Railway Heritage Preservation: connection between past, present and future

The conservation of railway heritage keeps Brazil’s development history alive and reinforces the commitment of operators to culture, memory and the valorization of the railway sector

The preservation of heritage consists of a set of actions aimed at the protection, conservation, safeguarding and valorization of cultural assets, with the objective of ensuring that memory, identity and history are maintained and transmitted to future generations. The definition from the Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional (Iphan) highlights the importance of preserving buildings, machinery and historical documents, reinforcing the relevance of these initiatives for maintaining railway legacy.

More than conserving the past, the preservation of historical materials also contributes to current development and serves as a foundation for future projects. With 50 years of experience in the railway sector, the director of the Associação de Preservação da Memória Ferroviária (APMF) and the Associação de Preservação das Tradições Ferroviárias (APTF), Sergio Feijão Filho, exemplifies this relationship when citing the evaluation for expanding the load capacity of the Francisco de Sá railway bridge, which connects the states of São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul. According to him, engineers were unable to obtain information about the structure due to the absence of the bridge’s project and studies. “See how the preservation of memory is fundamental. They could not locate the projects and now they will have to do all the work to perform the calculations”.