The Tramways of
RIO GRANDE
Rio Grande do Sul state
BRAZIL
RIO GRANDE
Rio Grande do Sul state
BRAZIL
BY
Allen Morrison
The city of Rio Grande lies on a narrow peninsula near the southern end of Lagoa dos Patos, South America's largest lagoon [see state map]. The peninsula is about 2 km wide and 7 km long [see area map]. Rio Grande is 18 km from the Atlantic Ocean, 60 km from Pelotas, 320 km from Porto Alegre at the other end of the lagoon, and about 5,000 km from Brazil's northernmost tramway systems that operated in Manaus and Belém. It is the southernmost large city in Brazil and one of its busiest ports. Population of 40,000 in 1910 made it the second most populous city in Rio Grande do Sul state. Its 200,000 residents today rank it 10th in that fast-growing state..
Allen Morrison
The city of Rio Grande lies on a narrow peninsula near the southern end of Lagoa dos Patos, South America's largest lagoon [see state map]. The peninsula is about 2 km wide and 7 km long [see area map]. Rio Grande is 18 km from the Atlantic Ocean, 60 km from Pelotas, 320 km from Porto Alegre at the other end of the lagoon, and about 5,000 km from Brazil's northernmost tramway systems that operated in Manaus and Belém. It is the southernmost large city in Brazil and one of its busiest ports. Population of 40,000 in 1910 made it the second most populous city in Rio Grande do Sul state. Its 200,000 residents today rank it 10th in that fast-growing state..
Like nearby Pelotas and Porto Alegre, Rio Grande had an urban street railway before it had long-distance trains. A local industrialist named Antônio Cândido Sequeira wanted to develop transportation facilities in the region and founded Companhia de Carris Urbanos do Rio Grande on 23 May 1876. As the steam railroad approached Rio Grande, CCURG inaugurated a mule-drawn tram line from Praça Xavier Ferreira to the new railroad station – the Estação Central – on 2 November 1884 [see city map]. Steam trains began carrying passengers a month later, on 2 December 1884. They went only to Pelotas and Bagé at that time, did not reach Porto Alegre until 1900.
The tramway system thrived, and in 1885 Sequeira formed a subsidiary, Companhia de Bonds Suburbanos da Mangueira, to build and operate an 18.6 km 'linha de bonds por tração a vapor' (steam-powered tram line) from Rio Grande to a place near the ocean to be called Villa Sequeira [see area map]. He coined the term 'bonds suburbanos' (suburban trams) because he did not have permission to operate conventional trains. The scheme failed and he was sued by the Southern Brazilian Rio Grande do Sul Railway, which wanted control of all steam lines in the area [Enke, pp. 52-58: see BIBLIOGRAPHY]. Sequeira finally won permission in 1888, began construction in January 1889 and the following March, through an agent in New York, ordered steam locomotive number 1, named 'Andorinha', from H. K. Porter Co. in Pittsburgh. Here is part of the listing in the Porter order books [see complete listing]. 'Ca. B. S. M.' = Companhia de Bonds Suburbanos da Mangueira. 39 3/8 in = 100 cm [col. Christopher Walker]:
No illustration of that precise locomotive could be found, but according to the description it was the type shown below [col. Christopher Walker]:
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CBSM locomotive number 2, named 'Formiga', also came from Porter. CBSM acquired passenger cars, began tests in December 1889 and started transporting Brazilians to their first seaside playground on 26 January 1890. (Rio de Janeiro and Santos developed their beaches later.) The steam line began at the end of the Carris Urbanos horsecar line at Parque [see map]. The area around Villa Sequeira station was variously called Costa do Mar or Costa da Mangueira or Casino and is named Cassino (with 'ss') today. The line was absorbed by the Southern Brazilian Rio Grande do Sul Railway in 1900 [see Giesbrecht].
The Cassino railway did not go all the way to the beach, so Sequeira built a horse-drawn tramway to take passengers the rest of the way [see Enke text and map. The 0.8 km Cassino tramway seems to have opened along with the railway, in 1890. No one knows how many years it ran, but the photo postcard below shows it in 1913 [col. Antonio Cleber dos Santos Silva]:
Back in Rio Grande, the Companhia Carris Urbanos reorganized itself as Companhia Viação Rio-Grandense, as shown on this ticket [Julio Meili, Das Brasilianische Geldwesen (Zurich, 1903): 'Bilhetes de Omnibus, Barcas e Bonds,' estampa 126, bilhete 646]:
The postcard below, made about 1905, shows still another owner, Companhia de Bonds Rio-Grandenses. The origin of Rio Grande horsecars is uncertain, but some of the vehicles are said to have been purchased from Porto Alegre, which had trams built by John Stephenson Co. in New York. That is the type car shown in this view, looking east down Rua Gen. Vitorino from Rua 24 de Maio. Praça Tamandaré is out of sight on the left [see map] [col. AM]:
In 1906 the Brazilian government hired American engineer Elmer Corthell to rebuild the Rio Grande port facilities, power plant and tramway system (Corthell had designed ports in New Orleans, Belém and Buenos Aires). Corthell's friend, the American industrialist Percival Farquhar, registered The Port of Rio Grande do Sul, S.A. in Portland, Maine, but could not find adequate investors. Funding for the project was finally secured in France and the firm was reorganized in Paris in 1908 as Compagnie Française du Port de Rio Grande do Sul. American Westinghouse began laying electric tram tracks in Rio Grande in 1910 and ordered fifteen l0-bench passenger motor cars and six l0-bench passenger trailers from J. G. Brill Co. in Philadelphia in 1911. Here is a Brill photograph of trailer car 10 [Brill Collection, Historical Society of Pennsylvania]:
The inauguration date of the electric tramway is often cited as 15 November 1911, but the Porto Alegre newspaper Correio do Povo of 17 November 1912 cites the inauguration a year later, on 15 November 1912 [see BIBLIOGRAPHY, below]. This photograph shows a motor car and trailers bringing workers from the Companhia Swift plant in the southeast corner of the peninsula [see map]. Track gauge of the Rio Grande tramway, as of all railways in the area, was one meter [col. J. J. Abreu]:
On 9 March 1918 the French company was purchased by the state of Rio Grande do Sul and the tramway and other utilities became the property of Viação e Illuminação Eléctricas do Rio Grande. The new company rebuilt many of the open trams as closed models [col. Departamento Autárquico de Transportes Coletivos do Rio Grande]:
Rio Grande's trailer cars had even numbers; its motor cars odd. A VIERG report of 1923 shows seven open motor cars in the series 1-29, thirteen open trailers numbered 2-28, and ten closed motors numbered 31-49, a total of 30 passenger trams. The company purchased motors and trucks from the United States and built passenger cars and freight equipment in Brazil. The postcard view below shows a tram on Rua Andradas on the east side of Praça Xavier Ferreira [see map]. The large structure is the Edifício da Alfândega (Customs Building). The women's clothing indicates that the year was 1933 [postcard, col. AM]:FG Big Wheel, Balneário Camboriú
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