International Railroad Discussion > ABPF restored an Alco RSD-8 (Brazil)

The Brazilian Railway Preservation Association – ABPF has just completed the restoration of yet another historic locomotive in its workshops located in Cruzeiro/SP. It is the 3507, a 66-year-old diesel-electric locomotive of North American origin. All pics from ABPF page here ABPF

Brief history

This is a diesel-electric locomotive model RSD-8 built by the American Locomotive Company in the United States in 1958 at the request of the then Cia. Paulista de Estradas de Ferro for use on its metric gauge lines. After years of service, they were sold to the then Cia. Mogiana de Estradas de Ferro, which was incorporated into Ferrovia Paulista S.A. – FEPASA in 1971.

From 1978 onwards, it began to work in Baixada Santista along with other locomotives of the same model. In the early 1990s, the 3507 was one of the locomotives that began to work on the TIM – Intrametropolitan Train between the Ana Costa (in Santos) and Samaritá (in São Vicente) stations.

With the end of the TIM in 1999, the 3507 was taken out of circulation and was to be scrapped like the others. Fortunately, it was acquired by a private company to be used for shunting wagons at its terminal in the Port of Santos. The locomotive was then refurbished and put back into operation.

After years of working to shunt wagons entering and leaving the terminal, the locomotive was taken out of service due to its inefficiency (low power) in the face of the large increase in the volume of wagons to be shunted, which led to its being put up for sale. The ABPF then began negotiating with the owner of the 3507 and, after a few months of talks and bureaucratic arrangements, it was acquired and, in December 2017, it was transported from Santos to Cruzeiro.

1) Loading operation of the 3507 at the Port of Santos in December 2017;

2) In 2018, restoration work began on locomotive 3507, with general cleaning, disassembly of components for inspection, removal of paint to check the real condition of the locomotive (where it was found that there was a need to carry out major boilermaking work, replacing several parts of the sheet metal that were compromised due to corrosion caused mainly by sea air, as it worked for many years on the coast and within the port of Santos), among other procedures;

3) In order to achieve the highest possible fidelity to the painting standard, period documents from FEPASA itself were used with specifications for reproducing the stripes, logos and inscriptions. In addition, a great deal of research was carried out to determine the most accurate color tone possible.

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,

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4 - 5) The unit fisnished at  ABPF shops in Cruzeiro, SP;

6) And after 31 years, a diesel-powered train has arrived at Rufino de Almeida station once again. Recovery work on the Cruzeiro X Passa Quatro railway is being carried out by ABPF with its own resources and support from the Municipal Government of Cruzeiro and CPTM. Pic by Bruno Sanches (ABPF).

That´s all

Pedro

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

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Very sharp and nice looking. Thanks for posting.

Any time an Alco is restored for operation, it's a good thing. Thanks for posting.

That looks splendid in that version of FEPASA livery.

Great shots !! If you told people that photos 4 and 5 were when the unit was builtl new in 1958 , no one would doubt you!!!!    Thanks for sharing with us.

Great post Pedro.  Really appreciate the detailed history and the photos documenting the restoration.  The RSD-8 turned out really nice.  Beautiful work by all concerned.  In photo 2, there appears to be a cab unit in the background that resembles an Alco DL-109.  Any idea what it is?

Gary

Very NICE restoration Pedro!

Larry

That's an old GE center cab received from Santos port service.

Pedro

WP921 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Great post Pedro.  Really appreciate the detailed
> history and the photos documenting the
> restoration.  The RSD-8 turned out really nice. 
> Beautiful work by all concerned.  In photo 2,
> there appears to be a cab unit in the background
> that resembles an Alco DL-109.  Any idea what it
> is?
>
> Gary

Posted from Android

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