A metric gauge Baldwin diesel-electric AS616 locomotive, here seen near the Itanhaém station of the Santos-Juquiá branch, along the seaside, in the Baixada Santista. Such kind of locomotive was transfered from the E.F. Central do Brasil metric gauge lines (the Sertão lines in the Minas Gerais state) to E.F. Sorocabana in the mid fifties. This photo was taken during June 1975, when the train traffic in this line was just weakening, after the deactivation of passenger service. The official justificative for the end of this service was an encephalitis epidemic that reached that region, the south seashore of the São Paulo state, during the mid-seventies. However, passenger service was not restored after the end of the epidemics... In 1972 this line was served by ten passenger trains per day. Six years after there was only one daily freight train, with one second class passenger car attached... a sign of the times. This photo was shot by Cid José Beraldo, who kindly sent a copy for this Album.