The Sorocabana Railway Electrification

The Sorocabana Railway electrification is noteworthy in that the railroad is a meter-gauge line run largely on wood fuel. The lack of suitable national coal or oil sources and the increasing difficulty of obtaining wood fuel led the railway to electrify its line between São Paulo and Santo Antonio. Rolling stock is outstanding in that the locomotives will be the most powerful 3,000-volt narrow-gauge units ever built. The multiple-unit cars are the first 3,000-volt meter-gauge units to be used. The distribution system is designed to minimize the use of steel supports. Steel must be imported, and locally made concrete poles are to be utilized extensively. The power-supply system using 3,000-volt mercury-arc rectifiers is the first installation in this hemisphere to use rectifier conversion with regenerative braking on locomotives. Regenerated energy returned to the substations will be dissipated in resistors roofmounted at the several stations.