Decauville Railway Sapucaia – Benjamin Constant
| Sapucaia – Benjamin Constant | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Sapucaia train station at the port of Sapucaia
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 Route, 1908
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| Route length: | 17.658 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 600 mm ( narrow gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minimum radius : | 102 m | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Decauville Railway Sapucaia – Benjamin Constant ( Portuguese Ramal de Benjamin Constant ) was a 17.658 km long Decauville - narrow-gauge railway in Brazil with a gauge of 600 mm. From 1904 to 1964 it connected the "Colônia Agrícola Benjamin Constant" with the port of Sapucaia on the river Rio Caeté, which is navigable by small ships, opposite Bragança in the state of Pará .
history
In order to facilitate the traffic between the Colônia Agrícola Benjamin Constant , named after the republic co- founder Benjamin Constant Botelho de Magalhães , and the city of Bragança, the governor of the Brazilian state Pará decided to build a Decauville railway. On April 27, 1900 he signed a contract with the civil engineer Guilherme von Linde , which was not fulfilled by April 27, 1903, despite the two postponements of the completion date.
Therefore, his successor, Governor Augusto Montenegro , commissioned the engineer Dr. Amynthas de Lemos to prepare a report on the status of the work. He was able to determine without major difficulties that the instructions had not been followed, as no plans or sections of the route, bridges, stations, culverts or the work specified in the contract could be found.
Even in the section where the rails had been laid, the execution was only provisional: the railway embankments were made from material from trenches dug along the embankment, so that drainage was impeded, which resulted in water accumulated and endangered the strength of the embankments. The sides were only bevelled in a few incisions, the excavated earth had been piled up along the apex.
Two of the water passages , one of which was made with dry stone walls and the other measuring 0.6 × 0.7 × 11.15 m, were unsafe. In the latter, iron sleepers were used for the retaining walls. The two open water passages also had a very temporary character. The rails were laid without ballast, contrary to what was agreed in the contract, according to which the ballast bed should have been 0.20 m high. The sleepers were very far apart, in some cases up to a meter, which seriously impaired the stability of the line and led to twisting and bending of many rails. Despite the contractually agreed use of hardwood sleepers, there were very few and the poorest quality.
The route had been laid without proper measurement or leveling, and occasionally there were counter curves with no straight sections in between. The arches had very small radii and there were no flat stretches between incline and decline. In addition, it would have been impossible to lay further tracks, even if the government had done it itself, as the barque Agnes with all the building materials had been stranded and scrapped at Sapucaia before the unloading agreed with the insurance company could take place.
The contract was therefore terminated, and Governor Montenegro approved the engineer Lemos on behalf of the colonial administration to continue construction based on the fact. Construction was completed by September 7, 1904, and the line was ready for commissioning.
location
The Decauville Railway, which connected the port of Sapucaia to the Benjamin Constant Colony, began at the port of Sapucaia. It followed the right bank of the Caeté River, one kilometer above Bragança. It had a track width of 600 mm and was made with steel rails that weighed 9 kilograms per meter. They were laid on hardwood sleepers that were rectangularly flattened on all four sides. The route was a total of 17,658.8 m long, of which 14,283 m were straight 3,375 curved. The maximum radius of the arches was 3,437 m and the minimum radius was 102 m. There were a total of 28 arches, 7,606 m of the route ran in incisions and 10,398 m on embankments. The pier in Sapucaia was 15 × 4 m. There was a bridge over the Igarapé Cujubim ( sv ) , as well as three other bridges, an open passage and a flat-covered passage with dimensions of 0.60 × 0.47 × 11.15 m, two track triangles , two water tanks, two stations and one Sheds for the rail vehicles and workshops.
To operate the line, a telephone line had been laid that connected the Benjamin Constant station with the one in Bragança. For the work under the direction of Dr. Aniynthas de Lemos incurred costs of R $ 93,177 up to July 31, 1903 .
Rail vehicles
The railway initially had 2 locomotives, 2 passenger cars, 2 baggage cars, 2 platform cars with 10 tons each, 9 small freight cars and 2 long timber trucks.
The first steam locomotive was delivered in 1902. The second locomotive arrived in 1903 dismantled and assembled on site. The third was put into operation in 1906.
plans
The construction of the Benjamin Constant Railway was of great importance for the city of Bragança. It was planned to extend the route to Gurupy so that it would have been 45 kilometers in total. After completion of the meter-gauge Bragança Railway, it was to be operated as a branch line. It was planned to build a bridge over the Rio Caeté to make the connection with the city of Bragança.
Change of operator and extension
The Estrada de Ferro Bragança took over the administration of the branch line to Benjamin Constant and its train driver in 1908. The narrow-gauge line was extended in 1908 to a length of 26 and 29 km.
Shutdown
The Decauville Railway and its terminus, which has been called Tijoca since the 1950s, were officially decommissioned by the RFFSA on May 27, 1964 .
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Augusto Montenegro: Message of the Governor of the State of Pará. Delivered to the Members of the Legislative Congress on September 7th, 1904. In: Brazilian Review. September 18 and 25, 1904. Page xv (Page 37 of the PDF file).
- ↑ a b Manoel de Lima Luz, Walcir Ortiz: Colônia Agrícola Benjamin Constant. Uma História sobre a Imigração Espanhola no Pará (1892–1964). Faculdades Integradas Ipiranga, Belém 2013.
- ↑ a b Ralph Mennucci Giesbrecht: EF Bragança - ramal de Benjamin Constant.
Coordinates: 1 ° 3 ′ 42.8 ″ S , 46 ° 45 ′ 15.8 ″ W.