About this journey

Pedro Nolasco station in Cariacica, opened on 20 May 1985, is the western terminus of the Estrada de Ferro Vitória a Minas — the EFVM — and takes its name from the engineer who led the railway's initial construction. The line itself dates to a decree-law of February 1902, with the first 30-kilometre stretch inaugurated on 13 May 1904. What began as a route for exporting coffee shifted focus by 1908 toward the iron ore of Itabira, and in 1942 Companhia Vale do Rio Doce — now Vale S.A. — assumed responsibility for the railway under the Washington Accords.

Today the EFVM is one of only two surviving inter-city passenger railways in Brazil, covering 664 kilometres and serving 30 stopping points across 42 municipalities on metre-gauge track. The line's maximum permitted speed is 67 km/h. For much of its length the route runs alongside the Doce River through alternating Atlantic Forest and Cerrado vegetation. The locomotive hauling the train — a GE BB40-9WM — is a type the railway also deploys on its heavy ore workings. The EFVM's rails reached Baixo Guandu in 1907, and the town's early growth was shaped in part by the railway's arrival. That connection between industrial haulage and rural community defines the character of the journey from beginning to end.