(This first appeared in Locomotives International No. 45)

AND NOW FOR SOME GOOD NEWS from Eddie Edumdson. Click here for mystery preserved locos in Brazil.

For more information and pictures from a separate August 2003 visit see http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/41811/#TL and http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/5f9c8/1724fe/ (added 23rd Decemnber 2003)

"May 1998, and my expectations of finding any surviving locomotive at all were very low. I had spent two days in the city of Campos dos Goytacazes in the State of Rio de Janeiro at a teachers conference, and I had written to my hosts in advance to explain that I had an eccentric hobby (for Brazil) - I was interested in the survival of steam locomotives in the sugar growing area of Campos, and I could stay on for the Saturday morning after the event finished to have a look round.

I travelled with published accounts from the Continental Railway Journal sent in by previous visitors. The roster in 1979 (CRJ #40) named the sugar mills (usinas) of Barcelos, Queimado, São José and Outeiro, with a total of 17 steam locomotives surviving, including 11 in use or on standby. By 1983 (CRJ #56) a more comprehensive study of the same usinas plus those of São Pedro, Santo Amaro, Santa Maria, Cambalba, São João, and Conceição de Macabú reported the survival of 31 locomotives of which only 10 were seen in steam. In December 1991 (CRJ #90) a visitor noted that railway activity was being run down at the usinas of Conceição de Macabú and São José, and that there were three engines plus derelicts at Barcelos. A year later, in August 1992 (CRJ #93), the state of affairs is really forlorn, with an unidentified 0-4-2T (no.2) preserved at Santa Maria, all the engines dumped at Conceição de Macabú, the two serviceable locomotives at Santo Amaro lying unused on account of poor cane harvests, and two engines discarded at Usina Quiemado. No wonder my expectations were low!

Helvia is the President of the Rio State Teachers Association, and herself the daughter of sugar mill owners in Campos in the prosperous days when sugar was king. She explained at the airport on my arrival that, yes, there was one locomotive which had survived - it was at a recreational centre, and she had arranged for two teachers to take me there by car on Saturday morning before lunch at her beach house, which was nearby in São João da Barra. Saturday came, and on the way from Campos to São João I spotted a locomotive in a small landholding by the side of the road called 'Sitio Modelo'; it turned out to be the unidentified 0-4-2T from Usina Santa Maria, now rusty and pathetically uncared for. I took photographs thinking only that this was an unexpected bonus on a visit where my only role would be to bear sad witness to the total dereliction of the golden age of steam in the Campos cane harvests.

We arrived at the recreational centre in Grussaí within the municipality of São João da Barra. This turned out to be a huge holiday camp for families who work in commerce run by the Minas Gerais State branch of SESC (Serviço Social do Comércio). Minas Gerais is one of the few States in Brazil which has no coastline, and therefore no beaches of its own. We explained at the main gate that we had come to see the locomotive, which at best I imagined would be on display near the main administration block, and at worst would be a children's adventure toy. But no, we were directed to a second gate where a young man jovially explained that I should come back in the afternoon for the 2pm ride out in the 'maría fumaça' (lit. 'Mary smoke') - the affectionate nickname given to steam engines in Brazil. What? Run out in the afternoon? How was this possible?

We drove in, and turning by a hedgerow, there suddenly was the locomotive, and it was in steam! It is a Baldwin 2-8-0 (#14119 of 10/1894), reportedly ex-Sorocabana & Itauna 31, and ex Sorocabana 109, and more recently no.2 at Usina Barcelos in São João da Barra. Although I couldn't wait for the afternoon excursion, I had the privilege of speaking at length with Sr Walter Gomez Coutinho, a retired Usina engine driver who, with a team of four mechanics, has lovingly restored the century-old Baldwin. He showed me the passenger carriages which are being constructed in authentic detail on top of cane sugar bogeys, and then explained that this is the nucleus of a much larger project.

Already running for 8 months, the locomotive takes guests at the holiday camp on a 7 kilometre circuit every Saturday afternoon, but there are plans to build more railway line over the extensive lands belonging to the camp, and even an arm to the seashore. Two other locomotives from the Usina Barcelos are being renovated and will join their old companion at this metre gauge tourist project - No.1, 2-8-0 Baldwin and No.5, 2-8-0 Baldwin (1894). Sr Coutinho showed me the foundations being prepared for the machine shop, and pointed to where a railway station and a museum will shortly be constructed as part of the project. He added that 3 locomotives have survived at the Usina Conceição de Macabú, and that two of them will be brought to the holiday camp for the museum. Good news indeed!"

"This photo is of a beautifully preserved ST on display inside the Central Railway Station (Calçada) in Salvador, capital of the State of Bahia, in north east Brazil, and I have no idea what loco type it is:

Initials on cab read LB - (Leste Brasileiro Railway). Restored in RFFSA workshop in Alagoinhas, Bahia."

And here is another mystery loco, 0-4-0ST plinthed near the railway station in Campina Grande, in the interior of the State of Paraiba. Could it be a Porter? or a Baldwin?

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