Restored locomotives are used on a railroad in SP – 07/16/2023 – Sobre Trilhos

Two locomotives manufactured in the 1940s and whose stories refer to railway companies that were already extinct in the country were restored and returned to the rails in the interior of São Paulo.

Operated by ABPF (Brazilian Association of Railway Preservation), the machines belonged in the past to Estrada de Ferro Sorocabana and later to Fepasa. Now, they are part of the association’s collection and can be seen by tourists who travel the stretch between Campinas and Jaguariúna.

They returned to the rails on April 29, as a celebration of Railroad Day (April 30), and were produced in 1947, according to the administrative director of ABPF Campinas, Hélio Gazetta Filho.

General Electric’s locomotive number 3104, manufactured in the United States, was the most recent to be restored by the railway preservation association and returned to the rails with the 3128, which returned from Itu, where it was in the service of the Republican Train, and had no opened in Campinas. The Republican Train invested BRL 3.5 million in a locomotive and it was no longer necessary to keep GE available for the route between Itu and Salto.

Due to its origins, locomotive 3128 was already painted in the colors of Sorocabana, while locomotive 3104 was restored in red, like the one used by Fepasa (Ferrovia Paulista SA).

Sorocabana, important for the economic development of the interior of São Paulo from the second half of the 19th century, was one of the five railroads that originated Fepasa.

Inaugurated in 1875, it arose from the interest of businessman Luiz Matheus Maylasky to create a railway company to export cotton production from the Sorocaba region.

The objective was to connect the railroad to the road between Itu and Jundiaí, which would pass through municipalities such as Itapetininga, Botucatu and Mairinque, until reaching São Paulo.

Sorocabana showed strong growth in its first five decades, when the trunk line (the main one) reached Presidente Epitácio – a municipality that today, by road, is 556 kilometers away from Sorocaba.

In 1971, it and four other railway companies that faced financial crises and were already under government control were unified in Fepasa. The others were Estrada de Ferro Araraquara, Companhia Paulista de Estradas de Ferro, Companhia Mogiana de Estradas de Ferro and São Paulo-Minas.

The Mogiana is the railroad that served Campinas and Jaguariúna and the ABPF uses its route to offer, on weekends and on special dates, such as holidays, the 24-kilometer ride between the cities of São Paulo.

Fepasa lasted only until the second half of the 1990s, when it was passed on by São Paulo to the federal government as part of an agreement due to state debts.

PRESENT LINK: Did you like this text? Subscriber can release five free hits of any link per day. Just click the blue F below.