"Restored Sugar Cane Railway Equipment " a Grussaí Travel Page by glabah

The state of Minas Gerais wanted to have a beach resort for its people. However, Minas Gerais has no ocean frontage. The area around Grussaí had a number of sugar cane railroads, but they were slowly being closed and converted to tractor trails and other transport means.

This may explain why the state of Minas Gerais owns a resort in Grussaí, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, with a bunch of sugar cane railroad equipment in operation.

The area around Grussaí has a lot of tourist items and excellent beaches without the tourist crowding of the city of Rio de Janeiro, but I will let other virtual tourist members concentrate on those items. This series of pages will focus on the SESC resort trains.

The SESC resort, operated by the state of Minas Gerais, has a meter gauge railway around the facility. It also owns a number of restored sugar cane locomotives that used to operate in the

local area. Passenger cars have been built out of old sugar cane cars. Most trains are pulled by

wood-burning steam locomotives.

The resort also has swimming pools, sports facilities, playgrounds for children, and all manner of

other things that you would expect to find in a resort.

Unfortunately, I only visited this place with a tour group, and I have no idea if it is possible

for general tourists to spend time at this place.

telephone: (22) 741-3535
fax: (22) 741-3615

The steam locomotives are not the only items around the facility. These diesel locomotives ( I have heard they are Whitcomb locomotives, but they look a lot like GE industrial units ) were obtained from facilities that owed the state money due to back taxes, and other debts.

The locomotives are apparently rearely used, with most of the trains at the SESC running behind the facility's steam locomotives.

A map of the facility shows the basic track layout, but one more loop of track has been added since this map was made. The facility actually owns considerable square kilometers of land.

Please be sure to see my Travalogue for this facility if you are interested in seeing more photos of the railroad here.