connect the mines and farms in Brazil s interior with the ports on the Amazon River and the São Paulo metropoli tan area are still awaiting completion A second chance in freight transportation The fact that it s mainly geared to exports of raw materials and thus freight transportation is one of the past and present challenges posed to Brazil s railroad system For passenger transportation by rail there are hardly any viable prospects too many stations lines and tracks have been shut down and not enough peo ple would use newly built routes in sparsely populated regions Most people in Brazil live in big cities There however passenger transportation by rail is indispens able the São Paulo Metro alone hauls 4 7 million peo ple on average per day To keep Brazil s railroad history alive MPF Sorocabana the association for the preservation of the railroad restores old locomotives and railroad cars Most recent ly volunteer engineers and mechanics with financial support by Schaeffler Brazil restored the old Whitcomb 3036 traction unit The last remaining mechanical diesel locomotive of the Sorocabana Railroad was built by the American Whitcomb Locomotive Works in Illinois in 1942 and came to Bra zil only in 1956 During its entire lifespan it was used for switching trains and railroad cars in Brazil first by the Iperó track welding operation and later by the railroad associa tion FEPASA in Sorocaba The association aims to open a Memory Center in the old train station of Sorocaba and to operate a tourist train says Eric Mantuan operations manager of MPF Sorocabana For this pur pose we plan to restore a total of five loco motives and eight passenger railroad cars With the Whitcomb 3036 two locomotives are now in good repair again OLD LOCO NEW LUSTER As a child Denis Dilba want ed to become a naturalist and explore the Amazon River But then he decided to study mechatronics During his research the thought crossed his mind that a job as a railroad engineer in Brazil could have actually combined both interests Too late now he s a journalist specializing in science and technology Schaeffler Brazil helped put the old switcher back on track Long distance passenger transportation by rail is in dire straits in Brazil THE AUTHOR 42 43

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