RFFSA

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Rede Ferroviária Federal Sociedade Anônima
Logo
Reporting mark RFFSA
Locale Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Brazilian Federal District, Goiás, Espírito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul, Paraná, Santa Catarina & Rio Grande do Sul
Dates of operation 1957–1996
Track gauge 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in)  & 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm)
Headquarters Juiz de Fora, MG, Brazil
Website http://www.rffsa.gov.br/
The former headquarters of the RFFSA in Juiz de Fora.

The Rede Ferroviária Federal, Sociedade Anônima (RFFSA) (Portuguese: Rede Ferroviária Federal S.A., Federal Railroad Network) was the state owned national railway company of Brazil created from Brazilian Federal Law #3.115 on March 16, 1957 after several railroads were nationalized by the Brazilian government. However, the railroad did not take full effect until September 30, 1957. The RFFSA unified 42 railways together (both on documents and actual railroads), creating a regional system composed of 22 railroads. The goal of the RFFSA was to promote and advance the railroad sector of Brazil, creating a north-south-east-west rail network in all five regions of Brazil. Unfortunately, it failed and the RFFSA only served four of the five regions with a north-south rail network within 19 units of the federation of Brazil. By 1999, the railroad was liquidated and privatized, with the last liquidations occurring in 2007.

Contents

[edit] Federal Authority

According to Article 7 of Law #3.115 which created the RFFSA, the company was given the following powers for the operation of the railroads:

  • The company must manage, operate, maintain, refurbish, expand, improve and maintain traffic on the railways it built.
  • Introduce (at face value) bearer bonds of its own issue or the issue of the companies that will be organized with a limit of two for paid-in capital, with or without a guarantee from the Treasury.
  • Subscription of capital from companies under its control and the consent to grant them loans or guarantees.
  • Organize and supervise the management of the companies under its control, as well as well as its methods and procedures for operation under contract to provide services to guarantee these companies technical assistance, accounting, legal, and administrative services.
  • Propose revisions and modifications of tariffs, as necessary, to the Departamento Nacional de Estradas de Ferro who would review the proposals and submit the final approval to the Ministro da Viação e Obras Públicas.
  • Create a business plan and approve the budgets of the companies under its control, monitoring their respective operations.
  • Restructure staffing quarters of personnel according to the needs of service and regional standards of living set on a fixed number in the companies’ organization, remuneration, rights and duties.
  • Conduct all the works of studies and construction of railroads which have been approved by the União for which they are provided resources.

The following powers were given to the RFFSA from Law #6.171 in 1974

  • Monitor the railway services throughout the country.
  • Promote a coordination of studies and tariff costs for general rail transport.
  • Create a unification and standardization of the Brazilian Railway System.
  • Promote a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the national railway system.
  • Conduct research relating to the improvement of rail activities in the country.
  • Enforce the railway into the Plano Nacional de Viação.

[edit] Unification of Railways

The twenty-two railways that composed the RFFSA were mostly nationalized by the Brazilian government which chose to merge them administratively.

The following railways were:

The following railroads were later merged into the RFFSA:

[edit] Privatisation and liquidation

Privatization was one of the alternatives for investments to return in railroads. The government of the PSDB gave the public rail lines access to transport cargo. However, most of the railroad companies were not interested in seeing a transport of passengers, as the service was nearly extinct.

Between 1996 and 1998, over 22,000 km of rail lines in Brazil (73% of the entire state rail system) were being transferred to various private organizations, which signed 30-year concessions to operate the railroad systems. The organized private railroad companies will invest $2.1 billion dollars within the 30-year concession as well as increase the volume of traffic, modernize, and expand their railroad systems.

The main goal of privatizing the RFFSA and FEPASA was to end the financial and labor troubles of the railroads, mainly due to a lack of investment by Brazil from the 1980s and the 1990s.

On December 9, 1999, the liquidation of the Ferrovia Paulista S.A. (FEPASA) began as a merger to the RFFSA, and then as an auction in the form of a concession for 20 years. Ferroban was the winner, which has an option to renew the 20-year concession. However, the control was split between América Latina Logística and Brasil Ferrovias.

On December 17, 1999, the liquidation of the RFFSA began by the General Meeting of Shareholders. By May 31, 2007, the liquidation was complete, becoming Brazilian Federal Law #11.483.

[edit] Paint schemes

From 1957 to 1993, the standard scheme of the RFFSA was Medium Cadmium Red Purple and Black with two Lemon Yellow stripes that wrapped around the car body and dipped down in the front and rear (if applicable). The scheme sometimes carried subsidiary markings in which the lower stripe was widened to fit it. With the SIGO System in effect by 1983, almost all subsidiary markings disappeared and were replaced with a simple R F F S A and the number below it.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the diesel traction presence in the Central Railway of Brazil, the RFFSA held a contest to create an innovative 'new image' paint scheme for its locomotives and rolling stock.

With an initiative well conducted, the contest became a significant rail fest. The 50th anniversary of diesel traction was also a reference to the historic network of the railroad. It recognized the development of diesel locomotives that helped shape the railway system today in Brazil. The event was held on December 6, 1993 with tremendous support from various sectors of the RFFSA, as well as professional associations and even customers attended the event with all sorts of resources.

A participation of shareholders competed against each other in creating the new scheme. The paint scheme competition event was open to anybody who was interested (regardless of training, schooling of even if they were employees or not from RFFSA). The only requirement was a display board showcasing the design by the participant. Officially, the standard locomotive model chosen to represent the new scheme was a EVSA GT26CUM-2. Once the scheme was chosen, an actual GT26CUM-2 would be painted in the new scheme from the SR-5 Sector.

The completed artwork would be sent to the Department of Communication, as a panel of judges - led by designer Elias Filho and the Sevig Company - would pick the winning drawing. The members of Communication, Engineering & Preserves would also assist into picking the drawing.

On December 6, 1993, the new scheme was chosen. Paulo Henrique Cavalieri of Juiz de Fora, MG, was declared the winner in the new scheme. Consisting of Ash Grey, Lemon Yellow & Black, the scheme refreshed the RFFSA look as well as baptizing the locomotives with names, municipalities, states, or cities of there they respectively operated. Dubbed by rail fans and modelers as 'Phase Two', the scheme was short lived; from 1993 to 1996 the scheme was applied to all sorts of locomotives from all the sectors and easily became dirty after a few months. By 1995 or 1996, the RFFSA was too poor in cleaning or painting a locomotive that most of the yellow appeared black. Even repainting a locomotive into the new scheme varied in success as no two locomotives of the same model were alike in a repaint. Some received a full treatment, while others were painted over their original scheme without proper removal of the original scheme.

The actual winner "who won but did not win" was Eike Pereira de Souza, an architect from the RFFSA's auto graphics planning department. He won a cash prize of 200,000 Cruzeiros.

[edit] The SIGO system on the RFFSA

The SIGO was a system implemented in 1983 to standardize the numbering system of railway vehicles in Brazil. Each piece of rolling stock is allocated a six-digit number, a check digit, and a letter to indicate its allocation. When the RFFSA began to repaint it's locomotives of both Metric and Irish Gauges in Ash Grey and Lemon Yellow (1993–1996), the numbers were relocated towards the radiator section of the locomotive. In some cases, the locomotives were baptized with names, municipalities, states, or cities of there they respectively operated.

With locomotives, the first two digits are hidden, and used only on documents, e.g. 905212-7F.

  • '90' represents: RFFSA locomotive (only written in documents).
  • '5212' is the roadnumber of the locomotive.
  • '-7' is the check digit.
  • 'F' is the letter code for where the locomotive is located (The 'F' indicates: Juiz de Fora - Sector SR-3).
Number Series Type of Locomotive
0001–0100 Steam locomotives – 760 mm (2 ft 5 7⁄8 in) gauge
0101–0400 Steam locomotives – 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in)  gauge
0401–0500 Steam locomotives – 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) broad gauge
0401–0500 Diesel locomotives – 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) (meter gauge)
0751–1000 Diesel locomotives - 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) broad gauge
2001–3000 GE diesel locomotives - 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) meter gauge
3001–4000 GE diesel locomotives - 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) broad gauge
4001–5000 GM diesel locomotives - 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) meter gauge
5001–6000 GM diesel locomotives – 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) broad gauge
6001–7000 Alco diesel locomotives – 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) meter gauge
7001–8000 Alco diesel locomotives – 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) broad gauge
8001–9000 Electric locomotives – 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) meter gauge
9001–9999 Electric locomotives – 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) broad gauge

[edit] Locomotives

Click on image to enlarge

  • Diesel-electric locomotive built in 1953 by English Electric in England for the Rede Ferroviária do Nordeste. Operated until the 1980s.

  • GE 64T, originally EFSJ 10 (1956); renumbered as RFFSA # 3090 in the 1980s.

  • RFFSA GE U6B #3049.

  • RFFSA MACOSA SD40-2 #5231-3F. Baptized with the name 'Aparecida do Norte'

[edit] Present day Brazilian railway companies

  • América Latina Logística S.A. – ALL (ex-Ferrovia Sul Atlântico (FSA)) – gauges: 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) and 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) (FERRONORTE)
  • Companhia Ferroviária do Nordeste – CFN – controlled by Transnordestina Logística S.A. – gauge: 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in)
  • Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos – CPTM – commuter services in São Paulo city and suburbs; controlled by the state of São Paulo – gauges: 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in), on the two former Sorocabana lines 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in)
  • Concessionária de Transporte Ferroviário S.A. – SuperVia – commuter services in Rio de Janeiro city and suburbs – gauges: 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in), on the former Estrada de Ferro Leopoldina 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in)
  • Empresa de Trens Urbanos de Porto Alegre – TRENSURB – commuter services in Porto Alegre, RS and suburbs – gauge: 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in)
  • Estrada de Ferro do Amapá – from 1953 to 2006 controlled by Empresa Indústria e Comércio de Minério S.A. (ICOMI), since then by MMX Mineração e Metálicos S.A. (MMX); this is one of two Brazilian railways with 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) gauge, the other being Line 5 of São Paulo Metro.
  • Estrada de Ferro Carajás – EFC – controlled by Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD) – gauge: 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in)
  • Estrada de Ferro Campos do Jordão – EFCJ – controlled by the department of tourism of the state of São Paulo – gauge: 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in)
  • Estrada de Ferro Jari – EFJ – gauge: 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in)
  • Estrada de Ferro Trombetas – EFT – controlled by Mineiração Rio do Norte – gauge: 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in)
  • Estrada de Ferro Vitória a Minas – EFVM – controlled by Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD) – gauge: 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in)
  • Ferrovia Centro-Atlântica S.A. – FCA – controlled by Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD) – gauge: 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in)
  • Ferrovias Bandeirantes – FERROBAN – formerly controlled by Brasil Ferrovias, then incorporated by ALL (Sorocabana network) and FCA (Mogiana network) – gauges: 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) (Mogiana and Sorocabana networks) and 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) (Paulista and Araraquarense networks)
  • Ferrovia Norte-Sul – FNS – controlled by Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD) – gauge: 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in)
  • Ferrovia Norte Brasil – FERRONORTE – formerly controlled by Brasil Ferrovias, then incorporated by ALL – gauge: 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in)
  • Ferrovia Novoeste S.A. – NOVOESTE – formerly controlled by Brasil Ferrovias, then incorporated by ALL – gauge: 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in)
  • Ferrovia Paraná Oeste – FERROPAR – also known as FERROESTE
  • Ferrovia Teresa Cristina S.A. – FTC – gauge: 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in)
  • Grupo Brasil Ferrovias S.A. – incorporated by ALL – gauge: 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) and 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in)
  • MRS Logística S.A. – MRS – gauge: 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in)
  • Tramway Bertioga - Itatinga – controlled by the state of São Paulo's port authority Companhia Docas do Estado de São Paulo (CODESP); more a local railway than an actual tramway – gauge: 800 mm (2 ft 7 1⁄2 in)

[edit] Preservation Groups

  • Associação Brasileira de Preservação Ferroviária - ABPF

[edit] References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: RFFSA

http://www.mafiactc.com/site/

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