International Railroad Discussion > Question about Sao Paulo rack operations

I'm wondering about the general operations of the rack railway that is on Serra à Bordo incline near São Paulo in Brazil. I looked at a bunch of videos and it seems like the two Stadler electrics take between 4-20 cars up or down the hills, and it is single track, with slow speeds. How much of a bottleneck is that? Does MRS split apart trains at top and bottom and then it takes several hours to get the pieces up/down and reassembled? Is there ever too much traffic for that?

Yes, the trains are divided in blocks up and down there. MRS has another route to the sea level, but it belongs to Rumo railroad and MRS needs to pay to use. So, it can dispach as many trains as it can by the rack railroad system. 

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

Thank you for the explanation!

Does this rack section run for approximately 10-km between the north end of Cubatao to Paranapiacaba (about 40-km southeast of central Sao Paulo)?  How many Stadler locomotives are in service?  Did they completely replace the center-cab siderod locomotives? 

Yes, you are right. The cog system is small,but very important to MRS.
There are only two Stadler locomotives. The old units still there, and one Hitachi diesel eletric used by the MoW gang came to Horto shops for overhaul last year.


🙂lynnpowell Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Does this rack section run for approximately 10-km
> between the north end of Cubatao to Paranapiacaba
> (about 40-km southeast of central Sao Paulo)? 
> How many Stadler locomotives are in service?  Did
> they completely replace the center-cab siderod
> locomotives? 

Posted from Android

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1