Viação Férrea Campinas-Jaguariúna - VFCJ (Brazil)

This time the Railway Heritage Blog received the review Railway and trajectories through the interior of São Paulo: The tour of the old railway line between Campinas and Jaguariúna, a collaboration of the Brazilian architect and planner Renata Poliana Cezar Monezzi. Currently, she is enrolled as a PhD student at IFCH- UNICAMP (Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas).

She will speak a bit about her experience in a tourist steam machine tour, which operates since 1981 through a railway branch created during the 19th century and deactivated during the 1970s. We hope you enjoy her experience too!

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Steam Machine, Renata Poliana Cezar Monezzi, 2016.

The view that we have of our past is intimately linked to the materiality of the objects that we have contact, their stories and the relationships promoted by them and with them. The objects and their meanings determine trends and reveal habits and customs of an era. The history of a place and even the affection delegated to these objects can give us some tips about how was the reality in the past. However, a part of the idea of past is also constructed by the particular experiences and stories of those who lived in that period and how they saw that reality. When we think about the past, the stories of people and the objects that were part of this distant universe, the nostalgic look used to take place and the vision of enchanting and magical times begin to populate the feelings and memories as if it was something of the universe of dreams, in which memory is related to the notion that the life lived in the past was rich with particularities that now are lost in the present. In this place, where the memories of a wonderful past are highlighted, it is possible to understand what the local preservation body and the ABPF Regional Campinas Association (the Brazilian Association of Railway Heritage) have done to organize and promote the tour of the old railway that linked Campinas to Jaguariúna - railway line that belonged to the old Paulista Railway Company.

The tour

The train track, Renata Poliana Ceza Monezzi, 2016

The central point of this tour is established from the locomotive itself and its route, highlighting the particularities of this object and the stories that surround it. Thus, the script starts at the old Anhumas Train Station, a building that still preserves much of the original construction features. There the visitor can observe a brief presentation of the history of the railway with a brief urban context and notions about how the train operated in technological and economic terms.

Thus, the local tour guide explains to the visitor the operation of the steam engine and demonstrates how this technology was adapted to the locomotive, introducing the concepts of the locomotive design, power generation, etc. It is in fact one of the most interesting moments of the trip, in which the memory of that place and the objects of the railways are closely related to the technological experiences implemented during the creation of the railways and, in the same time, could demonstrate the perspectives of those who started to use it. Also it was introduced the dimension of what was the railway and the locomotive in terms of displacement and speed, since the references were other at that time and the displacements were basically realized through the use of animal power.

In this way, the perceptions of the past promoted involve different glances between technical and technological knowledge, the affective discourse based on the stories of those who have lived and used the train and who still reserve happy memories about it and finally the experience of visiting the own route.

Among the stories portrayed by the guide is the story of a gentleman, a former employee of the company, who for years, after the railway was deactivated, took care of the station and hoped to review the railway and its stations again occupied and used by the local people. This dream is fulfil of the revitalization of the railway line for tourist use and ends, however, with his farewell, dying days after this project start. Rather emotional, this story brings for the visitor the perspective of a past loved by those who experienced it and suggests the vision of a lost patrimony that can still be recovered and rescued, highlighting the affective relations with the railways. Parallel to this, are also portrayed stories about the emergence of the telephone and the importance of the railway in this process, especially because it enabled the communication between the different stations to minimize the often-recurring rail accidents at the beginning of the railways activities.

Inside the train, Renata Poliana Ceza Monezzi, 2016.

Finally, after receive this information, curiosities and know the local histories, the visitor leaves to do the train route, being able to delight the landscape cut by the railway line and has a particular contact with the train and the objects that contains it. By preserving its original characteristics, the train allows the observer to identify the materials that make up the seats; the windows and the supports of the luggage compartments, as well as the visitor can observe the particularities of the design conferred to the internal spaces of the locomotive. For example, the seats can be positioned according different directions, following the direction of travel or the opposite direction, resulting in different internal configurations. Another equally interesting item is the design of the windows, which follows the guillotine pattern and must be pushed into the wall of the car in a vertical direction. This design solution can cause a certain strangeness by the majority of visitors accustomed to the design of buses and transports of nowadays where the windows run to the sides.

During this route, the visitor can see the other stations that are currently abandoned and deactivated. The great majority follows the same architectural model conferred to the station of Anhumas, however, many of them are partially destroyed nowadays.

The arrival to Jaguariúna station is demarcated by the magnitude of the main building. Featuring larger dimensions, the station boasts a number of restaurants and convenience stores that sell local products and souvenirs inspired by the railway. In the script of this journey, during the visit of Jaguariúna station, the visitor can lunch and enjoy the touristic activities, while wait the time of departure of the train to return to its starting point.

Final Considerations

In conclusion, the railway route promoted by the Brazilian Association of Railway Heritage approaches different perspectives of a past in which the railway is understood as a structurally transforming element that provided the development of a unique urban life and reality, however, other views are denied in the discourse created.

The use of the stories of users and former workers of the railway company emphasizes the affective relationship that these people had with the railroad and the train to promote, in a certain way, a strong feeling of the need to safeguard this local heritage. However, at the same time that it emphasizes the point of view of an idealized past from the perspective of those who have experienced it, it also denies the understanding of the reasons that led to the decadence of this system and the economic and political transformations that have taken place in Brazil once just the emotional discourse are defended and promoted during this journey.

Despite the success in ensuring a mixed approach when portraying the railroad from oral history and the history of technological transformations, the tour does not address discussions related to the transformations of public and private investments that started to prioritize the model of the automobile as the main means of displacement carried out in the country. The understanding of the reasons that led to the changes in the public and private interest in the investments of the rail system and which led to the dismantling of the railroad system, for example, is little approached, which in a certain way impoverishes the understanding of the past and the history of railways in Brazil.

Taking a careful look to the history of these considerations, it is possible to identify the contradictions and difficulties resulting from the model adopted and even look at how the automobile has gained the centrality of the concerns of the projects of cities that we build in the Brazilian contemporaneity.

Understanding heritage as something of great value in its different points of view may be the first step toward better understanding of our history and even our present. As researchers and promoters of tourism and cultural activities, it is important that we are attentive to what kind of discourses were created and which discourses we are keeping. It is important that we have special attention to the strong tendencies of nostalgic discourses, since these perceptions could reproduce just one perspective of the past in detriment of other notions and realities, which can also be observed.