Blood on the Tracks: The Turbulent History of Brazil's Mass-Transit System

Train Surfers on the British-built Central Railway, 1986.

On Feb 6th 2014, Brazilian cameraman, Santiago Andrade, was fatally wounded by a firework
in front of Rio de Janeiro's Central Railway Station. Andrade had been filming protests against
a hike in transport fares when the rocket exploded against his head, shattering his skull. He
was the 117th journalist to be injured in the crossfire between police and protestors since the
current wave of Brazilian protests began, in July 2013. His death was seen as a watershed in
the protest movement, prompting calls by politicians for sweeping anti-terrorism legislation to
tackle violent demonstrations in the run-up to the World Cup. But it might also be regarded as
simply another brutal episode in the troubled history of Brazil's first mass-transit system.

Brazil's railway age got off to a shaky start, setting an ominous tone for its future development.
In 1840, Doctor Thomas Cochrane, a Scots homeopath and nephew of naval hero, mercenary
and founder of the Brazilian Navy, Admiral Thomas Cochrane, won a concession to build a line
from Rio to São Paulo. Cochrane leased a team of circus horses to survey the route and
enlisted the circus's clown to promote his prospectus - 'Great National Railroad' - which
claimed the line would do for Brazil what the Stockton and Darlington Railway had done for
Britain. But the ruse failed to inspire investor-confidence in a coulrophobic local population
which had heard of neither Stockton nor Darlington. 13 years later, having failed to complete
the preliminary studies for the line, Cochrane was forced to abandon his Quixotic adventure.

(Undaunted, the good Doctor would go on to found Brazil's first tramway system and leave a
substantial philanthropic legacy in the form of a hospital for slaves, a health service for Rio's
poor black community and a charitable homeopathic clinic. A mountain in Rio's Tijuca
Rainforest - the Morro de Cochrane - is named in his memory).

Cochrane's concession was snapped up by a Brazilian concern led by the engineer Christiano
Ottoni . In 1855, the Brazilian government contracted the Welsh engineer, Edward Price, to
build the first section of Ottoni's line, intended to tap the booming, coffee-rich Paraíba Valley,
between Rio and São Paulo. Within three years, under the auspices of chief-engineer Charles E.
Austin (who would lend his name to Rio's 'Austin' district and railway station), the tracks
extended from the centre of Rio to the outlying suburb of Queimados. And, on March 29th
1858, against a backdrop of bunting and artillery salvos, the Emperor, Dom Pedro II - in whose
honour the line was named - clambered aboard his freshly-consecrated, British-built carriage
for the inaugural 32-mile round-trip.

The Inauguration of the first section of the Dom Pedro II Railway Line (later the Central Railway
Line). After the ceremony the abstemious monarch invited the assembled guests to join him in
'a splendid glass of water' - much, no doubt, to the chagrin of the notoriously bibulous British
engineers.

'I pray that God grants me a long life', announced the technophile Emperor on his return, 'in
order that I may see Brazilians always friendly, always happy, advancing with the ever-
increasing speed of civilization to the brilliant future that Providence has destined for us.'

'...let it be proclaimed in a loud voice to the whole world', echoed the Jornal do Commercio
newspaper, 'that Brazil progresses, prospers and advances, and is assured a place on the same
level as the richest and most powerful of nations.'

But despite the lofty sentiments and palpable sense of euphoria, the enterprise was plagued
by difficulties from the start. The contract for the project had been signed between Price and
the Brazilian government - not the company - for a fixed sum, giving the engineer an incentive
- evidently embraced - to cut corners and costs. He further took advantage of a clause in the
contract which allowed him to deviate from the original plan, stringing the line all over the
countryside to avoid expensive earthworks. Stations were thrown together using the cheapest
materials. Their floors - including that of the not very grand Central Station - were made of
beaten earth, one of which had to be weeded weekly. Barlow tracks, which dispensed with
sleepers and were laid directly on the gravel, were employed on the final section. Much of the
line, built at a level susceptible to flooding, would have to be rebuilt.
The Sant' Ana Church was bulldozed to make way for the Central Railway Station. (Campo de
Santana, Thomas Ender, 1817)

Rio's original Central Station, with its beaten-earth floor. The Providência Hill in the
background would become the site of Brazil's first favela and overlooks the English Cemetery,
Brazil's first purpose-built burial ground.
The current Central Station, designed in consultation with British architect, Robert Prentice.
The railways introduced the notion of rigidly-enforced clock-time to Brazil; the Central's art-
deco tower boasts the world's second-largest external clock-face, after Big Ben.

Like many of the British railway contractors working in Brazil, Price was not, in the view of
Brazilian historian, Ademar Benévolo, qualified to build railways. But a host of problems were
ranged against him: inadequate studies, budgetary constraints, labour-sourcing difficulties,
tropical rains and the swampy, disease-ridden countryside through which much of the line
passed. By the time it reached the waterlogged terrain around Belém, the last stop on the
route, many of his immigrant workers - including a 1,000 strong contingent of English and Irish
navies - had jumped ship in protest at the insalubrious conditions.

The Swedish-Brazilian engineer Charles Albert Morsing recalled: 'I entered the swamp, in
Belém, in the morning and left the other side on the way to Carapuça, at night, ... having been
in water up to the neck all day.' Morsing ended up contracting malaria. To counter the flight of
European workers, and unable to sufficiently supplement their numbers with sub-contracted
slaves, Price shipped in thousands of Chinese coolies. As many as 5,000 are said to have
succumbed to Malaria before being turfed into a Belem cemetery.

Eight months after the official inauguration of the Dom Pedro II Railway, Price's line finally
reached its terminal station, Belém (Japeri), where the original termite-riddled, half-timbered
building stands today.
The half-timbered Japeri (Belém) Station on the Central Railway Line, built from imported
British materials: a high-flown, hybrid fantasy marooned in Rio's low-income suburbs.

With the first section completed, Price was duly sacked by the company, understandably
convinced he was out to defraud them, and the task of routing the track over the 2,000m Serra
da Mantiqueira was handed to US engineer Colonel F. M. Garnet (whose experience of running
a line over the Rocky Mountains made him a more suitable candidate for the job). Shortly
afterwards, crippled by over-spending, the company went bankrupt and was taken over by the
Brazilian government. Boosted by a 1.5 million pound loan supplied by the London branch of
the Rothschild's bank (the perennial financer of Brazil's infrastructure projects and foreign
debt, and without which, according to Ottoni, "the railroad would never have crossed the
cordilheira"), the US engineers pushed the line through the mountains to the Paraíba Valley -
too late to take advantage of the peak of the valley's coffee boom but in time to tap the
massive crops of the West São Paulo region and the Minas frontier. Two decades later, it was
shipping over a 170 thousand tons of coffee a year.

Throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth,
Brazil's rail network continued to expand, largely financed, built, managed or owned by British
companies. Some of the lines were extraordinarily successful, like the San Paulo Railway,
which opened up São Paulo's coffee-country and drove the city's transformation from
provincial backwater into industrial-financial powerhouse. Others, like the Dom Pedro/Central
line were moderately profitable. Many were outright failures, or mere speculative traps,
touted as gilt-edged investment opportunities by cynical City promoters to gullible investors:

''They have floated schemes which they must have known to be visionary and unpromising,"
fulminated the Rio News, in 1887, "and they have flattered and wheedled Brazilian officials
into the belief that scores of these wretched enterprises could be made remunerative, and
that the ‘natural resources’ of the country are incalculably great, but can be developed
properly only through these so-called improvements…Then they have turned to the confiding
investor and made him believe Brazil to be the long sought El Dorado, and that for every
shilling planted there, nothing less than a sovereign could be produced. They have traded upon
the amicability and rectitude of the Emperor, the peaceableness of the Brazilian people, the
fertility of the soil, the wide expanse of territory, the produce of a few gold and diamond
mines, and the ‘splendid future’ in store for the country. They have baited their hooks with
many a glittering generality and have never failed to catch their fish with them.”

But for all their failures, the railways had a genuinely transformative impact on Brazil/engines
of social change/transformation. They hastened the demise of slavery - companies involved in
rail construction were prevented by law from owning slaves - and offered escaped routes for
runaway slaves in the years prior to abolition in 1888. (The Brazilian underground railroad was
really an overland railroad.) They introduced the idea of a workers' rights and protection for
his welfare, and contributed to the ending of feudal working conditions in rural areas. (A 1923
law obliged all rail companies to make pension provision for their employees; a 1911 law
limited the working day to 12 hours.) With their rigidly enforced timetables, they introduced
the notion of clock-time - or English time (a hora inglesa) - in a country where the pace of life
had been dictated by the organic rhythms of rural existence. And they even contributed words
to the local language: cróssima (crossing), troli (trolley), breque (brake) and coque (coke).
(Anglophile anthropologist, Gilberto Freyre, claims the word sulipa (sleeper) 'moved from the
vocabulary of the railway to that of the phallic'. Only in Brazil could railway equipment acquire
erotic connotations).

As in Britain, Brazilian railways, built primarily to transport cargo, were soon fulfilling the Duke
of Wellington's deepest fears and encouraging 'the lower classes to move about'. A passenger
service was introduced on the Central Line in 1861, operating one train a day between the
centre and the suburbs. Passengers without shoes (i.e. the poor or slaves) were allowed to
travel for free. The rule prompted many travellers to remove and conceal their footwear
before embarking and was swiftly abandoned. (Subsequent rules banned passengers from
travelling when drunk or improperly dressed and offered half-price discounts to people under
1 metre in height). By 1884, the Central Line was carrying over 3 million passengers a year and
was driving the development of Rio's northern suburbs.

: DPII carries 3,125,127 passengers on its main line.

Trains of C de B stimulated growth of suburbs/North Zone

Rail terminology entered the language. “Acontece com a regularidade das marés e dos trens
ingleses...” (not very regular tides then)

Central Rules, 1928:

People barred from travelling: drunk, indecent or improperly dressed.

People who are under 1 metre in height will be sold half-price tickets: children and dwarves

Central do Brasil: 380 thousand passengers pass through daily;

Passenger transport on DPII began in 1861 with one train daily between Corte and Cascadura;
increased passenger demand in C20 and dependence on US and British supplies of coal
rendered line vulnerable and decision taken to electrify line, contract being won by
Metropolitan Vickers Electrical Export Co. Ltd who tendered the best offer of five candidates;
Vargas present at inauguration of new service in 1937, not clear whether the presence of
crypto fascist president was intended to ensure that the trains ran on time.

Natural that railways should be focus of social aspirations for improved conditions/services

Transformation

“The Duke of Wellington opposed railways because they would encourage the lower classes to
move about.”

English imposing clock-time in Brazil. The start of the era of deadlines, and almost inevitably,
missed deadlines.

Railways engines of social change in Britain; rail unions in vanguard of struggle for workers’
rights; key to formation of labour party.

Metroland creating a new community; garden villages.

Trains were not run on Sunday for fear of offending Catholic sensibilities (in some areas).

“a palavra sulipa passou, no Brasil, do vocabulário ferroviário ao erótico ou fálico” (Freyre)

Also: breque, macadam, cróssima (crossing), sulaque (slide valve), troli, tender, vagão, cab,
faeton, brigue, escuna, cuter, iate, destróier, chalua (sloop), deque, coque, estoque, doca,
grumeta (groomate), bolina (bowline), publicau (rufião). (Freyre)

Elói Chaves Law of 1923 provided for creation of pension funds for rail company employees.
Central do B employees perhaps the first in Brazil to benefit from social welfare benefits.

By C20, the Central do B employed 7 employees, mostly bureaucrats, per kilometre of track;
whilst the ration at the Leopoldina, which was more efficient, was a little over 1 per km, and
the Great Western, only 2.

Regularity of engineers, station staff and train operators, in absence of overseeing authority,
astonishing to slaves and caipiras.

Decree/clause decreed that telegraph lines be established alongside all tracks (as they were in
England, between London and Birmingham)

Mail to be transported free of charge on railways.

Brazil (1843), second country after England (1840) to introduce postage stamps (US, 1845);
letters initially addressed to railway stations/stations. (railway having similarly civilizing
influence as sewers)
Initially British engines dominated:

William Fairburn (baronesa, 1852), Black & Co., Aronside Fox Walker, Davidson’s Hawthorns,
Paton Leith, Beyer Peacock & Co, Bilinger and Lowe, Neilson & Co, Hunslet Engine Co; also
Belgian and French suppliers. Americans only supplied Baldwin, but dominated, even supplying
British-built lines.

1882: 18 British built locos, 1 French and Belgian, 95 American (in service on DPII?)

Baldwin favoured due to “wood-burner” balloon chimney/stove, whereas Euro locos only
burnt coal or coke, but not charcoal – common fuel in US. Design of Baldwin – number of
wheels, independent front axle, cattle-catcher – all factors. (American takeover of line
prefiguring US substitution of the British, economically and militarily in South America)

*Brazil, thanks to British influence, becoming a pioneer in fields of urban sewage, railway
transport and postal services, telegraphy, gas-lighting, port services, mining, football.
(Evidence of all these visible along Central do Brasil) Public utilities.

The railway made possible the modernisation of many areas of B; opening up rural areas and
bringing comforts or conveniences till then limited to the bigger cities.

One aspect of Spencer’s appeal was the curious emphasis he placed on railways as part of the
organic system of a modern society, claiming that because of “the invention of the locomotive
engine” the “social organism had been rendered more heterogeneous.” [but, nonetheless, a
social Darwinian wedded to dubious theories of racial purity]

Use of slave labour prohibited in contract for DPII to assuage farm-owners fears that their
slaves would flee to work on railway.

1884 – first telephone line established to Engenho Dentro on DPII (enabling DPII to have
telephone installed in his palace after being impressed by a demonstration by Alexander
Graham Bell)

Various Euro rails retained elements of British practice, such as running on left.

Until invention of railways, towns had their own time, determined by longtitude. In 1847 the
Railway Clearing House adopted Greenwich Mean Time as ‘railway time’, which was used by
most railways and became universal standard.

“Of all inventions, the alphabet and the printing press alone excepted, those inventions which
abridge distance have done most for the civilization of our species.” - Macaulay.

The night-life of Rio transformed by the introduction of gas-lighting to the city’s streets;
Maua’s securing the concession for this and the related draining of the mangue canal.

250 whales caught annually off Rio coast, but by 1822 animals virtually extinct and whaling
station shut down, its oil making tools sold off. (did numbers ever recover?)
Public lighting provided by fish oil which was, according to Vieira Fazenda: “…avermelhada e
amortecido” (dull), lamps lit by low level slaves who slept in the gutters so that they could put
the lamps out as day broke.

English imposing clock-time in Brazil. The start of the era of deadlines, and almost
concurrently, missed deadlines.

Scully, observed the challenging nature of the B countryside: ‘Add to this, that, supported by
English capitalists, planned by extravagant engineers, and superintended by extravagant
employees at extravagant salaries, they have been constructed with costly stations, and with
grades, tunnels, curves, and ways suited, no doubt, to the great speed and traffic of an English
railway, but utterly incommensurate with the circumstances of a new and undeveloped
country …’

opened up the São Paulo coffee-country, drove the region's development and enabled the city
of São Paulo's

British loans financed almost all the Brazilian railways, when not directly operated by the
British. In 1870, according to Werner Baer, four Brit companies controlled 72% of the Brazilian
rail network. 1880, British shareholders the majority holders in 11 railway companies; 1895,
they had direct control of 25 of these companies, including the most important and profitable
lines.

omo curiosidade, no início do funcionamento da ferrovia, os carros de terceira classe eram

abertos nas laterais, com bancos de madeira e não cobravam passagem porque eram
destinados aos pobres, assim identificados por andarem descalços já não tinham recursos para
comprar qualquer tipo de calçado. Imediatamente estes carros passaram a ser utilizados
também por passageiros das demais classes sociais que, literalmente, tiravam e escondiam
seus sapatos para poder viajar de graça. Em pouco tempo a terceira classe seria extinta.
(http://www.central.rj.gov.br/010204.htm)

As with railways in Britain, a line built to shift cargo almost immediately became a large-scale
people carrier ferrying people to and from the suburbs and driving the development of Rio's
industrial northern residential neighbourhoods.

Railways were built all over Brazil, almost all with British financing and expertise, though with
widely varying degrees of success.

First Brazilian lines v. expensive; importation of trained foreign labour force, many succumbing
to sickness at a time of yellow fever, cholera, malaria (and even bubonic plague?) epidemics,

Arguable that the railways were constructed primarily for the benefit of their investors and the
landowners and touched relatively few Bs.

Concessions secured from govt. and offered for sail in UK; promoters organised companies to
buy concessions. Rio News, 1887 (Scully?):
Choice of gauges – 1,676 for Mauá – and 1.60 m for rest of early lines a mystery – perhaps
explained by availability of material in England, after Parliament decreed that all English lines
should use the 1.435 m gauge as standard. 1.60 m standard in Ireland and still known as “Irish
gauge”, used in Ireland, Brazil and Australia. Narrow gauge lines became more common after
1871. Debate led to creation of “broad gauge” and “narrow gauge” factors and complicated
the process of integration of lines, as happened in other countries. More recent rail
development (Ferronorte, Norte-Sul, Transnordestina, have reverted to broad gauge)

Em 8 de novembro do mesmo ano, foram acrescentados mais 13 Km de linha, chegando até

Belém. As primeiras estações eram construções muito precárias, todas em taipa, com paredes
de barro e ripas de madeira; apenas a estação inicial, ou seja, a da Corte foi edificada em
alvenaria, mas seu piso também era de terra batida.

O problema do transporte da produção cafeeira do Vale do Paraíba foi em parte solucionado

com a criação da companhia Estrada de Ferro Dom Pedro II (hoje Central do Brasil) em 1855.
As obras da ferrovia tiveram início após um empréstimo obtido na Inglaterra e duas décadas
mais tarde a linha chegava a Cachoeira, no interior paulista.

At the time of inauguration, 10 English locomotives were in service, in addition to 1 st, 2nd and
3rd Class carriages and wagons.

DPII financed by Teixere Leite and Ottoni families who regarded it not only as potentially
profitable but also as a prestige project which would render useful service to the country.

c.f. Texeira Leite, Cristiano Ottoni:

“Náo se pode pensar na origem da Estrada de Ferro Dom Pedro II, sem que, ao espírito, acuda,
como ideía, a cidade de Vassouras...Foram os homens ilustrados de Vassouras...os
protagonistas que se puseram em luta contra a incredulidade dos nossos maiores estadistas.”
(enterpreneur spirit)

Incredulity of Bernardo Pereira de Vasconcelos:

“É a estrada de ouro, náo de ferro; carregará no primeiro dia do més toda a producáo e ficará
trinta dias ociosa.”

Early history of railway in Brazil can be told within the first few stops of the DPII.

English constructed Rio-Belem section of DPII, before handed over to Americans, more familiar
with terrain/topography and whose techniques better suited to Brazilian rail construction –
unpopulated areas, forested regions (admiration for Baldwin, its traction force)

O Rio de Janeiro teve várias ferrovias saindo da mesma região onde hoje está a Dom Pedro II,
mas somente esta resistiu: as outras, Barão de Mauá, Alfredo Maia, Francisco Sá, que serviram
à velha E. F. Leopoldina, à linha Auxiliar... todas foram fechadas.

" Seu papel estratégico no desenvolvimento do País facilitou a circulação de riquezas e de

pessoas, na medida em que a fronteira econômica se interiorizava. Modificou usos e costumes
de uma sociedade, refletindo um novo modo de viver, interferindo com o dinamismo das
cidades por onde passava, deixando também uma marca na arquitetura e na cultura nacional."

Slaves not allowed to wear shoes. First thing they bought when free?
Edward Price Engineer from Govilon in south east Wales.

The Supervia/Central do Brasil currently in debt to Light to tune of $25 million.

Interwar period characterized by dictators using railways to promote modernity and futuristic
aspects of their regimes – electrification of Central line. (Samba, Carnival)

Pereira Passos director of Central Railway at turn of century; Central Station demolished in
1939.

Walter Salles film; erected in place of Igreja de Santana, built in 1735 – no pequeno oratorio da
Central ainda existem duas imagens: Sant’Anna and Nossa Senhora Aparecida, the patron saint
of railways. Mass still celebrated twice a week at 13.00 for a dozen faithful. Grand aspect of
original Central Station with its porticos and neo-colonial architecture; 1998 Trem de Prata,
linking RJ and SP, scrapped; 220 km network with 89 stations today; to solve problem of
graffiti, local graffiti artists were invited to paint various stations as part of the Arte na Linha
project.

Roads

Hamond, October 27: “É realmente incrível que os brasileiros possam ser tão selvagens para
permitir que as estradas e caminhos permanecem no estado em que estão...Os materiais para
a construção de estradas estão à mão e elas seriam perfeitas com muito pouco trabalho.”

Luccock: ‘The productions of Brazil created more activity. Being generally heavy or bulky
articles, they were conveyed for the most part by water, and an estate was of little value
unless bounded by a navigable stream or enriched by Minerals. Hence the roads were little
used, insufferably bad, intricate, and embarrassed … had not the interior of South America
possessed the precious metals, it would have remained as utterly unknown at this day as the
interior of Africa …’

“No improvement…is so necessary in Brazil as the construction of good roads. Even the
greatest line of communication between Rio and the region of Minas is not accessible to any
kind of vehicle…The post between Rio and Minas is carried by men on foot, who, taking short-
cuts through the forest and over the mountains, succeed in covering the distance more rapidly
than horseman by road.” (Fox Bunbury)

“…this difficulty greatly increases the cost of transport of all voluminous objects and excludes
those items naturally subject to deterioration…in the case of very heavy and bulky goods, such
as iron (of which exists inexhaustible reserves in the mountains of Minas Gerais), the difficulty
and cost of transport would be excessive.” (Fox Bunbury)
Central Line

Through the recommendation of Sir Charles Fox, Bragge was sent out to Brazil as the
representative of Messrs. Belhouse & Co., of Manchester, and he carried out the lighting of the
city of Rio de Janeiro with gas. This was followed by the survey of the first railway constructed
in Brazil—the line from Rio de Janeiro to Petropolis—for which he received several distinctions
from the emperor Don Pedro. The emperor in later years visited Bragge at Sheffield.

The most remarkable collection formed by Bragge was one of pipes and smoking apparatus, in
which every quarter of the world was represented. A catalogue prepared and published [ 207  ]
by the collector showed that he had brought together 13,000 examples of pipes. China, Japan,
Thibet, Van Diemen's Land, North and South America, Greenland, the Gold Coast, and the
Falkland Islands, all furnished specimens. ‘There were also samples of some hundreds of kinds
of tobacco, of every conceivable form of snuff-box, including the rare Chinese snuff-bottles,
and also of all known means of procuring fire, from the rude Indian fire-drill down to the latest
invention of Paris or Vienna.’

With a recommendation from Sir Charles Fox, Bragge, representing Edward T. Belhouse & Co.
of Manchester, was sent to Brazil where he worked on the project to light Rio de Janeiro with
gas, as well as surveying the first railway in Brazil. For his fine work, Bragge received
distinctions from the emperor Don Pedro, [2] including the Order of the Rose. [9

Gas lighting sector, which grew rapidly in England in 1840s, introduced to various cities in
Brazil by, respectively: The Rio de Janeiro Gaz Co. (750 thousand pounds in 1866), The Para Gaz
Co. (170 thousand pounds in 1866), The Nichteroy Gaz Co. (75 thousand in 1868) and Sâo
Paulo Gaz Co. (80 thousand in 1873). C.f. Ana Célia Castro, As Empresas Estrangeiras no Brasil,
1860-1913.

According to local residents, one of the last jobs of the first Brazilian line was transporting sand
for the construction of the Maracaná, the sand excavated along the length of the line and
transferred into boats at Estrela beach for transportation to Rio.

Cemiterio dos ingleses: F, on Anglo negligence towards ex-sailors: ‘burgeses britanicos do Rio
de Janeiro, tendo construido, na Gamboa, um cemiterio para o sepultamento dos mortos, por
longo tempo, neglegenciaram seus deveres para com grande parte dos seus vivos.’ (238)
Fletcher: ‘the sailor is neglected.’

Wells, railway engineer employed, originally, by the Public Works Construction Company of
London ‘to make certain surveys and explorations in the interior of Brazil’; feasibility study into
extension of DPII to Rio Sao Fransisco, and construction of grade line from Rio to Amazon
valley; first aim fulfilled.

‘Small cups of black coffee, and greasy cakes, and slices of pao delor [?] dos anjos (angel’s
sponge cake) and sundry small drams of brandy, and laranjinha (white rum flavoured with
orange bitters) were rapidly being dispatched at the refreshment bar on the platform …’
‘There was a gabble of tongues, much gesticulation, much cuddling, many tears, the bell
clangs, and the hoarse whistle sounds; pompous guards and station master resplendent in
brass buttons, gold braid, and blue-cloth suits, hurry the lagging ones; a rush for seats and
finally the train of cars winds out of the station … the seats are wide and comfortable in form,
with cane bottoms and backs. I sat me down with a feeling of exultation as I realized that as
last I was then fairly on my way for the long-desired dream of my youth - a long sojourn and
travel in tropical wilds.’ (the pompous guards replaced by brutal functionaries)

James Wells, like many English engineers, acquiring the appellation ‘doutor’ (‘Senhor Doutor’,
‘Doutor Ingles’) found himself called upon to perform medical tasks for which (in less serious
cases) he generally used ‘pilulas de Cockle’.

Wells observations of the ‘utter worthlessness’ of English (railway/mine) labourers in B; they

didn’t work; they didn’t want to work; though well-treated by the B workers, they put on
superior and arrogant airs, became dissipated inveterate, hopeless drunks in many cases.
Wells resolved to avoid them wherever possible.

‘At Belem we stop awhile to take in more coffee and bilious looking cakes.’

São Cristovão

“The palace at Sáo Crisováo had been completely refitted. The court had employed a British
architect, Peter Johnson, who had carried out a series of works to give the former planter’s
mansion an air of royalty. Thanks to a donation from the Duke of Northumberland, the
entrance to its grounds was now graced by a new portal, an exact replica of the gate at
London’s Sion House.” A Mr. Johnson came to Rio to oversee the installation of the Duke of
Northumberland’s gates at the Quinta and subsequently kept on to superintend the
enlargement of the palace.

The palace at Sáo Cristováo disappointing the Austrian nobles, ‘any provincial German noble
would have a more beautiful house’ wrote one of party. (similarity to Buck house)

Quanto às experiências iniciais com o telefone, foi dom Pedro II que em 1877 fez a
inauguração da linha que ligava o Paço de São Cristóvão (hoje Museu Nacional da Quinta da
Boa Vista) ao Paço da Cidade (na atual Praça 15 de Novembro). O imperador ficara tão
entusiasmado com a invenção do escocês Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) na ocasião em
que visitou a Exposição de Filadélfia, em 1876, que resolveu experimentá-la aqui (22).

“Quando o Bangu vencia, muito bem, náo havia nada, o trem podia voltar sem vidraças
partidas. Quando o Bangu perdia, porém, a coisa mudava de figura. Os jogadores da cidade
trancavam-se no barracáo, o vestiario da época, náo queriam sair, só com polícia, os
torcedores corriam para esconder-se no trem, deitando-se nos bancos compridos de madeira,
enquanto as pedras fuzilavam, partindo vidros, quebrando cabeças ... Todos levando a coisa
mais para rivalidade entre o clube do subúrbio e clube da cidade.”

When Rio teams played at Figueira de Melo (home of São Cristovão where Ronaldo Fenomeno
made his debut), they had to take greater precautions even then when they visited Bangu:
supporters would await them with stones obliging travelling fans to lie down in the carriages
and cover their faces with their hands, and to leave the stadium via the corridor to avoid stick-
wielding SC fans.

Creation of English Football League in 1888 generated huge number of train excursions.

Oscar Cox tried unsuccessfully to persuade Central do Brasil to grant discount on the
considerable fare to players traveling to SP, inasmuch as it was a question of a sporting
diplomatic mission.

Quinta da Boa Vista had not gardens when it belonged to the trafficante Antonio Elias Lopes.
Large scale landscaping works undertaken when it was transformed into royal palace. When
Maria Graham lived in the palace she said should would never forget the beauty of the gardens
when she flung open the windows of her garret each morning. Glaziou responsible for
remodelling the garden in the picturesque English style.

Royal family booted out of residence gifted to them by a slaver following family’s support for
abolition.

Hamond: August 18: (São Cristovão) “A menos de meia milha do portão

chega-se a outro que foi presenteado pelo duque de Northumberland ao
rei do Portugal. É de arenito de Portland e igual ao da entrada de
Sion Park, mas sem as esfinges que, aqui, fazem muita falta.

Henderson: A Mr. Johnson came to Rio to oversee the installation of the Duke of
Northumberland’s gates at the Quinta and subsequently kept on to superintend the
enlargement of the palace.

Cascadura foi inaugurada em 1858. O nome derivou da dificuldade para a passagem da linha
no local devido ao terreno duro (casca dura).

Belém/Japeri

Japeri/Belem

Japeri: "O prédio no mesmo estilo das construções usadas no norte da Europa, foi construído
na técnica enxaimel, que consiste em estacas ou caibros de madeira constituindo um
engradado destinado a receber a vedação de alvenaria de tijolo maciço. O telhado, em telhas
francesas originais, é formado de três elementos: o primeiro cobrindo o corpo principal do
prédio; os outros dois, em quatro águas com mansardas cobrindo os dois pavimentos
superiores que formam os corpos laterais. Os elementos decorativos das fachadas são
compostos pela própria estrutura de madeira formando desenhos geométricos, pelas mãos
francesas e pelos apliques em madeira recortada" (Jorge Alves Ferreira, 2003). A verdade é
que, em 2009, o velho prédio está abandonado e, pior, cheio de cupins; os bilhetes são
vendidos em local diferente na plataforma. O prédio da antiga estação, enfim, é apenas uma
velha fantasia. No livro “Pelos Caminhos de Belém”, publicado pela Prefeitura Municipal de
Japeri, em 2003, o prédio – que teria sido construído com material importado da Inglaterra –
aparece como tombado pelo Instituto Estadual de Patrimônio Artístico e Cultural (Inepac). Não
é verdade.
Na parte de conservação, a situação é preocupante. “Precisa de grandes reparos. A estrutura
de madeira e o forro estão atacados por cupins. (...) A cobertura da plataforma, que circunda o
prédio, também está atacada pelos cupins, e encontra-se escorada em dois pontos.” (building
symbolizing state of Brazilian rail system/British presence in Brazil – petering out and decaying,
being superseded by American expertise and technology)

Flaws

Down the Paraiba Valley: ‘The whole of this valley belongs to a comparatively few wealthy and
important Brazilians, Viscondes and Baroes, of such influence that the railway has had to cross
the river five times between Pirahy and Porto Novada Cunha by long and expensive bridges to
serve the interests of a Barao on this side, or a Visconde on the other … Beyond here the line is
only in construction both down the Parahyba and north up the Parahybuna.’

But, “…the railways set abolition back”, by enriching and bolstering the fazendeiro, increasing
the value of his lands and enabling him to employ slaves formerly employed on mule trains
and buy others.

Gov commission of 1845 decreed that all companies to use the standard gauge. Ireland used
5ft 3 in gauge. (Betamax/VHS conundrum)

Brazil failed to develop rail as national rather than provincial resource ending up with
hotchpotch of gauges and administrations. Responsibility for development lay with provinces
rather than govs, confined largely to coastal regions and none, apart from a connection with
Uruguay, stretching into the ten countries with which Brazil shares a border. Rail, furthermore,
developed to serve needs of specific industries, coffee in south, sugar in north, rather than to
provide means to travel round the country.

Choice of gauge happenstance as first locomotive had been intended for Ireland but sent to
Brazil and designed for use on 5ft 3in track. Track petered out at Fragoso at foot of Serra do
Mar and terminus remained there for thirty years until a rack railway was carved into cliffs
allowing trains to reach Petropolis.

SP-Jundiaí badly affected by rains in 1862 which wrecked much of early earthworks. According
to Pedro C. da Silva Telles, there were complaints about the contractor whose ‘bad service’
was ‘a constant factor among the English contractors who came to Brazil to construct the first
railways”.

SPR/DPII - Ronnie Biggs wasn't the first great train robber to set up in Brazil.

Decline

“Brasil não anda pra frente por que roubam as rodas do carro.” Antonio Callado
Elevated section of Central at Manguinhos thought to have cost between R$274 and R$1
billion. Between 1850 and 1870, they managed to construct DPII, SPR, gas-lighting system and
comprehensive sewage system on time and, in some cases (SPR), under budget.

Br rail system now considered a second class transport system, like provincial English bus
service. Limited nature of Br. Rail network compared to other BRICS.

British train-users thinking they have it tough.

Knackered Brazilian railway system.

11% of Brazil’s 1.5 km of roads unpaved; queues up to 37km long at certain ports, leading to
losses of up to 30% of perishable goods.

Ferrovia Norte-Sul PPP, part-financed by Chinese, tapping the great soya growing region from
Goiania to Estreito, connecting to the Estrada de Ferro Carajás linking to Porto de Itaqui.

40% of the 48km of federal roads are in poor condition according to 2005 study.

April 2009, employees of Supervia seen whipping passengers with cords of whistles as they
scrambled to squeeze into overcrowded trains at Madureira Station, during strike; train-surfers
spotted on trains leaving same station.

In October, 2009, following break-down of engine on Japeri-Central line outside Nilopolis,

passengers took to the tracks to protest and demand their money back; having been left
locked in the carriages for 20 minutes, passengers smashed windows and broke down doors
before proceeding to the station, destroying turnstiles, smashing up the ticket office and
dragging the safe onto the tracks; the tumult was eventually contained by police using stun
grenades (bombas de efeito moral) and pepper gas. Simultaneously annoyed group of delayed
passengers set fire to two carriages at the Mesquita station. Tumults also registered at Nova
Iguaçu and Deodoro stations. In nod to great train robber, Ronnie Biggs, they sacked the ticket
office and looted the safe.

Study conducted by Agencia Nacional de Transportes Terrestes (ANTT) shows that 62% of the
railways handed over to private sector in the 1990s are inactive or abandoned; of the 28,831
km of tracks in Brazil, only 10,930 are used. 77% of narrow gauge tracks inoperative; all broad
gauge tracks in use. for distances over 600km, rail transport 30% cheaper (according to
Bernardo Figueiredo, director-general of ANTT);

O Transporte ferroviário no Brasil ou a Rede ferroviária brasileira possui 29,817

Brazil presently has only about 1,000km of passenger track, an amount set to quadruple by
2020.

No final de 1940 havia 34.252 km de ferrovias em tráfego. Em 1947 ocorre o fim da concessão
da São Paulo Railway e a ferrovia é encampada pelo governo estadual.

Brasil tem apenas três linhas de trens de larga distância para passageiros

Setor ferroviário, que chegou a transportar 100 milhões de pessoas por ano, levou 1,5
milhão em 2005 em viagens de longa distância
In the past, it was possible to travel by train from Central to Bolivia sitting in armchair
accommodation.

October 2009 survey classified 69% of Brazilian highways as being in bad, terrible (24%) or in
only regular condition.

Construction of a highway in Brazil takes on average 5 ½ years – 3 ½ years of which are

consumed with bureaucracy, according to consultants LCA.

Bullet train project proceeding at snail's pace.

In December 2009, hand grenade discovered on stretch of track linking Comendador Soares
and Austin; in October, mafia dos vans hurled rocks into the pantografo which links a train to
the electrical grid of a train en route to Central Station.

In 2008, gov only spent 15% of the 3.3 billion designated for repairing roads.

May 2010, China National Machinery made winning bid for purchase of 30 trains by state of
Rio at cost of R$170 million. First train due to be delivered in first quarter of 2011.

Hitler, tellingly, far more interested in roads and cars than rail, having developed concept of
motorways in which he invested heavily.

In 1970s, track between SP and Rio had deteriorated so much that handful of services took 9
hours as opposed to 6 ½ hours by car.

In most countries with sophisticated and modern network, passengers are increasing.

Initially, train surfers adopted the practice of riding on carriage roofs to escape the suffocating
overcrowding within. Later 'train surfing' became a sport where kudos was gained by
successfully negotiating an obstacle course of columns, bridges and high-voltage power lines at
considerable speeds. The 'extreme sport' was largely (though not wholly) suppressed by the
authorities in the 1990s, weary of retrieving charred corpses from transmission lines and
mutilated bodies from tracks. Train surfers (adrenalin junkies associated with DPII, now just
crack junkies).

Why risk life and limb surfing a train when you could be 'spotting' it from the safety of the
concourse?

Railways provided far more enduring boost to economy than construction of roads or canals,
requiring continual maintenance and large workforce to operate them.

Areas surrounding stations frequently became run-down, filled with cheap hotels and
prostitutes, hustlers, thieves – in spite of grandeur of buildings themselves (King’s Cross
virtually synonymous with prostitution, Estaçào de Luz).

Of major developed countries, only in US has intercity passenger rail travel become entirely
marginal.

O tráfico também anda nos trilhos

Os mais de cem milhões de passageiros transportados pelos trens da SuperVia anualmente não
utilizam a malha ferroviária somente para ir e voltar do trabalho. Tem crescido o número de
apreensões e prisões nos trens, principalmente na Central do Brasil, realizadas pelo Núcleo de
Policiamento Ferroviário (Nupfer) do Batalhão de Policiamento de Choque. São pessoas que
usam o meio de transporte para carregar drogas. Comparando agosto de 2009 com o mesmo
mês este ano, o crescimento das ocorrências foi de 190% na delegacia da Central do Brasil .

Esses pequenos traficantes e usuários costumam vir da Baixada e, em menor quantidade, das
regiões Serrana e dos Lagos. Compram a droga das favelas do Jacarezinho e de Manguinhos,
atraídos pela fama da pureza do entorpecente dessas duas comunidades e pela facilidade
logística, já que duas estações de trem ficam muito próximas de onde a droga é comercializada
por traficantes.

O transporte da droga é feito em mochilas ou na própria roupa. O Nupfer não possui

estatística específica, mas informou que é comum menores também serem detidos. A maioria
das apreensões é realizada na Central do Brasil, quando ocorre a mudança de ramal por parte
dos usuários e traficantes que pretendem seguir para a Baixada. O Nupfer teria cerca de 30
homens — o batalhão não dá os números exatos —, responsáveis pelo patrulhamento de
todas as 89 estações. Com isso, o trabalho de encontrar alguém com droga é quase como
achar agulha no palheiro. 

Decision to rely on automobiles to develop the B economy dates back at least to Kubitschek
admin. Generals pushed ahead with this policy and soon became the world’s ninth largest
producer of autos. Many older cities suffered badly from the effects of heavy traffic and air
pollution; B committed to highly inefficient form of public and mass transportation given
countries dependence on oil imports. B’s vulnerability to sharp increases in oil prices would
eventually doom the miracle.

Kubitschek’s admin assoc’d with the growth of the auto industry; incentives for private
(including foreign) capital to invest in auto and truck manufacture. Multinational corps like
Willy’s Overland, Ford, VW, General Motors [Fiat?] changed the face of the land around the
towns of Santo Andre, Sao Bernardo and Sao Caetano in the ABC area of greater SP. [Lula’s
cutting his political teeth in this region] In 1960, the last year of the Kubitschek admin, the four
firms above produced 78% of the 133,000 vehicles made at the time. Foreign firms continued
to expand at the expense of the Fabrica Nacional de Motores which was eventually bought out
by Alfa-Romeo in 1968. In that year, VW, Ford and GM produced 90% of all vehicles made in B.
By this year also, 58% of the vehicles manufactured in B were cars. Railways to all intents and
purposes abandoned as B became more dependent on the use of petroleum derivatives.

Only in the 1930s that the Federal govt. produced a plan to link up hitherto separated systems
and to standardise gauge measurements - broad gauge (5ft 3in or 1,600 mm) being retained in
Rio-SP area, metre gauge elsewhere. Of the 37,000km of track in B in 1952, 90% of metre
gauge.

Impact of Brazilian govts decision to favour roads and the auto industry; impact of the US auto
manufacturers. The rubber industry that the British had dominated would influence the
downfall of the railways.
Massive projects still being pursued for transport of freight, lines being extended, bridges
constructed: one such the privately financed Ferronorte line - 1,038 km of track between
Cuiaba and Santa Fe do Sul - probably the biggest railway construction undertaking in the
world at the turn of millennium. [problem as with all B railways historically, that they were
constructed to serve private freight-based interests; a B railmap looks like an impression left by
a rootball; spreading cracks after the impact of ravine-tossed coyote; creeping capillary’s
stretching over the (carotid) heart of Brazil.]

Lula giving a speech on the inauguration of the Terminal Ferroviaria do Alto Araguaia -
completion of first 500km of ferronorte Araguaia, MT.

‘One can conclude that while railways in Brazil have a future as bulk carriers over specific
routes, mainly linking the interior with the ports, there is less hope for north-south links, and
virtually none at all for long-distance passenger traffic.’

The BBC's Wyre Davies

Embora o padrão internacional considere 25 anos o tempo de vida útil de um trem, a SuperVia
tem 49 deles, ou seja, 25% de sua frota, com 50 a 60 anos de uso. Construídas em aço
carbono, essas composições oxidam com muito mais facilidade do que as das gerações
posteriores, feitas de aço inox, e não contam com ar-condicionado. A concessionária promete
retirar de circulação todos trens fabricados entre 1954 e 1964 ainda este ano.

A frota com 190 composições conta ainda com 47 produzidas em 1980; 44 em 1990; 20
coreanas, datadas de 2005; e 30 chinesas, fabricadas em 2011. Há mais “antiguidades” nos 270
quilômetros de trilhos que atravessam o Rio de Janeiro. São 400 estruturas elétricas como a
que caiu anteontem após a colisão de um trem descarrilado, grande parte delas com cerca de
80 anos. A nova gestão da SuperVia, iniciada em 2011, já trocou cem delas.

O acidente. A Supervia informou em nota que um trem que seguia da Central do Brasil à de
Saracuruna, em Duque de Caxias, na Baixada Fluminense, saiu dos trilhos às 5h15, antes de
chegar à parada de São Cristóvão. Vagões atingiram a rede elétrica, que foi derrubada sobre a
linha.

O problema afetou todo o transporte ferroviário no Grande Rio. Na Estação São Francisco de
Xavier, a última antes da Maracanã e da São Cristóvão, os passageiros tiveram que saltar nos
trilhos para tentar uma condução que os levasse ao centro, destino da maioria dos
trabalhadores.

22 de janeiro de 2014

BRASÍLIA - Com o adiamento do leilão por pelo menos um ano, o Trem de Alta Velocidade
(TAV) deixou de ser prioridade do governo, mas mesmo que não saia do papel vai custar até o
fim do mandato da presidente Dilma Rousseff pelo menos R$ 1 bilhão aos cofres públicos. O
cálculo considera o que já foi gasto até o momento com os estudos de viabilidade econômica
do empreendimento, contratação de consultoria, entre outras despesas, e a estimativa de
gasto da Empresa de Planejamento e Logística (EPL) com o projeto executivo do trem-bala, que
tem prazo até dezembro de 2014 para ser concluído. O empreendimento liga Rio a São Paulo e
Campinas. O presidente da EPL, Bernardo Figueiredo, informou ao GLOBO que o custo total do
projeto executivo é de R$ 900 milhões.

Br’s infrastructure problems obvious, esp in transport sector and can be alleviated, if not
solved, by more investment. “Ports are clogged in large part because there are simply not
enough docks and warehouses (though featherbedding labour practices also a factor).

Commercial air transportation nearly broke down because of safety issues raised by
antiquated air traffic control equipment, including failures of radar traffic systems.

Not enough highways, esp interstate, many of existing ones bear too much traffic or were built
in shoddy fashion, which leads to potholes.

“for a country its size, Brazil, in sharp contrast to India or China, has no real railway network,
even in the heavily populated and industrialized southeast.”

For decades Br’s have talked about building high speed rail link between SP and Rio.

Viotti da Costa: “In 1848, there were 123,025 manufacturing establishments in the United
States. Twenty years later the number had increased to 353,863. In Brazil in the 1870s the
number was still only around 200! In the United States in 1851, there were 8.886 miles of
railroad and by 1861 there were 31,286. In Brazil, the first railroad was just being built.

“The problems of transportation were so serious that often the merchandise deteriorated in
storage bins before the muleteer came to pick it up. Even when coffee was shipped in time,
spoilage in transit damaged its quality, The inadequacy of communication routes retarded
distribution, raised transportation costs, diverted a considerable part of the labor force to
transport, and limited the expansion of the coffee plantations beyond a certain point, after
which the costs of transportation were too high to make the enterprise viable. Most of all, the
difficult means of transportation inhibited the development of an internal market.”

“Railroads changed the economy profoundly, benefiting some regions and ruining others. In
the sugar-growing areas, the mills far from the tracks could not compete with those directly
served by railroads. They continued to export their products by the traditional means – boat or
muletrain – and to suffer the economic disadvantages or this type of transportation. But the
railroads quickly multiplied and by 1881 Millet could say that the cars of the Palmares railroad
alone transported half the sugar exported from the port of Recife and two-thirds of the entire
production of the province of Pernambuco. Some years later, in 1882, 12,421,172 kilso of
sugar and 318,295 of cotton were carried on the Pernambuco railways.”

Br rail system now considered a second class transport system, like provincial English bus
service. Limited nature of Br. Rail network compared to other BRICS.

Wells: ‘Rio de Janeiro has, of course, its Wapping, the Saude … traffic blocks are constant;
tramcars, cabs, waggons, and carts are continuously jammed together …’

Number of cars in Brazil doubled in 10 years to 2012.

August 2007, two trains collided on the Central, on heading to Japeri, the other from Austin
(between Japeri and Deodoro). Cause believed by union leader, Valmir de Lemos, to be fact
that tracks supposed to be held in place by four special screws where Supervia tends only to
use one, making derailments inevitable. He claims similar accidents occur throughout the
Supervia network but are not reported because they don’t involve casualties. The tracks suffer
constant wear and require constant maintenance which is not carried out. (use of fewer rivets
on Brazilian made cars)

In 1958, a collision at the Mangueira Station killed 130 people (100 years after inauguration);
in 2004 two Supervia trains collided at Japeri station injuring 52; 1996 15 people died when a
cargo train collided with a passenger train on the Japeri stretch.

On Jan 18th 2010 a train left Japeri for Central and travelled from Ricardo de Albuquerque to
Oswaldo Cruz (4 stations) at over 100km without a driver. After the engine driver got down to
check a problem the train started moving again, with doors open; police are seeking
passenger believed to have entered cabin and set ‘ghost train’ in motion.

Irish

“Others,” recorded Armitage, “sought for temporary relief in inebriety” in the city’s vendas or
bars where cheap sugar-rum - cachaca - was sold, “and in this,” according to Walsh, “they
were permitted, if not encouraged to indulge freely”. Such indulgence typically climaxed in the
destruction of the vendas and, frequently, in the deaths its participants. This, allied to a
tendency, when liberally oiled, to gather stones and use the local black population for target
practice, failed to endear the Irish to slaves or masters. Though Walsh claims it was the slaves
who were guilty of “annoying” the Irish. “They first insulted them wherever they met them, by
calling them white slaves, ‘escravos brancos’ and they pointed to their rags and dirt, as proof
of their being not so good … as themselves … constant skirmishes and riots occurred between
individuals and parties on both sides.”

At this point 15 men from the 2nd Battalion appeared with a contingent of 300 soldiers
from the 3rd Battalion of Grenadiers – half of them Irish – who now enthusiastically joined the
fray. “I saw an Irishman lie down beneath a wine barrel,” recorded the German sergeant,
Bosche, “and drink himself to death. His noble compatriots all the while stood round, making
no attempt to save the poor man, but, on the contrary, applauding him and giving cries of joy
as the miserable wretch, thus, breathed his last.”

With the Germans apparently content to remain in their barracks bingeing on pilfered
booze, the Irish ordered the powder magazine to be broken open, and, armed with 100
cartridges each, set out into the neighbouring streets. The riot now took on the aspect of an
uprising. In the ensuing tumult, fifty houses were looted and several people murdered, most of
them black slaves.

While the fighting Irish looted the bars, the more sobre Germans sought to have their
grievances redressed.
 “They robbed and assassinated frequently, spreading terror and consternation among
the inhabitants,” reported Bosche. “It is difficult to form an idea of the coarseness and
rudeness of this nation. The German soldiers, who, let it be said, scarcely consider themselves
a model, were astonished by the unprovoked excesses of these islanders. The vast majority of
them were to be found in a state of almost permanent intoxication. When an Irishman died,
five or six women surrounded the corpse, and such were their horrible contortions and
ululations, that they gave the impression of a coven of Furies. The bottle [all the while] passed
from hand to hand ... they took an active part in the combats, and, as almost all the attacks
were made with stones, they brought them to their husbands in their aprons. The very real
danger did not draw them from the battle-field, and I saw Irishwomen struck several times
without leaving their husbands’ sides, egging them on with supreme disdain for the danger ... “

Irish engaging in running battles with gangs of capoeiristas and armed slaves.

Now, after almost three days of inaction on the part of the authorities, it was ordered
that several months’ back-pay be settled on the Germans of the 3 rd Battalion. The ploy –
intended to defuse tensions and pre-empt a possible rebellion in the Campo – backfired,
however, the Germans electing to blow the money on cachaca in the vendas, where they were
soon joined by – and reconciled to – the Irish.

Almost inevitably, back at the 3rd Battalion, further fighting broke out between the two
groups. One German from the 2nd Battalion and two from the 3rd Battalion were killed before
the Germans, outnumbered, were forced to beat a retreat. The Irish, their tales up - and
bladders primed - now took to the streets, pelting a group of slaves with stones at the Chafariz
das Lavadeiras in the Campo, before being forced back into the barracks. Here - once more
reconciled to the Germans - they looted the arsenal and set out again, dispersing the
“moleques” and killing many of them before pursuing them through the streets, where “in a
blind homicidal fury,” according to the German soldier, Henrique Handlemann, “they killed
everyone - in a spirit of fairness, sparing not even the young children.”

And still the government – evidently paralysed by the unprecedented nature of the
uprising and the fact that there were no troops available to suppress it – did nothing. At this
point, local shopkeepers and citizens, fearing for their lives and livelihoods - and mindful of the
fact that the town’s wealthier citizens had, by now, literally fled to the hills - armed their slaves
with knives and clubs and ordered them into the streets to “kill any foreigner they may find”.

“I do not believe,” adds Lemos, “that there has ever occurred in Rio de Janeiro such
dereliction of authority and such indiscriminate killing.”

An infantry charge was now ordered, the artillery opening up behind it, and the
barracks - following ferocious fighting - bombarded into submission.

One soldier – condemned to death for slicing out the eyes of the Captain of Provisions
- was attended, prior to his execution, by the British Chaplain at Rio, a Reverend Crane.

Area in front of Central do Brasil, where the journalist Santiago Ilídio Andrade was fatally
injured by a home-made rocket, was also where a violent rebellion by Irish and German
mercenaries in 1827 had it denouement/was finally put down. Site of uprising called the most
violent uprising in the history of Rio de Janeiro. The fighting Irish.

No trajeto até a Central do Brasil, o grupo gritava palavras de ordem como "ei, Fifa, paga a
minha tarifa",

Brits

Lack of moral/religious assistance provided to British rail workers. In 1855, in Saúde, Fletcher
noted many British workers who had no moral or intellectual support, many of them falling
back on cachaça. 1,000 British and Irish workers were due to arrive the following year to work
on the DPII. Fletcher managed to draw the attention of British and American businessmen to
the problem and the Saúde School was formed.

English and American engineers notorious heavy-drinkers; said that “an engineer who doesn’t
drink, is not a good explorer”; many succumbed to alcoholism/cachaça.

“o ingres” generico, who might be German or French, drank, fraternised, under influence, with
locals; clubbable

British and US engineers teaching Brazilian counterparts everything, including how to drink –
habit peculiar among engineers to railway men.

In the theatre the person of the English railway engineer featured in plays such as: ‘O ingles
maquinista’ de Martins Pena; he featured prominently in magazines, caricatures, jokes,
carnival fancy dress/costumes, folklore, dirty jokes. Opening line: Clemência — ‘Muito custa
viver-se no Rio de Janeiro! É tudo tão caro!’

Englishmen were reputed to be lacking in sexual potency, frigid, giving themselves over to
drink and sport, machines and books; this in contrast to the colonial B, for whom sex was the
only recreation/pastime. This contrast gave rise to a tradition of filthy jokes mocking the
Englishman’s sexual potency and allowing the B to revenge himself for the abuses of arrogant
ministers of His Royal Majesty and the insolence of the red-haired pink-faced sailors anchored
in B ports; for the contempt of haughty bankers, missionaries and even scientists like Darwin.
(Englishman’s lack of sexual potency, reflection of puritanical values, restraint and tendency to
alcoholism)

GF: ‘It’s almost impossible for a Brazilian to hear anyone talk of machines, motors, tools, the
railway, tug-boats, dredgers, the submarine cable, the telegraph, articles made of iron and
steel, mechanical toys, ‘cadeira de mola’, household crockery, bicycles, skates, lavatories,
warships, steam, motor boats, gas cookers … without thinking of the English.’ (Industrial
impact)

James Wells, like many English engineers, acquiring the appellation ‘doutor’ (‘Senhor Doutor’,
‘Doutor Ingles’) found himself called upon to perform medical tasks for which (in less serious
cases) he generally used ‘pilulas de Cockle’. (Cockle’s Pills – indigestion remedy)
The railway was by far the most ‘characteristic’ of all the Anglo enterprises in B; combined the
technical, the scientific, the administrative, the commercial; and all its workers touched by that
spirit of adventure that Wells claimed had brought him to B.

The culture shock of this influx of Businessmen characterised by their punctuality, exactitude
(‘hora ingles’) in a country where appointments might be made for ‘nine or ten’; their ‘palavra
de ingles’.

‘St George, in the eyes of the adolescents [of the C19] got down from his horse to climb into a
locomotive; and took the form of an English engineer.’ GF (An engineer who most of the time
was a little tipsy, and couldn’t hit a dragon’s arse with a banjo, let alone a lance.)

1865 – 70 Wilson coins it supplying coal (core business for many years) to Brazilian forces in
the Plate. Wilson biggest supplier of coal at turn of century, to Navy, gas companies and the
trains of the Central do Brasil. Coal from south Wales mines shipped over by Davies family
from Cardiff.

The Rothschilds had been involved in the development of railways around the world and Brazil
was no exception. As early as 1858 they issued their first loans to Brazilian railway companies,
the Bahia and San Francisco Railway Company and the Don Pedro Segundo Railway Company,
followed by the São Paulo (Brazilian) Railway Company in 1859. Further loans were issued to
these companies over the years, and the Western of Minas Railroad was added to their
number in 1893.

Engineers

General

“Patrão, o trem atrasou.

Por isso estou chegando agora;

Trago aqui um memorando da Central:

O trem atrasou meia hora.”

Baldwin’s passing into the language to mean something strong or powerful. Also ‘trem’ em
Minas.

Tennyson on railway age: “Let the great world spin forever down the ringing grooves of
change”.

Whilst the French associated with architecture, fashion, and the arts in general, the British
with infrastructure and public utilities (Carlyle on Sewers).

Notion that sleepers made from Pau-brasil

Doubts expressed in Britain of cows ceasing to produce milk, sheep being discoloured and
passengers being unable to breathe above 30 mph.
Tunnel system of DPII enabled trains to cross Serra ‘under own steam’; line still in use today
with very heavy traffic, including trains that weigh 25 times more than originally envisaged,
and remains most efficient of 8 lines eventually built up Serra.

41. Burton: Paraiba in Minas: ‘broad as the Thames at Battersea.’ Sees a Brimingham-built
bridge with 320 tons of iron and latticed girders painted red, put together by Mr. O’Kell
(near Entre-Rios); visits a ‘railway station which will put to shame the hovels answering to
that name on the majority of the Anglo-Brazilian railways…’

Barao de Maua station designed by the offices of Robert Prentice, English architect who had
also designed the British embassy in Rio (now housing the Mayor’s office). A rare example of
official/municipal Edwardian architecture in Brazil, but the original design not wholly followed
(only one of two projected wings completed). The building’s metal structure came ready made
from England: Tuscan columns, full arches and large airy hall. Inaugurated 1926,

The orange groves of Nova Iguaçu planted following the end of the coffee cycle, the region
becoming a major producer of oranges to Latin America and Europe, until WWII and U-boats
and a plague of Mediterrean Flies put an end to the crop and its exportation.

Gas Lighting:

A Rua do Ouvidor se tornou a artéria comercial por excelência da metrópole que crescia;
calçada em 1829, foi a primeira rua da cidade a ter a iluminação de azeite substituída pelo gás,
em 1857.

Walsh: ‘Formerly, the only light afforded to passengers at night proceeded from the tapers
burning before the shrines of saints, at the corners of streets.’ [before the British gas co.]
Finally on March 11th 1851, Barao de Mauá wins contract for exclusive 25 year privilege.

On May 25th 1853 articles of incorporation of Companhia Iluminação a Gás approved and
within a year ruas Direita, Ouvidor, Rosário, São Pedro, do Sabão e lago do Paço illuminated a
gás.

Mas não faltaram tropeços. A notícia da instalação do gasômetro foi recebida com pavor pela
população. Agravando o receio de ir a cidade pelos ares, com a “infalível” explosão do
gasômetro, sobreveio a febre amarela. Não obstante, prosseguiram os trabalhos e, na noite de
25 de março de 1854, aniversário do juramento da Constituição do Império, o gás, conduzido
através de 20 quilômetros de encanamento de ferro, iluminou os primeiros combustores de
algumas ruas da cidade: São Pedro, Sabão (ambas desaparecidas com a abertura da Avenida
Presidente Vargas), Rosário, Ouvidor, Direita (atual rua Primeiro de Março) e o largo do Paço
(praça Quinze de Novembro).

The night-life of Rio transformed by the introduction of gas-lighting to the city’s streets;
Mauá's securing the concession for this and the related draining of the mangue canal.

“The city is very imperfectly lit at night. Many of the smaller streets remain in complete
darkness … On moonless nights one had to trust in the lights of houses and shops that remain
open until later. I was at first surprised to see, late at night, rows of lamps burning on the
pavement in some of the main roads and thoroughfares …” (Fox Bunbury)
‘Formerly, the only light afforded to passengers at night proceeded from the tapers burning
before the shrines of saints, at the corners of streets.’ [before the British gas co.]

Gas works for street-lighting constructed and supervised by English engineer William Gilbert
Ginty, who also experimented with chicken breeding using gas-heated incubator.

Esse inglês, o engenheiro William Gilbert Ginty, dirigiu, no período de 1854 a 1858, as obras
para a abertura do canal do Mangue que visava secar os terrenos circunvizinhos que formavam
o chamado Mangal de São Domingos, e permitir a navegação de pequenas embarcações que
transportavam gêneros para a cidade. Em pouco tempo, porém, os resíduos da fábrica e a
sujeira obstruíram o canal, transformado em depósito de lama e imundícies.
Em 1854, Mauá inaugurava a iluminação a gás na cidade, alimentada por uma rede de 20km
de tubos de ferro. Cada combustor fornecia iluminação equivalente a seis velas de cera. Em
três anos, a Companhia havia estendido a rede e contava com 3.027 lampiões públicos, e
iluminava 3.200 residência e três teatros.
Em 1865 o barão transferiu a concessão à empresa inglesa Rio de Janeiro Gas Company
Limited. Em 1874, eram abastecidas 10 mil residências, 5 mil estabelecimentos públicos e 6 mil
lampiões de rua. Em 1876, a concessão passou para a empresa belga Societé Anonyme du Gaz;
e em 1910 para a The Rio de Janeiro Tramway Light and Power Company Limited. Em 1969, a
empresa foi estatizada. Em julho de 1997, foi privatizada e passou a ter como operador técnico
o grupo Gás Natural.
A Fábrica do Aterrado foi um dos estabelecimentos mais importantes da Capital do Império,
muito superior às de várias cidades da Europa e pouco inferior às maiores fábricas de gás do
mundo.
“The Brazilians are eminently an ‘early to bed, early to rise’ people.” (Fletcher/Kidder)

Railway lines the only things laid by the British in Brazil: a good or bad thing that the British
were so chaste.

Following failure to generate commercial interest in his inventions, Trevithick went to South
America to develop stationery steam engines for use in gold and silver mines of Peru.

Charles Vignoles had originally been favoured over Stevenson for construction of L & M.

Liverpool the main arrival point for cotton which needed to be processed in Manchester mills.
Lancashire most industrialized region in world at time.

Pope Gregory XVI adamantly opposed inventions such as trains and gas lighting.

Morse code not widely used until symbiosis between rail and telegraph became obvious; rail
line provided clear path through the country and ensure engine drivers could report location of
fallen poles.

Symbiotic relationship between coal (mining) and railways (TKCSA and Vale).
Central do Brasil Railway Line, Tarsila do Amaral, 1924. The railway embodied the aspirations
of modernist artists and modernizing dictators alike.
"Train Tracks", 2006. Bob Dylan's surprisingly tender, blood-orange meditation on Brazilian rail
infrastructure.

Focus of British trade on exports influenced investment in ports and railways.

What would have happened if the State had taken all that money paid in dividends, borrowed
from England, and invested it in its railways like Belgium?

“Some of the things which make Rio so colourful and picturesque are already threatened.
Above all the favelas … will we still see them in a few years time?” (Zweig)

Maracana resembling a roulette wheel – Estadio Mario Filho

Ginty/Bragg with gas-lighting and railways, guilty of industrial equivalent of gay marriage in
eyes of disapproving Catholic church.

Irish navies took a year to train; coming to Br in wake of potato famine.

A ligação familiar entre o Cavendish da Delta e o Carlinhos Cachoeira também nos faz pensar.
Como seu possível ancestral, o moderno Cavendish parece chegado numa pilhagem. Assim
como o corsário Cavendish referido por Robert Southey o amigo da dupla
Cachoeira/Demóstenes também andava pilhando ou tentando pilhar o erário público no
comando de uma empresa que mais parecia um navio pirata.

O senador Randolfe Rodrigues (Psol), integrante da Comissão Parlamentar Mista de Inquérito

(CPMI) que investiga Carlinhos Cachoeira considera a rede criminosa da construtora Delta com
o grupo do contraventor o maior esquema de corrupção e desvio de recursos públicos da
história da República.

Apelidado de Harry Potter – da série de livros da britânica J.K Rowling – no Congresso, o

parlamentar disse ao portal Terra que o Voldemort – vilão da história – do Brasil é Fernando
Cavendish, proprietário da Delta.

“Parece-me que o Cachoeira é um agente da casa do mal, porque o grande Voldemort hoje é o
Cavendish. O Cachoeira foi há um tempo, mas hoje é o Cavendish. E é por isso que temos que
ir adiante”, afirmou.

Rodrigues também acredita que indícios apontam para a existência do esquema de corrupção
e que o suposto envolvimento de Cachoeira com o jogo do bicho não é o problema. “O
esquema do bicho é o menor nessa história, e eu diria mais: esquema do bicho não faz o mal
que o esquema do crime e da corrupção faz.”

Engenhão to explore possibility of incorporating a Twickenham-like hotel.

bus clearing its throat and hacking its way through the traffic

Cochrane, in order to research his proposed line, became an “arrendatário de um circo de

cavalinhos”, traveled the country, obtaining info about (agricultural) production and offering
shares in the company: “O palhaço do circo era um arauto ferroviario.”