trains with personnel of it manages, extra trains)
Examples: EPE, ERE, ECP
F - Metallurgical Products
Examples: FCC, FZC
H - Paper
J - Cereals and Fruits
Examples: JDN
K - General Load
Examples: KPE, KRE, KSE, KKP, KCP, KCR, KEP, KER
L - Calcareous, limestone
N - Iron ore
Examples: NGA, NFZ, NZE, NUT, NEO, NFO, NO, NOO, NCE, NCF, NCC, NCZ, NEY, NVE, NLE, NAS
O - Fertilizers
P - Petroleum and derivates
Q - Coal / coque
Examples: QLV, QLZ, QRZ, QZL
R - Route Expressed
T - Ores no Ferrous
Examples: TOD, TDO (Bauxite for Aluminum)
W - Locomotives alone, ballast, fleet of rails
Examples: WOO, WCE, WZC, WCC, WEE, WEF, WFE, WLE, WOC, WEC
X - chemical Products / dangerous loads (diesel oil)
Examples: XEF, XFE, XPU, XUP

In second and third letters of the prefix, we found the ORIGIN and DESTINY of the train, respectively
A - Agua Claras terminal (current TOD - Olhos D'Água terminal)
C - Passage between Carandaí and km 482 (Including Lafaiete Bandeira)
D- Pari - Jundiaí
E- km 482 even Barreiro
F - Steel Railway
G - Guaíba
H - Barão de Mauá station
I - Perequê / Sand dunes
J - Japeri / Marine
K - Paranapiacaba / Manoel Feio
L - Saí/ Barra do Piraí
M - Rio Grande da Serra/ Brás
N - Santos
O - Aristides Lobo / Ilídio
P - Floriano / Manoel Feio
Q - Marítima station
R - Arará station
S - Porto de Sepetiba
T - Roosevelt / Itaim
U - Conceiçãozinha / Barnabé
V - Pulverização / Pombal
W - Ramirez Ramos Alves area
X - Dom Pedro II station
Y - Piaçaguera / Raiz da Serra
Z - Açominas branch

Now, we are going to the numbers:

Let us use the prefix NGA 0115

N - Ore
G - Island of Guaíba
A - TOD
01 - 1st empty train formed at the Island of Guaíba towards the shipment
15 - train formed on the 08th day*

* To form the prefix of the train, we needed two factors: if this circulating in the growing sense of the number of kilometers travelled, the prefix will be ODD (day x 2 - 1); in case it is decreasing, the prefix will have equal end (day x 2), be them emptiness or loaded, but it can have variations.

We will analyze one more prefix:

NFG 0530
N - Ore
F - Steel Railway (in that case, loaded train that left of the Rail Terminal of the Andaime, TFA, in Ibirité, Steel Railway, P1-03)
G - Island of Guaíba
05 - 5th train of ore of the 15 loaded in TFA
30 - day of the train (day x 2)

Now you can already decipher a prefix of train of MRS when it is visiting their lines. Gratitudes to the friend Michael Silva, for his help with this article.

Vale Aircraft

EMB-120 Brasília, prefix PT-SOK of VALE in Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, MG in 06/maio/2010

Today I was at the airport of Pampulha, in BH, when a EMB-120 "Brasília" of Vale arrived. Notice that it is already with the new painting of the company.

Locomotives to Nigeria

GEVISA, GE of Brazil, is producing a batch of 25 locomotives model C25-MP to Nigeria. The locomotives are metric gauge and weigh 96 metric tones. The first batch dispatched consisted of five machines, being following by one second batch of seven machines. On the last weekend I found four locomotives of that second batch being transported on trucks in BR-040, proceeding toi the port of Rio de Janeiro. Unfortunately all of the machines were covered by the common GE blue canvas, but it was possible to took pictures of details, as trucks and couplers. These, for sign, differ of everything that we are accustomed to see, as seeing in the pictures below.

RS3 in the Sertão

The locomotives MLW RS3 of old EFCB made history in Minas Gerais. In the olf RFFSA telegran above we see that they run in everywhere on broad gage system, arriving at Sete Lagoas, where locomotive 7136 derail at the Calsete yard in October of 1988.

Traction Effort

A limestone train leaded by an U20C and a GT26CU-2 passing by km 625 in Vespasiano, running from EWL to ECA. This couple has a traction effort of 9.530 metric tones when they run in this direction.

Traction effort of FCA some locomotives when running from ELD to EWL

U20C - 1,280 tones
GT26 - 1,360 tones
MX620 - 1,130 tones
G12 - 790 tones

Traction effort of the same locomotives when running from EWL to ECA

U20C – 4,640 tones
GT26 - 4,890 tones
MX620 – 4,050 tones
G12 – 2,890 tones

Notes:
EWL - Wilson Lobato station
EDL - Dr Lund station
ECA - Capitão Eduardo station

The Sad End of a Warrior

Abandoned to the own luck in distant Batista Frazão yard, in Iraí de Minas MG, DDM45 4292, former EFVM 802, is being destroyed without FCA and Vale take the initiative of moving it to a safety place. It was leaned at that yard after it suffered a fire in the prime mover compartment. The reason is not known that did the company to decide for the removal of the engine in that distant place and to leave the locomotive abandoned there. After FCA closed Batista Frazão station, the locomotive became objective of vandals and other people looking for scrap metal. Informations collected in that area attest that parts of it were found with scrap dealers in the distant city of Araguari MG and that they would have been sold by employees of own FCA.
If the situation of that locomotive is a sadness for us, for FCA and Vale can be understanded as a disregard to their own history, since DDM45 symbolized the entrance of EFVM in the modernity of the traction diesel of great capacity.
Locomotive 4292 should be taken to the workshops of the Vale at Tubarão in Vitoria ES to be reformed and painted in the original colors of EFVM. Soon afterwards, it should be sent to Pedro Nolasco's rail museum, where it would have an end worthy of the warrior that was for all those years, helping Vale to arrive where it arrived today, the second biggest mining company in the world.

The origin of the Texas

From Trains Magazine


2-10-4 or Texas
by Neil Carlson


In 1925, just four months after demonstrating its new 2-8-4 on the Boston & Albany, Lima received an order from the Texas & Pacific for the first 2-10-4s. The ten engines ordered were essentially elongated versions of the 2-8-4 with an extra set of driving wheels.

The 2-10-4s were put to work on T&P's roller coaster main line in west Texas, and thus became known as Texas types. The locomotives could haul 40 percent more tonnage, while using less fuel, than the 2-10-2s they replaced. T&P went back to Lima four more times, ordering an additional sixty locomotives from 1927 to 1929.

Other railroads took notice. Between 1927 and 1930 the Burlington, Bessemer & Lake Erie, Central Vermont, Canadian Pacific, and Chicago Great Western all ordered Texans.

The 2-10-4 had a more powerful boiler than the 2-10-2. Its four-wheel trailing truck could support a huge firebox with more than enough furnace volume to support very high rates of combustion.

However, with the exception of Central Vermont’s 60-inch drivers, all 2-10-4s built at that time rode on 63-inch driving wheels, and as a consequence, they suffered from the same balance problems as the 2-10-2. The Texans, like the Santa Fes, were limited to drag freight speeds.

Lima solved this problem in 1930 with forty new 2-10-4s built for the Chesapeake & Ohio. Their 69-inch driving wheels were big enough to hold the necessary counterweight so that the heavy reciprocating masses of the pistons and main rods could be properly balanced.

As a result, unlike other ten-coupled power, they were not speed-limited. C&O put its 2-10-4s to work hurrying 10,000-ton coal trains across the flat terrain of Ohio, from Russell, Ky., to Columbus, replacing the low-speed 2-8-8-2s used previously.

The engines performed extremely well on the C&O. So well, in fact, that during World War II, the Pennsylvania Railroad copied the design and built 125 locomotives of its own. Pennsy’s J1-class engines were the largest 2-10-4s ever built.

The locomotive’s next evolutionary milestone came in 1938. Previously, in 1930, the Santa Fe had ordered a single Texas with 69-inch drivers and a 300 psi boiler. The Great Depression stifled further orders, but an upturn in business near the end of the decade prompted the railroad to order ten new engines from Baldwin built to a novel design.

With a 310 psi boiler and 74-inch driving wheels, Santa Fe’s 2-10-4s were the most powerful two-cylinder steam locomotives ever built. Intended for high-speed heavy freight service, the engines represented the high point of 2-10-4 design.

Santa Fe received an additional twenty-five Texas types from Baldwin in 1944, giving the railroad a total of thirty-six. The engines settled in the territory east of Belen, N.M., and became the standard power on both freight and troop trains during World War II. With their 74-inch drivers, they could do a very credible job handling a heavy passenger train in New Mexico’s hilly terrain.

The last 2-10-4s built were six streamlined engines from Montreal Locomotive Works, delivered to the Canadian Pacific in 1949 for passenger service in the Canadian Rockies. They were also the last steam locomotives built for use in Canada.

By then, a total of 429 Texans had been delivered.

The arrival of the diesel locomotive spelled big trouble for the 2-10-4, as diesels were much better suited to handle the jobs in which Texas types were employed. By the mid-1950s most 2-10-4s had been retired.

The last of Santa Fe’s Texans worked as helpers out of Belen on a seasonal basis until 1957. Bessemer & Lake Erie sold several of its 2-10-4s to the Duluth Missabe & Iron Range, which ran them ran into the first half of 1959, the last Texas types to run.

Technical Characteristics

The Technical characteristics of former EFCB Texas locomotives, in a document saved in the library of the University of Texas, USA.
Thanks to the american historian Alan Wayne Hegler.

The Bulletins

A sample of the old EFCB Bulletins


To complement the article, I transcribe some Personal Bulletins of former EFCB , that give us an idea of how it was difficult the operation of the Texas locomotives in the line of the Sertão. To the whole, they are 167 Bulletins as these, here transcribed partially for not prolongating the article too much. They constitute an important source of information on Texas of the EFCB. Soon I will return to the subject, bringing more data picked in the area of the Nova Era branch and in the own Bulletins.

BULLETIN N. 67
At the 05:30 AM of March 9, 1952, the train MEW-43, tracionado for the locomotive 1666, driven by Guilherme Lélis, had the wagon F113 derailed when passing for the km 837 + 700m, traveling 100 meters in this situation. The same was loaded with 500 sacks of rice that it proceeded from Belo Horizonte to Montes Claros and it was put in 1st place in a composition of 19 cars.
The railway sleepers' spacing is of 0.60 meters, in bad conservation state in a passage of 100 meters for each side. The ballast is of mixed gravel. There were damages in the preaching in an extension of 70 meters. It was not found ironwork parts in the line nor there were personal damages.
Delay was just verified for train K7 (20 minutes).

BULLETIN N. 107
At the 10:00 PM of April 29, 1952, the train MEW-41, leaded by the locomotive 1662, driven by H. da Costa, had the wagon GM241 derailed when passing for the km 807 + 302m, straight line passage. The wagon was put back to the line with the help of crew of Corinto shops and it was added in 4th place in the composition. The railway sleepers' spacing in the place is 0.60 meters, and the same was in bad condition in a passage of 100 meters for each side. The ballast is made of stone. There were 112 damaged railway sleepers in the accident, that didn't harm the traffic of the trains. Just the trick of the wagon suffered mishap. It was not found any ironwork parts in the line, and the cause was the fracture of the rail marks B. Douwlaes Estel D.P.II 1880.
There were verified delays in the following trains: K8 (7 hours and 27 minutes); N7 (3 hours and 49 minutes); MEH-82 (3:00 hours), and for the own derailed train (16 hours and 50 minutes).

BULLETIN N. 232.
At the 11:40 PM of December 09, 1952, the train CEC-44, with the locomotive 1664 driven by Pedro Velozo, had the wagon A199 derailed in the km 838 + 250m. The same train was loaded with vegetable coal from Várzea da Palma to Siderúrgica, traveling 40 meters after the derailment. The wagon was put back on the rails by the crew of Corinto shops, and the referred wagon was put in 12nd place in the composition.
The railway sleepers' spacing in the place is of 0.60 meters, being in bad conservation state in 100 meters for each side. The ballast is made of broken stone. There were not personal damages, nor for the rolling stock material. It was not found fallen ironwork parts in the line and it still was not discovered the cause of the accident.

BULLETIN N. 80
At the 10:50 PM of December 12, 1954, the locomotive 1663, of the train C-94, driven by João Baptista Efigênio, derailed the front truck of the tender when running in km 648, traveling 100 meters in this situation. The derailment felt happened in a curve with 138,93 meters of radius, with super elevation of 9, in a descent grade. In the place, the railway sleepers' spacing is of 0.50 meters, being in bad state in a passage of 100 meters for each side. The ballast in that place is made of stone number 3, and the rail is of the type B, and 10.7 meters were fractured and 100 meters with mishap in the preaching. The locomotive suffered light mishaps, and there was not fall of ironworks parts. There also were not personal damages.
The locomotive was put back to the rails at 02:40 AM, being the line totally unblocked at 03:40 AM.
The verified delays on the trains were: S14 (4 hours and 28 minutes); N6 (3 hours and 48 minutes); R5 (4 hours and 10 minutes).
It was verified that the rail fractured in the moment of the passage of the own locomotive.


The following friends Collaborated to this article:
Jairo Mello (Teresópolis, RJ)
José Augusto Neto (in memorium - Belo Horizonte,MG)
José Expedito Assunção (Vespasiano, MG)
José Mauro Cardoso (Ipatinga, MG)
Gustavo Henrique (in memorium — Itabira, MG)

Texas in the Sertão

Picture above: a Texas switching at Vespasiano yard, in the forties.

The Interior in Brazil is called Sertão. The old EFCB narrow gauge Texas run in the Sertão lines too. This is a brief history of them in the Sertão.

Reports picked with railway man and historians give us information that the first two Texas type locomotives of the EFCB were acquired in 1938 and had the 1627 and 1628 road numbers. The data on these two locos are insuficentes to determine their origin. Once no document of the EFCB mentions those locomotives, I cannot determine their origin or even the existence. But I also can not leave of mentioning the fact, once more than one person mentioned their existence in the area where they run from the 1940 to 50´s. Like this, the technical data of this article concerns to the locomotives EFCB ordered in 1940, in other words, of the locomotives of the class 300, weighing 174 metric tons, with 8,391.6 kg of tractive effort. It is interesting to mention that the Santa Fe type of former Teresa Cristina railroad - EFDTC, in spite of being smaller, developed 9,752.4 kg of tractive effort after they were equipped with kettles Belpaire bought in Argentina.

The EFCB Texas was acquired in 1940 in an agreement with Baldwin and Alco, in which resulted in identical locomotives, with possibility to exchange pieces among them. The lot was divided like this: Baldwin supplied 10 units, numbered from 1651 to 1660; Alco supplied 7 units, numbered from 1661 to 1667. All them had capacity to pull 19 freight cars at speed of 40 km/h, what is equal the a capacity of 1500 tons. They came disassembled from United States, being assembled in Horto Florestal shops. Although their base Deposit was there, the ones that were sent to the 12th Residence od EFCB made light and heavy maintenance in the Sete lagoas shops, where one of them arrived very damaged after an accident and, thanks to the excellent crew of the EFCB, returned to the rails in a very good condition, when everybody thought about its scrapment, due to the damage it had in the frames.

An analysis of the Train's Acident Bulletins of 1952, reveals that the locomotives based in the 12th Residence were the Baldwins 1652, 1653, 1657, 1659 and 1660, besides all Alco too, from 1661 to 1667. They were the machines that run between Horto Florestal and the area beyond Sete Lagoas, going to Corinto, as indicate in the same Bulletins.
In the area of the Sertão they became famous because they were common leading the cattle trains, coming from Montes Claros area. Those trains usually arrived to Sete Lagoas leaded for Mikados or Consolidations and, after joined in a composition of, at the most, 20 cattle cars, were common seeing leaded by the Texas until Horto Florestal yard, where the cattle was unloaded at the corrals to take water and to feed, being embarked soon afterwards in the trains of the broad gage heading for the slaughterhouses of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

The mixed trains between Sete Lagoas and Belo Horizonte, formed by three passenger cars, a mail-luggage and, at the most, sixteen freight cars were also leaded by Texas. They left Sete Lagoas at 05:00 AM and arrived in Belo Horizonte at 10:00 AM. Those train came back afternoon, leaving Belo Horizonte at 5:00 PM and arriving to Sete Lagoas at the 10:00 PM.

In the end of their career in the EFCB, the Texas were located to passenger express trains. The nostalgic friend José Augusto Neto told us that the passengers were afraid with the speed of the train, apprehensive that it could jumped out of the rails, but they arrived at the destiny in the foreseen schedule and without larger problems.

To switching operation ofa Texas type locomotive was a difficulty, once there was not turntable to hold their 26 meters in length. They were always turned in the triangles, and for this one was built behind the Sete Lagoas shops. In the eventuality of they proceed beyonde that point, there was necessary to do the reverse traction, or run until Corinto shops to do a turn in the triangle there. That procedure type caused many derailments of the radial wheels, because the line of the Sertão was always terrible (until nowaday).
In that time, the railway sleepers were very spaced, about 60 or 70 centimeters one from the other, besides they be plump. Besides, the preaching was deficient, with two nails for railway sleeper in each rail. These, were very old, having the case of they have more than 70 years of use, besides they be very light, of the type 25 or 37 kg. All this resulted in a frightening picture, with several derailments in the week, having the case of a same locomotive to derail three times proceeded in the same day (like happened with locomotive 1661, in december 20,1952). Another problem was the sinuous shape of that line, with curves and more curves in “S”, as we can verify in the area between Captão Eduardo and Sete Lagoas, where the old bed crosses the current in an endless zig-zag.

The accidents with the Texas had beginning with locomotive 1667. But another suffered more serious derailments, as happened to 1666, that caused the machinist's death, and the oil man and a rider in November of 1950, when the locomotive leaded a train in the km 624, in Vespasiano. The cause of the accident was the deficiency in the lubrication. It was said that these locomotives consumed about 12 liters of oil in the itinerary between Sete Lagoas and Belo Horizonte, but the inspector wanted they consumed the half, then it lacked oil in the drive system and there was the consequent pull to the side affected.
Of this accident we have proof of the press and of José Augusto Neto report, that was in Lagoa Santa that day and drove to Vespasiano to pick the mixed train coming from Belo Horizonte to Sete Lagoas. Because of the interruption of the line, the trains delayed a lot of hours and José Augusto could go to the place of the accident and verify the damage.

It is not known a lot about the performance of these locomotives in the Nova Era branch, where they divided the work with the Santa Fe 2-10-2 and Mallet 2-8-8-4 in one of the busiest lines of the EFCB in the metric gage, where the high grade reduced the capacity of the locomotives. The little we know about that Texas there are the accidents registered in the press and in the Bulletins of the EFCB. In the same way, little it is known about their test in the Vitória to Minas railroad - EFVM, what was not also mentioned in the book “The Estrada Vitória to Minas and their Locomotives since 1904”, of J.B. Setti and Eduardo Coelho. We just know that they leaded trains in that railroad, what is obvious of supposing, once the EFCB and EFVM connected in Nova Era. I have, also, information that locomotive 1655 leaded train even to Counselheiro Lafaiete, in the EFCB Centro line.

The deactivation of these locomotives in the EFCB happened in 1958, when they were sent for the Northwest Railroad of Brazil - NoB, from where they proceeded, in 1960, to the Dona Teresa Cristina railroad - EFDTC, where they operated until the middle of the decade of 80, even when they were leaned definitively after the explosion of the kettle of the locomotive 312 (actually, the first explosion happened with to 304, some years before, forcing to a total stop of the fleet for inspection and repairs).
Former RFFSA tried to manufacture these locomotives in Brazil, sending in 1983 locomotive 313 to USIMEC (Usiminas Mecânica), in Ipatinga, MG to be disassembled for making of molds for production of their pieces. The project didn't go proceeded ahead and of that it resulted that the locomotive ended being forgotten at Usimec and, this way, preserved, being the
only Texas that remained in Minas Gerais.

A HELP OF THE DESTINY

An old drawing of the speed plate used by former EFCB



A routine rail incursion in Pedro Leopoldo's area ended for putting me face to face with a sensational file of former EFCB railroad forgotten in an old car shelter in the proximities of the old Workshop of Carpentry of the Central. It is the file of the extinct 12a Residence of EFCB. If the action of the time and the insects was not enough on that documentation, the file had also been discovered for criminals of the area that, don't please with the depredation that they did at the place, ended for setting on fire the file. The burns of that paper work turned off an important part of the national rail history. We lost the link that united us to the past of glory of the Central do Brasil railroad. This and other fires in rail files that I witnessed in turning off of the lights of RFFSA remembers me of the ancient report fire of Alexandria Library, that destroyed very important informations about the civilizations of the antiquity. Historians say that the humanity suffered one thousand year-old delay with the destruction of that library, of so big was the loss in scientific knowledgement. In our case, the damage was just historical and social. With the loss of official documents of the old EFCB, we also lost the chance to understand the day by day of a state owned company that took the progress to the state of Minas Gerais and whow it affected the life of the society of its time. But nor everything is lost. I got to save many documents in that first encounter with the file. Among the found preciousness, they are books of personnel's point (some dated of the turning of the séc. XIX), dozens of volumes of the rare Bulletins of Personnel of EFCB, and many other important documents to rebuild the history of Central were saved. Among those documents there were the reports on the enlargement of the line up to Sete Lagoas, for instance.
The delay in getting an authorization of the then RFFSA for the retreat of the remaining of the material ended for leaving it exposed still more to the vandalism and a lot of thing finished losing forever. Among the rarities of EFCB that I got to save it was one entitled “Bulletin of Train´s Accidents”, from January to December of 1952. When browsing the first pages, I had a larger surprise: they were, in their majority, reports with the narrow gauge Texas type locomotives. As I understood, the EFCB was concerned with the constant derailments of those locomotives and it made a collection of data of all of the occurrences related to them. The document lances a new light about the performance of those locomotives in the state of Minas Gerais.

THE METRIC GAGE "TEXAS" OF EFCB

The history of metric gauge Texas type locomotives of the former Estrada de Ferro Central do Brasil - EFCB railroad is still little known. It is strange that almost nothing knows on one of the most fascinating steam locomotives that already run in Brazil. In general, the historians make reference to their performance in the Dona Teresa Cristina Railroad - EFDTC, where they concluded their career, and not in the Central. Even in the areas where they operated in the state of Minas Gerais it is more and more difficult to find somebody that can bring some innovation in the subject. The people that had the privilege of seeing them in operation and that lived together day by day with them no longer are many, and the official documents that tell their history ended if losing after the privatization of former Rede Ferroviaria Federal SA - RFFSA. But the destiny seems to want to help, therefore some documents that tell the history of those locomotives came to my hands by chance. It is with base in them that I produced this article.

FCA U20C from old Fepasa fleet

FCA U20C 3860 was one of the last diesels to wear the old Fepasa blue & white paint. Here we see it at Nova Granja yard.
Photo by the author.


With the end of Fepasa and division of the operational railways between ALL and FCA, the locomotives U20C were also divided among the two operators. It fell to FCA the following locomotives:

3801, 3803, 3806, 3808, 3811, 3813, 3814, 3815, 3819, 3820, 3824, 3825, 3827, 3828, 3830, 3831, 3834, 3835, 3839, 3840, 3842, 3845, 3852, 3853, 3854, 3856, 3857, 3858, 3860, 3864, 3865, 3866, 3867, 3871, 3872, 3874, 3878, 3879, 3880, 3881, 3884, 3885, 3886, 3889, 3890, 3892, 3893, 3897, 3898, 3901, 3902, 3903, 3904, 3905, 3907, 3908 and 3910.

Source: Diego Henrique Bini - Iperó - SP

Project Godfather

FCA U20C 3842 at Divinopolis yard.
Photo by Carlos Marinho


FCA U20C 2535.
Photo by the author.

We have been seeing locomotives of the model U20C with the registration "Projeto Godfather" in the lateral of the cabin, soon below the window. But what does this project means?
The Projeto Godfather it consisted of accompanying 12 locomotives of the model U20C for 4 months guaranteeing all of the necessary resources for operation and maintenance in a favorable scenery.
The project had as goal a better study of the maintenance processes and better definition of the goals.
The locomotive chosen boss for the project was to 2538. The another were:
2535, 2569, 2595, 2700, 3811, 3842, 3858, 3865, 3881, 3886 and 3902. This last one didn't receive the registration of the project.

The Yards

Curvelo yard.
Photo by Alexandre Almeida


These are the following yards of the branch qualified as siding crossings:

PP-Pirapora
VZ-Várzea da Palma
LA-Lassance
BE-Beltrão
CO-Corinto



The last one is the connection of the branch with mainline that is going to Bahia state through Montes Claros, MG.

There is Still a Lot to Do

FCA U20C 2512 and 2507 at Corinto station.
Photo by Alexandre Almeida



The current opening of the extension of Pirapora for FCA understands, then, it leaves of an old project of connection of the southeast area with the north area of the country. The works of the North and South Railroad are to full steam and it is foreseen for 2012 the arrival of EF Carajás trains in Anápolis. Maybe, when that happens, Vale introduces the third rail in the FNS so that the trains of the metric gage arrive to the port of Itaqui, in the Maranhão state, without needing of change for gage it releases.
For the time being FCA is just transporting soy on Pirapora branch. But there is possibility to extend their services to the industries of the area, what would enlarge the range of products to be transported by railroad. But that will still demand improvements in the road. The works of reopening of the extension were too shy. Basically the railway sleepers were changed that were very damaged. The great majority is original of the line that was paralyzed in the middle of the eighties, therefore with more than 20 years of abandonment and at least 30 years of use. The rails are of light profile, varying from 37 to 45kg. The change of the ballast was not accomplished and this is very dirty and polluted for earth in most of the points visited by us. The bridges are the original of the old Central, with at least 80 years of use. To conclude, the terminal of change of the soy in Pirapora is very small. That is a project that was not sized to what was waited of that line. Its capacity would not hold a larger flow of trains that what there sees today. All this contrasts with the merchandise made by Vale that says that it invested 300 million in the recovery of that line. Then it resulted that in less than a month of opening of the line there was a derailment that stopped the branch for two days.
What is waited of FCA and Vale is that not just the Pirapora branch is remodeled in fact, but its connection with the line of modern profile placed below Sete Lagoas is contemplated also with significant improvements. It does not advance to just remodel that branch if between Corinto and Sete Lagoas there is a bad line as the one that exists there now. Vale and FCA need to understand that it is necessary to invest really of the own pocket to obtain results satisfactory. To hope the government invests in the line that they own will use is not to believe in their own capacity to manage their resources. It is necessary to dare more and to believe that the project will meet the expectations. We will only like this have railroads really competitive in Brazil.
Now (set/2009) the extension is with the activities paralyzed because of the end of the harvest of the soy in that area. For the that we heard from the personnel of FCA, the project it was under dimensioned and the soy turned before the expected out right.

The Interest is Reborn for the Branch

Grain silos in Pirapora yard.
Photo by Alexandre Almeida



Such situation stayed up to 2004, when Vale intended to build two lines to solve the problems of traffic of FCA. The first line would be the connection Patrocinio to Sete Lagoas or Prudente de Morais that would eliminate the whole old line of EFOM and VFCO in the area of Patrocinio to Divinópolis, and of there to Belo Horizonte. That work, besides activating the traffic of the trains of grains, would end with trains for very populated areas along the current line in use. The new plan among Ibiá to Sete Lagoas would have 450 kilometers. With that, the speed, that today is of 16 kilometers per hour in the old passage would pass for 60 kilometers per hour. Now FCA transports grains, fuels, alcohol, sugar, cement and containers in that area, with use of trains with distributed traction (locotrol and tricotrol).
The second work intended by Vale would be the connection Pirapora to Rio Verde, and Pirapora to Unaí, from where would be done the connection Unaí to Anápolis, tying FCA and EFVM with to FNS.

The Period of RFFSA

Old EFCB bridge over São Francisco river. Photo by Alexandre Almeida


In the sixties RFFSA gave continuity to the project of prolonging the line of Pirapora heading for Goiás. The infrastructure works were built to the place of Paredão de Minas, MG. Bridges, cuts and great embankments were built, but again the plans changed and the works were paralyzed. There is said that part of the line got to operate, but it was removed later. Letters of navigation of USAF show the line built even to Paredão de Minas, as old railway men of the area told me.
In the eighties RFFSA stopped crossing the bridge over San Francisco river and it moved the end of the line again for Pirapora. Still in the eighties the branch began to be abandoned gradually, until that in 1996 FCA assumed the mesh of the old Central and it closed the branch once and for all.

The Reopening of Pirapora Branch

FCA GT26CU-2 #936 leading soybean cars at the new Pirapora yard.
Photo by Alexandre Almeida

For those that are not familiarized with the lines of the old Central of Brazil maybe it is a little confused to understand what means the reopening of the old Pirapora branch by FCA on March 20, 2009.
The Line of Pirapora had been drifts a lot before Central arrives in that area. They consist in old documents that a private railroad was granted to tie Curvelo, MG the Arara hill, in the state of Goiás. We don't know if such work arrived beginning or if it was the Central who accomplished all of the works in that line, but the fact is that the line between Curvelo and Pirapora was built among the years of 1905 and 1910 by Central.
About 1917 Central began the construction of the extension of Montes Claros, that in the decade of 50 it turned line trunk, relegating the line of Pirapora to the branch status. The change felt because of the connection between the Central and Brazilian East Rwy happened in Monte Azul, MG in 1948. But the change of plans didn't go reason to the Central to abandon the line of Pirapora once and for all. Forces politics of the area forced central to maintain the operational extension and to build the bridge on the river San Francisco, doing with that the terminal point of that line changed for the km 1007, in the station of Independence (current Buritizeiros), in 1922. Once transposed the largest difficulty in the southeast area to jump over the interior heading for the north of the country, central gave up the plans of its Centro Line and it passed being devoted to the line of Montes Claros.