The Bottom Line
Pros
- A unique research effort about the history and condition of Brazil's train stations
- Comprehensive information, including data collected on site
- Author and voluntary collaborators keep the site expanding
Cons
- English version not available
Description
- Alphabetical listing
- Listings by state
- Timelines of important railways
- An index of forgotten places tracks down villages, farms and rural neighborhoods that dimmed with the decline of railways.
Guide Review - Brazil's Train Stations - Online Guide
Estações Ferroviárias do Brasil is the work of chemist and writer Ralph Mennucci Giesbrecht. Born into a lineage of men in railway careers, Giesbrecht has been engaged since the mid 1990s in what he calls "an endless research" about Brazilian train stations. His efforts have also yielded three books.
The author has photographed about 1,000 train stations in several Brazilian states. Many of the images are featured on the website and are clickable for larger sizes.
To a Brazilian like me, who loves trains and whose family history is tied to the thriving era of railway travel in Brazil as well as to its decline and abandon, Giesbrecht's website is nothing short of moving. He reports on each station's present condition. Click on and you see: Abandoned. Inactive. Current use: supermarket.
No matter how much Portuguese you speak, you can still benefit from the way the website is organized. If you love trains, and if besides some rare train rides you would also like to fit a little train station history into your Brazil wanderings, click on each state you will visit for a list of stations in that area.
