The Northeastern sugar locomotives

An important part of the collection of steam engines that still exist in Brazil is found in the Northeast of Brazil. The sugar mills, mainly those in Alagoas and Pernambuco, made extensive use of steam traction. Even today, a few machines continue to operate in the region.However, these are rare		The Bernarda, refurbished and with a tender, at Usina Trapiche.	exceptions. Nevertheless, many sugar mills preserve a few engines statically. At Usina Trapiche, the Decauville Bernarda was refurbished and is on display in the company’s front yard in Ipocjuca, 50 km from Recife. This locomotive has a 0-4-0 wheel set and was built for 0.75 cm gauge track.


The Usina Santa Terezinha locomotive at the Northeast Museum of Man	The José Rufino in front of the former Coperbo, today Petroflex, factory.
There are at least two other sugar mill locomotives on exhibit. One of them is at the Northeast Museum of Man. It is No. 1, with a 0-4-2 wheel set for a metric gauge track, from the Usina Santa Terezinha mill. The other is the José Rufino, a 0-4-0, metric track engine which, although refurbished, is exposed to the weather and is currently in front of the Petroflex factory in the town of Cabo in the Recife metropolitan area.	Unfortunately, one of the locomotives on a list produced by the former cultural attaché of the British consulate in Recife, Eddie Edmundson, no longer exists. It is a 0-6-0 engine for a 0.75 cm track called Mariquita that was in an advanced state of disrepair located at the Colégio Souza Leão schoolyard near the airport. It has since been sent to the scrap yard.