The Locobreque, is a type of steam locomotive, equipped with a tongs developed to hook a steel cable installed on the track and receive the traction effort, moving the set of wagons on railroads with a large railroad. In Brazil, they were implemented by the São Paulo Railway (SPR), for operation at the Paranapiacaba Funicular. In 1901, a São Paulo Railway inaugurated the "Serra Nova Funicular System" (also known as "New inclined planes"), with ten miles in length and 8% ramps, to overcome a 796 meter slope of Serra do Mar. operated by the endless cable system (endless rope), with five fixed steam engines, housed in buildings at the top of each of the five inclined planes. A system with 4,800 rotating pulleys was installed between the rails to keep the steel cable aligned and firm. Because the cable has no end, the Serra Breque wagon system used in Serra Velha would be unfeasible, being replaced by Locobreques. The locobreque is a special vehicle with its own driving force, classified as a steam locomotive, equipped with tongs to engage the cable and receive the traction effort, moving the set of wagons on journeys in the mountains. As they had boilers, their structures were made of steel, thus being able to move through railway yards safely.
A SPR acquired 20 locobreques to operate on the new system, as follows:
units produced by the British company Kerr, Stewart & Co., manufactured in 1900, from Stoke-on-Trent;
eight units produced by the British company Robert Stepheson & Co., manufactured in 1901, from Newcastle and Darlington.
This small 0-4-0T locomotive streamlined an operation on the landing, maneuvering the set of cars and wagons attached to it. All the undercarriage was equipped with an efficient vacuum vacuum braking system, the Vaccun Brake, measures that increased the reliability and safety of operations. Because of these new technologies, as maneuvering locomotives have lost much of their function. The locomotives operated until 1976, with the complete decision of the mountain range, a bulletin under the initial jurisdiction of Estrada de Ferro Paulista (SPR), subsequently Estrada de Ferro Santos-Jundiaí (EFSJ), RFFSA, and finally, under the jurisdiction of ABPF, where until 1994 there was a tourist walk up to the 4th Level of the Second System. Today they no longer operate and some preserved units are part of the Funicular Railway Technological Museum, maintained by the Brazilian Railway Preservation Association.
A continuously growing album of photos that IMHO reveal the awesome and seldom-seen beauty of the railroad world from the dimming of day to dawn's early light! From dusk to dawn, trains roll on! (I'm still finding gems of sunset-to-sunrise surprises!)
