O Trem Atrasou (The Train was Late) - Roberto Paiva
May 16, 2019
During the carnaval of 1941, this song was one of the hits; it was the first hit of Roberto Paiva, a Brazilian singer; this was his artistic name, his real name was Helim Silveira Neves and, he was from Rio de Janeiro.
At that period the carioca's train system was inefficient, so the delay of the train was a part of the workers' life in Rio de Janeiro.
Thus, as a protest song, this music got very famous. Nara Leão re-recorded it in 1965.
Loch Lomond (whiky) - Hergé (1966)
March 18, 2019
Are you a fan of TinTin comics? Do you know Captain Haddock’s favorite whisky?
Imagine if this one was true! Well, in fact I saw it at the Train World Museum in Brussel in 2016.
Eisenbahn (2002)
December 24, 2018
Eisenbahn is a German word; it means railway in English. This word was chosen to be the name of a Brazilian beer, because its fabric was built right beside of an old railway station in Blumenau, Santa Cataria/Brazil.
You can see on the bottles’ label the drawn of a train and if you make a visit to this factory, you can enjoy some of their products in the pub Bar Estação Eisenbahn, where they seem to use a railway themed decoration.
Unfortunately, we were not able to visit this place yet, but the beer is internationally known; it has won many awards. Currently, Heineken is the owner of this brand. Besides the name and its own way of preserving the railway memory, the fabric and the Blumenau old railway station does not have a close relationship.
Darío Regoyos y Valdés (1857-1913)
November 27, 2018
This is a self-portrait of an impressionist painter; an spanish artisted really interested in trains. Probably, as his father coordinated the construction of the railway line of Ribadesella, Darío used to be inspired by railway scenarios, thus he portraied many of them. Some are listed below; you can click on each one of them and appreciate a bit of his art.
- El túnel de Pancorbo (1902);
- Viernes Santo en Castilla (1904);
- El tren de las cuatro horas, Noviembre, San Sebastián (1900);,
Stamp Collection 7th Set - João Castela Cravo
October 11, 2018
For those who did not see the six others, as a railway thematic stamp collector, the art historian João Castela Cravo started to catalog his stamps. A facinating hobby that can take us around the railway heritage world.
This time we will make a tour around Greece, Cambodia, Tuvalu and Cuba!
We would like to highlight the stamp of Tuvalu, because it was made as an Se-tenant stamp, a word that translated from French means "holding together". If you want to know more about this kind of technique take a look at this WEBSITE.
The postcard included this time is from Portugal!
<<<=== Take a look at this seventh album!
If you want to see some stamps about other subjects, just take a look at the Colecionar-me blog!
Pius XI’s Train (1858)
September 09, 2018
On August 29, 2018, the Railway Heritage World Blog went to Centrale Monmartini in Rome/It. As the same time that it preserves its history, this old thermoelectric became a part of the Musei Capitolini. In 2016, this building was enlarged gaining a new room, the Pius XI’s Train Room.
Pius XI (Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti) was elected in 1846; he knew about the benefits that the railway could bring, thus, in the same year that he was elected, he got the concession of few railway lines to connect Rome to the Papal States. His train is one of the oldest trains that you can actually still see in Italy; it was built in 1858. Its first trip was in 1859, Pius XI went from Porta Maggiore until Cecchina (Albano). After the capture of Rome in 1870, this train was sent to Civitavecchia and then to Roma Termini Station, where it lost some of its embellishments. In 1911, the Italian State Railways restored the train. On the anniversary of the Fiftieth Kingdom of Italy, this train was exhibited in Castel Sant’Angelo. In 1930, it was sent to Via dei Cerchi. Its last stop before Centrale Monmartini was Palazzo Braschi Museum, where it stayed for 64 years.
The Architect Antoni Gaudí death (1852-1926)
July 14, 2018
Antoni Gaudí, born in June 25, 1852, used to walk a lot, until one day, when he was 73 years old, he suffered an fatal accident. On June 7, 1926, Gaudí was hitten by a tramway, line 30, on the cross between Gran Vía de las Cortes Catalanas and the Bailén Street (Barcelona/Spain), which used to run 10km/h.
He hit his head, which knocked him down and caused a cranial trauma. As he was a very simply person, dressing very old and worn clothes, the passers-by did not recognize him, confusing him with beggar. A police officer obliged a driver to aid him taking him to the hospital; there, he was recognized in the day after, but it was too late; he died three days later.
Stamp Collection 6th Set - João Castela Cravo
June 30, 2018
For those who did not see the five others, as a railway thematic stamp collector, the art historian João Castela Cravo started to catalog his stamps. A facinating hobby that can take us around the railway heritage world.
This time we will make a tour around Canada, Portugal, Japan and Brazil!
We would like to highlight one of the stamps. The Brazilian one; currently there is a tourist tour through the Morretes mountains. This experience seems to be amazing due to the landscape you will be able to see from the train window!
The postcards included this time is from Poland!
Take a look at this fifth album! =====>>>
If you want to see some stamps about other subjects, just take a look at the Colecionar-me blog!
Stamp Collection 5th Set - João Castela Cravo
May 02, 2018
For those who did not see the four others, as a railway thematic stamp collector, the art historian João Castela Cravo started to catalog his stamps. A facinating hobby that can take us around the railway heritage world.
This time we will make a tour around Germany, Spain, Portugal, Belarus and Bangladesh!
From now on we will include some postcards too! This time you can see the largest railway station of Bangladesh!
<<<===== Take a look at this fifth album!
If you want to see some stamps about other subjects, just take a look at the Colecionar-me blog!
L'Embellissement de Paris par le Métropolitain - Albert Robida
April 05, 2018
As a science-fiction author, then editor/illustrator in chief of La Caricature magazine, the French Albert Robida drawn, in 1886, this cartoon, The Embellishment of Paris by Metro. According to Peter Soppelsa (2011), it was created to criticise the Baron Haussmann's urban plannings, which were based on the embellishment of Paris during the 1880s, when discussions about elevated railways emerged.
Following a classic convention, Robida represented Paris as a lady, here a queen, as in the famous nickname “queen city”. Her five-point crown represents the city’s five hilltops and their iconic windmills. Elevated railways enter and exit her body, pushing smoke from her mouth, ear, and nose, one tunnel cutting through her throat just above the clavicle. Deploying gender rhetorically, Robida represented Paris as a woman violated, penetrated by viaducts, so that male readers might be spurred to rescue this damsel in distress. Elevated tracks ensnare her in a chaotic tangle, deranging the cityscape. They rudely bisect dear architectural monuments – the Tour St. Jacques, the Vedôme Column, and the Panthéon, wich has been reduced to a transfer station and buffet, its dome crowded by mechanized safety signals. In Robidas’s nightmarish vision, the moder city has become vertiginously deep, with no street level in sight, buried under a heap of tracks. Everything is out of scale: one train is double-decker; tiny stick figures scurry here and there. Overall, his drawing suggested that an elevated Metro would confuse, confound, and compromise the city, spoiling its celebrated architecture beauty. (Soppelsa, Peter. Visualizing viaducts in 1880s Paris. History and Technology, 27:3, 2011, p.371-377.)
The cityscape was always a sensitive discussion in the railway history.
Stamp Collection 4th Set - João Castela Cravo
March 31, 2018
For those who did not see the three others, as a railway thematic stamp collector, the art historian João Castela Cravo started to catalog his stamps. A facinating hobby that can take us around the railway heritage world.
This time we will make a tour around Austrian Republic, Portugal, Republic of Dahomey (currently known as Benin in Africa), USA and Angola (after its independence, this country used an old Portuguese stamp to create this one)!
We would like to highlight one of the stamps. The Portuguese one was drawn by José Lima Freitas, a famous Portuguese painter, illustrator, ceramicist and writer. In addition to the many books he illustrated, he paited the tiles of Rossio Station in Lisbon!
<<<===== Take a look at this fourth album!
If you want to see some stamps about other subjects, just take a look at the Colecionar-me blog!
Stamp Collection 3rd Set - João Castela Cravo
February 10, 2018
For those who did not see the two others, as a railway thematic stamp collector, the art historian João Castela Cravo started to catalog his stamps. A facinating hobby that can take us around the railway heritage world.
This time we will make a tour around Federal Republic of Nigeria, Hungary, India, Romania and Portugal!
Take a look at this third album !!
=====>>>
If you want to see some stamps about other subjects, just take a look at the Colecionar-me blog!
Doramundo (1978) - João Batista de Andrade
February 16, 2018
Doramundo
Filmmaker: João Batista de Andrade
Production Company: Raíz Produções Cinematográficas Ltda.; Embrafilme - Empresa Brasileira de Filmes S.A.
Photographer: Roberto Wolfenson
Do you remember our visit to Paranapiacaba/SP - Brazil? If you want to see how this complex used to work, just try to watch this Brazilian movie; it shows a bit about the company town daily life and how the machines used to work!
You will see some brazilian famous actors too, like Irene Ravanche and Antônio Fagundes!
It is a mix of mystery and drama.
The original photo accident and the trem built in Caldas Novas (GO/Brazil)/2017.
Granville - Paris Express (1895)
January 25, 2018
October 22, 1895, the most famous train accident happened in Montparnasse - Paris (Fr). One hundred and thirty-one passengers, only two sustained injuries. A woman, Marie-Augustine Aguilard, working at a newsstand died. The driver, Engineer Gallium Marie Peelers, even after 19 years of experience, could not stop that train.
The train crossed the buffer stop and the station wall! This accedent was recreated in some places. In Brazil we saw one in Caldas Novas (GO/Brazil) in front of a kind of travel agency, and there is another one in Canela (RS/Brazil), which was built as the front façade of the Steam World museum.
Trenzinho Caipira (Bachianas Brasileiras nº 2) - Heitor Villa Lobos (1930)
January 10, 2017
According to Ralph Mennucci Giesbrecht, in his book Caminho para Santa Veridiana. As ferrovias em Santa Cruz das Palmeiras, at a railway warehouse close to Loreto Train Station (São Paulo State - Brazil), some kids used to climb the sacks of sugar to see the trains. This fact inspired the Brazilian composer Villa Lobos, who wrote the classical music Little Train of the Countryman based on the sound of the train, keeping its memory alive! This music makes part of a sequence of nine musics created according to Bach's style, it is the Brazilian version of Brandemburgo's Concert.
Some years later, in 1975, Ferreira Gullar, Brazilian writer and poet, created a lyric for it, and many famous singers made a version of it.
Stamp Collection 2nd Set - João Castela Cravo
December 29, 2017
For those who did not see the first one, as a railway thematic stamp collector, the art historian João Castela Cravo started to catalog his stamps. A facinating hobby that can take us around the railway heritage world.
This time we will make a tour around Republic of China, United States of America, Federal Republic of Germany, Socialist Republic of Vietnam and Taiwan!
Thus, if you want to know a bit more about this hobby, take a look at the second album of Cravo's collection!
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L'empire des Gares - Dominique Appia
November 18, 2017
Dominique Appia is a Swiss surrealist painter. One of his works was a part of the exhibition Les Temps des Gares (1978-1979) at Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris/Fr, an event designed to highlight things that were able to change people lifestyle, that is why the railway could not be out of it, becaming the central theme!
This painting is a reinterpretation of the Tower of Babel of Breughel.
(... it) represents a station (...) from where trains and tracks goes out as a whole living system that faces the chaos of a new and uncertain era. (Sobrino, Julián. "La Arquitectura Ferroviaria en Andalucía. Patrimonio ferroviario y líneas de investigación". En 150 Años de Ferrocaril en Andalucía: un balance, Fundación de los Ferrocarriles Españoles / Editorial Anaya, Madrid, 1998, p. 823-888.)
This piece of art was surrounded by others. If you want to know a bit more about it, and see some more art based on the railway infrastructure exhibited in Paris, take a look at this video!
Hitler’s Steel Beast - Daniel Ablin (2017)
November 23, 2017
This documentary is about a train created at the behest of Adolf Hitler; it was called Amerika (1930-1945), and it was a special train able to be used as an itinerant fortress on rail during the Second World War. Hitler used it as a military headquarters; its fancy design reflects Hitler’s exquisite taste. Many infrastructures and strategies were created to protect this train, not to mention all the technologies and new techniques developed for it. Lots of important political figures went on Amerika, and many of the significant decisions taken during the war were discussed in this train.
If you are not convinced about the importance of this railway heritage through the history, just take a quick look at this small preview!
Stamp Collection 1st Set - João Castela Cravo
December 1st, 2017
As a railway thematic stamp collector, the art historian João Castela Cravo started to catalog his stamps. A facinating hobby that can take us around the railway heritage world.
The relationship between railways and post office is older than the philately.
Thus, if you want to know a bit more about this hobby, take a look at the first album of Cravo's collection! =====>>>
Source: Image provided by Pierre André Coly, currently museum Curator and member of International Council of Museum.
Musèe regional de Thiès Railway Exhibition (2006-2007)
October 26, 2017
A fortress was built by French Government in Thiès (city located in Senegal more or less 60 km from the capital Dakar) in 1879. This building assured the profitable operation of the railway Dakar - Saint-Louis and of the telegraph.
As a part of the political and economic history, in its colonial construction, this fortress started to preserve Senegal history in 1975, this room was first renewed and reopened in 1995 by an initiative provided by a French Community of Belgium. In 2004 a new restoration was done, but the rail pavilion was created later, between 2006 and 2007. Since then, the famous transaariana railway line has some of its history and objects preserved there, right beside its old station; a building, which once was a symbol of the French colonial dream, was converted into a tool to the Senegal Independence. Once more the museum is being restored.
The whole building started to be restored this year. Would you like to know more about this astonishing railway heritage and its exhibition? CLICK HERE!
The Last Train - Directed by Diego Arsuaga (2002)
September 21, 2017
This Uruguayan movie is really fun and touching. A group of old men tries to save the locomotive 33, none as "Corazón de fuego", of being sold to hollywood. Watching this movie, you will be able to see how this machine works, some old train stops, cities and other parts of the beautifull landscape of Uruguay. Nominated to many awards, this movie won at least seven of them. If you join this jorney, you will see how brave three old men and a child were to make an important memory returns to live. They knew that they would need more than their hearts to keep this heritage. They were compelled to awake this memory all over the country to reach their goal.
Just get on this train and enjoy this comedy drama film!
Victor Hugo and the first railways - Conteur Vaudois - Journal de La Suisse Romande (1892)
August 25, 2017
I am reconciled to the railway; it is decidedly beautiful. The first one I saw was ignoble factory track. But yesterday, I made the trip from Antwerp to Brussels and back. It is a magnificent movement that one just experience to understand. The speed is incredible. The flowers on the side of the road are no longer flowers, they are flecks, or rather red or white stripes, no longer dots, everything becomes a stripe. It takes a good deal of effort not to believe that this iron horse is a real animal. One can hear it puffing when at rest, lamenting on departure, and yapping en route; it sweats, trembles, snorts, whinnies, slows down and speeds up; all along the route, it spews out sparks and urine of boiling water.
This is a brief part of a series of letters wrote by Victor Hugo to the painter L. Boulanger, one of his best friends. The letters describes his trips around Normandy, Gran Britain, Provence and Belgium. This was the time when Hugo saw the train running for the first time!
Docks of Cardiff - Lionel Walden (1894)
July 18, 2017
The industrialization of the 19th century inspired many artists, Walden was one of them. He is American, but he used to live in England between 1893 and 1897. This painting represents the most important coal port of United Kingdom from the end of the 18th century until 1960, the Cardiff Port. In this painting, as in some others, Walden portrayed the docks, but he did not highlight the sea. He painted a perspective from where we can see the railway infrastructure, the factories and the warehouses. This represents his interest in the industrial development. Currently this painting makes part of the Musée d’Orsay exhibition and it safeguard the participation of a railway infrastructure on what was the most important economic sector of Wales.
If you liked this one, take a look in the others of the Wales Museum.
Brasil Novo - Mercado de Peixe
August 16, 2017
Mercado de Peixe is a group from São Paulo state hinterland. Its songs mixes Brazilian popular music and contemporary music, making a balance between the rural and the urban cultural. “Brasil Novo” is one of its songs. This music mention the railway of Bauru as the road of the new country, putting in evidence the citizens’ sense of belonging to a Nation in progress in the end of the 19th century. Along with the capitalism growth, in 1890 some facilities to build the Estrada de Ferro Noroeste do Brasil were created. In the beginning the idea was to connect São Paulo and Mato Grosso, but since 1903 this railway, currently known as NOB, became a part of a plan of an international connection between São Paulo and Bolivia. Bauru was the first city of this line; its station was inaugurated in 1906; It received passengers from many different directions! Unfortunately, in some years the passengers’ trains number reduced; the station received its last passengers in 2001.
A Railroad Artifact - Joel Sternfeld (2000)
June 21, 2017
This old photo of the High Line was the first picture of the exhibition “Landscape with Path”, curated by Joel Sternfeld. Robert Hammond, one of the Friends of the High Line's Co-founder, called Joel Sternfeld to try to capture the beauty of the abandoned New Yorker railway. His photos showed the potential of this old railway branch as a public green place. Robert’s strategy to safeguard this railway heritage is a way currently used to promote and raise awareness among citizens. Joel's work successfully fulfilled the group’s initiative, attracting many supporters. As a part of this work, Joel’s photos helped the High Line to become one of the most famous examples of railway heritage conversion.
Take a look at all his work clicking here!
Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie (1934)
June 8º, 2017
The british novel has as the main scenario the Orient Express, a train of long distance, which runs from Istanbul until Paris. This train works since 1883. The whole plot happens with a detective called Hercule Poirot, who should go back from Istanbul until London. He would never imagine that his trip would be a new case to solve. Someone was murdered in the train! Thus, while you enjoy this incredible detective novel, you make a tour around the Orient Express. If you do not like to read that much, you can watch the movie made in 1974 or wait for the new version based on this amazing novel! Yes, on November we can take a ride on this train with some famous actors and a contemporaneous interpretation and technology!
Take the A Train - Duke Ellington Orchestra (1941)
May 1º, 2017
As a signature tone of Duke Ellington Orchestra, often used to open their concerts, “Take the A Train” was written in a partnership between the jazz composer Ellington and the composer Billy Strayhorn. This song is talking about the A Eighth Avenue Express, a rapid transit service that is a part of the New York subway system. The A train uses a part of the old railway system of New York since 1932. After many extensions, this line runs from 207th Street until Far Rockaway, but in the period of this song, this train used to run from eastern Brooklyn until Harlem, the most famous African-American neighborhood of New York between the 1920s-1930s, where Ellington used to live. The song keeps the memory of a fast mean of transportation, its particular sound and of the African-American people in New York.
If you want to know more about this song click
Transsiberian - Brand Anderson (2008)
March 04, 2017
Would you like to take a look on the heritage preserved by the train journey that is mentioned in the Guinness Book of Records since 1900? So you need to watch this movie! Full of mistery, action and drama, the Transsiberian shows some of the cultural, landscape and history of Russia.
Besides that, it shows some old train stations and trains. One of the characters is a train fun and he shares a bit of his knowledge along the thriller.
Board this train to see how facinating this infrastructure is. The train is composed by different kinds of interior compartments. Different wagons for different social classes and uses. Just choose a sit and enjoy it!
The Euston Arch, London - Documentary One Foot in the Past (2009)
March 20, 2017
In 2009, during the construction of the Olympics’ infrastructure, some remnants of an old Railway Station was found in the River Lea in London. According to the Historian “This was the first great building of the Railway Age and was the largest Grecian Doric gateway ever made anywhere in the world, erected in 1838 at the first railway terminus in London. It stood proudly at the entrance until its senseless demolition in 1961”. In the year after its demolition a modern station was built in exactly the same place as the ancient one. So, after this discovery a discussion about the rebuilt of this monument started. This episode of the “One Foot in the Past” preserves this history bringing back to life a demolished railway heritage.
Would you agree to this way of preservation? Perhaps we will see it back in !
City of New Orleans - Steve Goodman (1971)
January 15, 2017
Steve Goodman took the City of New Orleans Railway to go from Chicago to New Orleans. While he was in the train, he wrote about the journey and then, back to Chicago, he wrote this song. Here we have preserved a train trip of more or less 900 hundred miles! (http://sharemap.org/public/Amtrak_City_of_New_Orleans#!flash) This railway is a part of the Illinois Central Railroad. Since 2000, Amtrak and the National Park Service have a touristic program called Trails & Rails to preserve the heritage of the region by train. (https://www.nps.gov/subjects/amtraktrailsandrails/about.htm)
Thus, welcome aboard! Our driver today will be Goodman. We hope you enjoy the trip!
Sidney Rodrigues
January 17, 2017
Sidney Rodrigues from the city of Araraquara/SP - Brazil was a railway worker before he became a well-known visual artist in the city. Besides the countless intervations made by him around the city, he wrote some poem books. The book Endless Love preserves his railway memories in two poems - The train and The station.
If you want to take a look on an ex-railway worker memories just click on the link below!
Source: Prof. Sidney Rodrigues' facebook
Convento Madre de Deus
January 06, 2017
The railway memory can be found in the details! The Portuguese art historian João Cravo shared with us an interesting capital, which preserves a train sculpture. This architectural detail was made in an old Convent in Lisbon, which currently is the Portuguese Tile Nacional Museum.
To know more about it just click on one of the links below!
Claude Monet (1840-1926) and the Railway
December 13, 2016
In our visit to the Musée d’Orsay, we saw the impressionist paintings. The museum explains that this art represented the modern world changes, and that during the 1870s, they used to represent Paris by its train stations, dances and coffee shops, showing the entertainment and the industries too. Among all the painters we would like to highlight Claude Monet, who painted the railway from different perspectives preserving its memory.
to enjoy this artistic way of preservation!
The General (Buster Keaton - 1926)
November 16, 2016
For those who liked the "Our Hospitality", here is another movie of Buster Keaton in which he explores the railway even more. He put in evidence the importance of the railway engineer and the whole infrastructure during the American Civil War. It's a nice way to highlight many techniques used to manipulate the General locomotive or even the railway infrastructure as a whole. This steam machine was created in 1855. If you want to know more about it
If you like comedy, action and romance, besides the railway, you will like this movie!
Trem de ferro (Tom Jobim)
November 04, 2016
Manuel Bandeira, a Brazilian writer, wrote the poem "Iron train" in 1936. Its lines contains an onomatopoeia for the sound of the train running. Besides that, he describes some visual sensations, the relationship between the railway and the agricultural production and the transport of "few people", the railway frame of the 1930s. The poem refers to Pernambuco, a region on the north of Brazil. Tom Jobim, a Brazilian singer, took advantage of the poem rhythm and made this song.
Its a nice and clever way to preserve the old railway sound.
We hope you enjoy it!
Our Hospitality (Buster Keaton - 1923)
October 27, 2016
After the visit to the Gijón Railway Museum we searched for the movie that they use in their exhibition and it doesn't only safeguard a part of the railway heritage, it is very funny too! The steam machine is a re-creation of the Stephenson's Rocket, designed in 1829 by Robert Stephenson. Currently a replic can be found in the National Railway Museum in York, England.
If you want to laugh and have a bit of this railway experience, this is a nice tip.
If you want to understand more about this amazing "iron monster", as the movie call it, go to