The impressive ruins of the Paranapiacaba funicular, in the southeast of São Paulo

Due to its large size, lush forests and mountainous areas, creating large communication routes has always been a challenge in Brazil.

The Sphinx observatory and Jungfraujoch, a railway station at more than 3,400 meters
La Perruca Tunnel, farewell to the old railway connection between Asturias and León

In the mid-19th century, the English company São Paulo Railway began construction of a funicular in the Paranapiacaba Mountains, in the southeast of the state of São Paulo. This railway line was built to connect the city of Jundiaí with Porto de Santos. The line had to climb 796.6 metres, entering a mountainous area with very dense forest. The funicular was inaugurated in 1867, with two tracks: while a train went up one track, another train went down the second track, thanks to the traction of a steel cable.

The line was built using the Irish gauge of 1,600 mm, running for 8 kilometres through the Serra Velha and 10 kilometres through the Serra Nova. In 1976, the Paranapiacaba funicular was abandoned, following the inauguration, two years earlier, of a new railway line using the rack system. Over time, the forest has engulfed the old funicular, and the humidity of the area has rusted the bridges on this line, leading to the collapse of one of them.

Recently, the Brazilian channel Loucobreck posted an interesting exploration of the ruins of this funicular (the video is in Portuguese, you can activate the automatic subtitles in English in the bottom bar of the player):

It was hard for me to choose just four screenshots from this video, because it is full of interesting images. Here we can see one of the viaducts of this funicular, recorded with a drone.

The same viaduct, recorded from the outside. The jungle is slowly eating away at the viaducts, tunnels, tracks and old buildings of this funicular.

One of the funicular's machinery installations. These Brazilian explorers have made a very complete tour of this funicular, and with a narration made based on a very good script.

Among the most interesting content of the video are the old galleries that carried away the water from the intense rains in this area to prevent landslides that would displace the tracks. Very well-built tunnels, with masonry.