Abandoned in the Campos sugar mills Campos |
Conceiçao de Macabu: this 1919 Baldwin still wears its original manufacturer’s tag |
The sugar mills in the north of the state of Rio de Janeiro up until today shelter some relics from the age of steam. The use of railroads in the mills was intensive and the lines that reached the cane fields were metric gauge. Some mills imported their equipment directly while others made purchases of engines through the Estrada de Ferro Leopoldina, at the time the railroad company was substituting steam locomotives for diesel-electric machines. |
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Conceiçao de Macabu: the forest has covered the engine, forgotten in a corner of the mill |
Today, the sugar cane industry is in decline. The mills are highly indebted and many simply have gone bankrupt. The railroad no longer is used to carry plantation cane to the mills. The tracks were eradicated and the little hauling service remaining is done by truck. Some old locomotives can be found abandoned in the mill yards. In Conceição de Macabu, 100 km from Campos, theVictor Sence sugar mill, legally declared bankrupt, still shelters two Baldwins. One is a Consolidation (2-8-0) covered by the forest and the other is a 2-4-2T, literally falling to pieces. Some city governments are seeking to get a hold of this equipment, but generally there is a lack of funds to preserve them. |
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SESC-MG also wants to acquire the locomotives to refurbish them and put them into operation at the organization's vacation site in the region. However, because the mill is undergoing bankruptcy procedures, the final destination of these locomotives - as well as any other assets - depends upon court. Another two 0-4-0 engines are at the Outeiro Mill, in Cardoso Moreira, 20 km from Campos. One of them is abandoned in the yard and has no tag or any identification at all. |
Outeiro Mill: the small yard locomotive probably is a German-made Henschel |
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The other - also without any identification - adorns the front yard of the house of the mill owner, Evaldo Inojosa. Inojosa is a former president of the now extinguished Brazilian Sugar and Alcohol Institute (IAA). However, these are just some examples. There is much more abandoned treasure around the sugar mills in the north of the state of Rio and the south of Minas and still has not been surveyed. |
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Outeiro Mill: abandoned and at the mercy of the elements at the mill owner's house. |