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Phase 1- Cia. Ramal Férreo Campineiro - 1889 to 1917

The foundation of the Ramal Férreo Campineiro took place at the end of the 19 century, more precisely in 1889. At this time, involved in radical political changes, Brazil was an eminently agricultural country and in the state of São Paulo, coffee plantations were well developed and prospered year by year. The great economical power connected with coffee plantations can be evaluated if we take into consideration that two other great railways, the Companhia Paulista de Estradas de Ferro and the Companhia Mogiana de Estradas de Ferro were founded by groups of coffee farmers.

In Campinas, in the interior of the State of São Paulo, located about 90Km from the capital, the great coffee plantations were under development, even after the adaptation period and the reforms after the abolition of slavery. It was here, thanks to the interests of two farmers, Paulo Machado Florense and Dr. Inácio de Queirós Lacerda, that, in the middle of 1889, arose the idea of the creation of a small railway that would link their properties, the Cabras farm and Dr. Lacerda’s farm, located in the Joaquim Egídio, to the Campinas’ railway station, to facilitate the shipment of the coffee crop, which was until this moment mostly restricted to the animal traction transport. Joaquim Egídio, today, is a bucolic district of Campinas , linked to that city by a paved highway passing through Sousas, also another district, however a little more developed.

A contract was signed on October 09, 1890 to start the construction works and it was the engineer, from the State of Maranhão, Dr. Carlos William Stevenson, who was designated as responsible for the whole project.

The total cost of the work was of 1.290:000$. The railway used a gauge (distance between the rails) of 0,60m; the smallest radius of curve was of 60 meters, its largest steepness was of 0,30m and the average velocity was 23km per hour. Finally, four years later, occurred the inaugural trip, on September 20, 1894 .

Soon after it1s inauguration, the train which was mostly used for personnel's and load transport, was affectionately nicknamed by the users as “Cabrita" (little goat), perhaps because of the bumps and sways of the wagons, which in turn were due to the narrow gauge. However, but more certainly the name was given after the farm Cabras, which was the last station of the line. The Ribeirão das Cabras, flowing from the Atibaia river, cuts the area of Sousas and Joaquim Egídio and the railway bordered it in a large part of its extension. The company had in that time, the following running assets: four steam locomotives, eleven passenger cars and twenty-four load wagons. The total length of the R.F.C. line was about 33 km, in the extension of Cabras, and more 10 km of the extension of the Dr. Lacerda’s farm.

Following are the stations of the R.F.C.:

Km Station Name

However in the half of the 10^th decade, things began getting complicated in the area. In 1917 and in the years that were proceeded came the economical decadence of the coffee, after a terrible crisis of the attack of the "drill", a plague which has no way to control, and which took several farmers of the region to the bankruptcy. This was, perhaps, the great cause responsible to not gotten way to maintain the operational costs of the railway, although it was a small one. The Ramal Férreo Campineiro was reaching the end of its days.

Phase 2 - The CCTL&F, the EBASCO and the CPFL - 1917 to 1952

Campinas had since September 25, 1879 , a service of animal (mules) traction trolleys (mules) explored by the Companhia Campineira de Carris de Ferro initially with only four cars; later they bought a few ones more from the Cia. Viação São Paulo because that company were being deactivated. Only on June 24, 1912 began to circulate in the city the electric powered trams, imported from the U.S.A. , manufactured by the J.G. Brill company. The organization responsible for that implantation was the CCTL&F (Companhia Campineira de Tração, Luz e Força). In 1912 it imported 8 cars and later, in 1923, it brought more 8, vehicles that were circulating in the North American city of Philadelphia . There is a story that didn't lack pushes in the inaugural trip of the trolleys and even slaps among the passengers, during the “fight" to meet an available seat. A musical ensemble of the São Paulo Police Brigade, with 66 musicians, played there, conducted by Antão Fernandes. The trolleys used an electric circuit of continuous current, tension of 600 volts and its gauge was of 1000 mm, the same used by the railways of larger size, like the Cia. Mogiana.

On March,18 1917 , with the unavailability of maintaining the trains of R.F.C., a CCTL&F decided to buy the company and soon disabled the use of the trains definitively. This was the end of the “cabrita ", 23 years after its inaugural trip, which caused a general commotion in the neighbor residents and among its users. However, as an alternative, a service of electric trolleys, linking Campinas to the farm Cabras was began to be elaborated and for this purpose the company ordered from J.G. Brill, the called " bondão " (big tram), nickname given to it due to its larger size than the open trolleys that was running in the urban area. So, the line began to be electrified and it had its gauge already increased to 1000mm, starting 1917; in 1919 these works were already reaching the end of line, Cabras. The gauge change was necessary because this line shared the urban trolleys' one, which the “bondão” used in part of its itinerary. An important detail: in a country like Brazil, lacking of technology tradition, the RFC eletrification was made even before those of Companhia Paulista de Estradas de Ferro, a much richer company, although we must take in account the tremedous differences between the projects of a small and of a big railway. The initial stop station was just in front of Companhia Paulista station and from this place it proceeded through the Av. Andrade Neves , later running in the neighborhood of Guanabara and finally reaching the rural zone, passing by the farm Vila Brandina, located one or two kilometers before the Cavalcante station, at that time one of the most important milk cattle’ s farm. In this farm there was only a simple stop with a discovered platform.

When the trains was gone and the beginning of the service trolleys, the extension of Santa Maria - Dr. Lacerda - was not longer used. However, there is reports which claims that vehicles on rails, powered by gasoline engines, have used this extension, which maintained its gauge on 0,60m until October 1939, when finally it was totally disabled.

With the CCTL&F taking the command of the operations, the stations became the following ones:

Km Station Name

0 Campinas

4-6 Guanabara e Cambuí

10 Engenheiro Cavalcante

17 Arraial de Sousas

21 Joaquim Egídio

25 Capoeira Grande 27 Palmeiras

29 Quedas 31 Venda Nova

33 Cabras

Phase 3 - E.F. Sorocabana - 1952 to 1960

In 1928, the control of CCTL&F was transferred to the Electric Bond & Share (EBASCO), a North American company which explored the Campinas' eletric trams services until 1950. However, the name of CCTL&F was maintained. On August 18, 1952 the CCTL&F decided to transfer to Estrada de Ferro Sorocabana the exploration of the old line of R.F.C. , and the new enterprise maintained the service of trolleys. At April, 22 1953 the Sorocabana tried to stop with the service in that line, but a strong people influence makes it to reactivate soon.

However, the "bondão" finished its days and was changed by four trolleys of simple truck, bought of second hand from the city of Belo Horizonte . These were practically similar to the CCTL&F ones, but painted of a dark green color, the official color of that company, different from the red and yellow trolleys from the other company. Another interesting difference was the use of an enormous spotlight, a good auxiliary to the mediocre original headlight, because great part of its itinerary was been in rural areas, without any type of public illumination. There was only three trips a day between Campinas and Cabras in that time. At November,12 1952 the Sorocabana decided to stop the goods and animals transport of the line.

In the begining of 1954 the CCTL&F which was a subsidiary of the Companhia Paulista de Força e Luz (C.P.F.L.) since 1946, transferred the service of trolleys to the Campinas government. All the assets (28 cars and 26km. of implanted rails) were sold by Cr$ 3,000,000.00. The C.C.T.C. (Companhia Campineira de Transportes Coletivos), that already acted in the city with its urban buses, will taked care of the service for the next 10 years. Almost five years later, on February 10, 1960 , the Sorocabana also decided to abandon the Cabras’ line service of trolleys, alleging profitability lack.

Phase 4 - The C.C.T.C. takes control - 1960 to 1968

With the E.F.S. out of the business, the CCTC, in February 10, 1960, retook the line for itself, integrating it into its urban system of trolleys, creating the line of number 14, denominated Boa Esperança, but using only the first 7 km, which finished in the vicinity of the Vila Brandina farm. The trolley line to Sousas, Joaquim Egídio and Cabras had left the Campinas’ scenery, definitively.

The city of Campinas grew quickly, since the beginning of the sixties. The structure of its line of trolleys was very simple, using an one-way line type. Therefore, there were deviations at certain points of the routes, to allow the passage of another trolley using the same line, and they occupied almost the whole width of the street. Besides, almost always run in narrow streets. The traffic began chaotic, with the natural increase of the vehicle fleet, and in 1964 the trolleys began to be, little by little, retired out of the streets, culminating in the end of the activities on May 24, 1968 . The C.C.T.C. had 28 cars of J G Brill, operating fourteen lines, with 58 km of rails implemented.

The vestiges of the History

Until today, in the sub-district of Sousas, the metallic bridge that was used to cross the Atibaia river, from the time of the trains, remains to the left side of the concrete bridge (to Joaquim Egídio way), built some years later. This bridge was partially destroyed by the São Paulo's revolutionaries, in 1932, to create difficulties to the Government troops reach the Campinas region. Part of the old railway bed, from Sousas to Joaquim Egídio, with an extension about 4 km, bordering the Ribeirão das Cabras, until now is called “way of the trolley ", almost stays in its original state, but without the rails and the posts, and it is a place very used by groups of people which like walking activities. During the electrification phase and the change of gauges, the line was slightly modified in its original itinerary. This little part of the whole railway is today preserved by the Condepacc, a Campinas council of artistic and cultural preservation and protection. Also, today, in Joaquim Egídio, not very far from the station, we can observe the vestiges of the Dr. Lacerda's ramification, which serves several small farms and gives access to a C.P.F.L. electric energy power generation station.

With a popular initiative and from city resident, four of the trolleys of CCTC were preserved and they are now in operation, in a tourist line of 4 km of extension, inside the Parque Portugal, in the neighborhood of Taquaral, a gentle place of leisure of the city. Unfortunately none of the "big trams" of the CCTL&F was preserved.

Joaquim Egídio's station was in ruins for a long time, except for its foundations and the water reservoir. An old storehouse, behind the station, got to be maintained arise and today it shelters a restaurant. The station was totally reconstructed on September 22, 2000 , a work executed by the company responsible for the construction of the gas-duct Brazil-Bolivia, which passes about 200 meters from the station. See here an article of a local newspaper "Correio Popular", at the time of the station restoration.