This very rare photo, originally published at the 75th Anniversary edition of the E.F. Sorocabana house organ Nossa Estrada (Our Road), in 1950, shows Brazilian and American technical personnel performing the first tests with one G.E./Westinghouse 2000 Series electric locomotive at the Amador Bueno station... in 1944! Yes, although there was some doubts about this fact, as World War II was still roaring and all resources were being redirected to war effort, Brazil and E.F. Sorocabana had enough prestige to grant the delivery of some units even during the war. This was certainly an excepcional fact as, for example, the delivery of the G.E. V8 locomotives, ordered by Companhia Paulista in the late thirties, was prompted in the early forties and was only restored after the war, in 1946. After all, an hypothetical invasion route of America by Nazi forces certainly would be via Dakar, Africa-Northeast of Brazil. And certainly the of the last things U.S. military commanders would like to see at that time would be Luftwaffe bombers over Miami or tanks of a ficticious Latin-Amerika Korps roaring over Laredo... The copy of this picture was kindly sent by César Sacco, from Indaiatuba SP.



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© Antonio Augusto Gorni