Decauville Railways in Banana Plantations

Since the last century the Baixada Santista (the central seaside of the Estado de São Paulo) and the Ribeira river valley regions are great banana producers. Afonso Schmidt, son and great-son of great plantation owners, beautifully described the history of these farms, specially in his book Menino Felipe. These great plantations have their own Decauville railroads that were used to transport the fruit from the plantation to the next E.F. Sorocabana or E.F. Santos a Jundiaí railroad station, where it was taken generally to Santos or São Paulo. E.F. Sorocabana had at least one Decauville railroad for its firewood supply in Mongaguá. Cid José Beraldo and Nílson Rodrigues reported that the Decauville railroad systems at the São Francisco, Jatobatuba and Araraú banana plantations are still working, but several others, like Fazenda Áurea, in Itanhaém, were scrapped.