The Master and His Masterpiece
Francisco de Monlevade and the Metropolitan-Vickers box electric locomotive that received his name. He was the main enthusiast for the electrification of Companhia Paulista, an extremely impressive engineering achievement in a rural country like Brazil in the 1920's, which influenced so many Brazilian railroads. Unfortunately this is a very strange country. The use of this genuinely national energy from hydroelectric plants by Brazilian railroads declined since the late seventies, as decaying equipment was not suitably revamped or even only replaced. However, the work of Francisco de Monlevade had a deep meaning for Brazil and specially for whom had the privilege to use the fast, comfortable and luxurious trains of Companhia Paulista... Picture originally available in the Special Bulletim of ABEF - Associação Brasileira de Engenharia Ferroviária (Brazilian Association for Railroad Engineering), In Memoriam of Engo Francisco Paes Leme de Monlevade, 1945.