São Paulo Railway Company

 

In 1859, a group of people led by the Barão de Mauá convinced the Brazilian government that it was important to construct a railroad connecting São Paulo to the seaport at Santos. The main purpose of the project was the transport of the coffee grown on the inland plateau to the Atlantic coast for export. The biggest difficulty was the task to overcome the steep east slope of the 800-meter high Serra do Mar, which was considered to be nearly impracticable. Therefore, Barão de Mauá asked Britain to clarify the feasibility of a railway line for locomotive hauled trains within a budget limit of 200,000 £. The greatest technician for this subject was consulted: Scottish railroad engineer James Brunlees.^[4][5]

Brunlees visited Brazil and considered that the project was feasible. He recommended engineer Daniel Makinson Fox to Barão de Mauá for the execution of the project. Fox was at that time only 26 years old but had already experience in the construction of railways through the mountains of northern Wales and the hillsides of the Pyrenees. He realised that the railway could only climb the slope in the Serra do Mar if a 5-mile (8 km) long incline system was built. An adhesion railway would have used 26 miles (42 km) to overcome the slope and would have also overrun the 200,000 £ budget.^[5]

 

Daniel Fox's proposal for the railway line from Santos to Jundiaí including the incline system was approved by Brunlees and the São Paulo Railway Company (SPR) was established to build the railway system and operate it for 90 years.^[6] Since the capital of the company was mainly British also the official company name was in English, not Portuguese. The railway company contracted with Robert Sharpe & Sons to acquire the land, execute the works and supply all rolling stock and plant.^[7]

Construction on the 20 km (12 mi) long adhesion railway Santos – Piaçaguera began on 15 March 1860 and on the incline system in the year 1861.^[6]

The road was constructed without explosives since it was felt that the slopes were very unstable. The rock was excavated only with plug and feathers. Embankments of 3 to 20 m (9.8 to 65.6 ft) in height were constructed to protect the tracks from the frequent torrential rains in the area, which used about 230,000 cubic metres (300,000 cu yd) rocks. The line did not have any tunnels.^[5]

In spite of all the difficulties, the construction finished 10 months ahead of the date specified in the contract, which was eight years. The São Paulo Railway was opened on 1867-02-16.^[5]

 

The part of the route climbing the Serra do Mar consisted of four 10.3% grade cable railway sections with the following length:^[4]

• section 1: 1,781 metres (5,843 ft)
• section 2: 1,947 metres (6,388 ft)
• section 3: 2,096 metres (6,877 ft)
• section 4: 3,139 metres (10,299 ft)

At each section the wagons were attached to a steel wire rope with the help of a specially fitted brake van called Serrabreque (transl.: Hill Brake).^[8] The steel cable was driven by a stationary steam winding engine at the top end of the section, where a 75 metres (246 ft) extension with a 1.3% grade was also fitted, so that the wagons could be led to the next section.^[4]

The incline system was later called Serra Velha (transl.: Old Mountain) to distinguish it from the later built second incline system called Serra Nova.

The large volume of coffee shipments and the growth of the cities in the São Paulo region required more transport capacity. Therefore, the construction of a second incline system started in 1895. The new line ran parallel to the already existing one in about two miles (3.2 km) distance. It had five sections using continuous steel wire ropes which were moved by stationary 1,000 hp (750 kW) steam engines. Each section was about 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) long and had a grade of 8%. Two to three wagons were coupled to the rope with the help of small locomotives fitted with grip engaging with the cable. These locomotives were also able to handle the wagons in the terminal station and between the sections so that the operation of the incline system was facilitated. The locomotives have been called Locobreque (transl.: Brake locomotives). In case the weight of the wagons to be lifted was too heavy compared to the wagons lowered at the same time, tank cars filled with water were used to counterbalance the system. The incline system was used in revenue service till 1982.^[6]

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  Power house of the fifth Serra Nova section in Paranapiacaba
•  
  Locobreque with two coaches on a tourist trip in 1987
•  
  Grip of the Locobreque
•  
  Steam engine in the power house at Paranapiacaba

In 1889, the first protests were made against the British monopoly over the route to Porto de Santos, which culminated in the construction of Mairinque–Santos in 1937, by the Estrada de Ferro Sorocabana [pt].

On 1946-09-13, the railroad was nationalised by the Brazilian government, and renamed the Estrada de Ferro Santos-Jundiaí, and on 1948-09-27, it was merged with most of the other Brazilian railways into the Rede Ferroviária Federal SA (RFFSA).

In the 1970s (well after it had been renamed), the haulage system was replaced by an Abt rack system with a maximum gradient of 10.4 %, which was installed by Japanese firm Marubeni. The locomotives for this changeover were constructed by Hitachi with the help of SLM. They work with 3 kV DC supplied by overhead lines.

Starting from 2012, the original Hitachi locomotives were replaced by seven new-built machines supplied by Stadler.^[9]

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  Top end of the rack railway section in Paranapiacaba
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  Two Hitachi-Locomotives with a downhill train entering the rack railway in Paranapiacaba

• Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos
• List of funicular railways

• History of the São Paulo Railway in Portuguese
• A Gateway to Brazil
• The Estrada de Ferro Santos a Jundiaí
• A Very British Railway (book by Paul Catchpole)
• Winchester, Clarence, ed. (1938), "Scaling the ramparts of Brazil", Wonders of World Engineering, pp. 65–72 illustrated description of the São Paulo Railway
• Fawcett, Brian, "Coffee on a Shoestring", Trains magazine (USA), June 1956 (Concise early history, and description of operations on the second incline section as it was in 1956)