The Trams of / Os Bondes de
BELO HORIZONTE
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(01) The Mariquinha, a Baldwin locomotive that helped build the city in the 1890s and later pulled passenger cars along its streets. Photographed at the Museu Histórico Abílio Barreto in 1981. [AM]
(02) Inauguration of the electric tramways system on 3 September 1902. View is south on Rua da Bahia at Av. Afonso Pena [see map]. [O Cruzeiro, 13/1/1970]
(03) Another view of the inauguration, with Ferro Carril de Belo Horizonte tram number 2. [col. AM]
(04) Belo Horizonte's first six electric cars, numbered 1-6, were built by the Jackson & Sharp Company in Wilmington, Delaware, USA. [col. AM]
(05) Car 4 was driven by the chief engineer's wife. [col. AM]
(06) The "Viação Eléctrica" tram station on the east side of Av. Afonso Pena at Rua da Bahia [see map]. The structure survived until 1947. [pc, col. AM]
(07) An early postcard view of Rua da Bahia, with Jackson & Sharp car 3. [col. AM]
(08) The famous Brazilian photographer Augusto Malta took this picture of a Belo Horizonte tram on 24 February 1908. This 8-bench car is one of two that FCBH purchased in 1904 from J. G. Brill in Philadelphia. [col. AM]
(09) A factory photograph of one of fifteen 10-bench cars that Brill built for "Belle Horizonte" in 1912. The two vehicles in 1904 and the 15 cars of 1912 are the only passenger trams that Belo Horizonte acquired from Brill. [Brill Collection, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia]
(10) This photograph shows the 10-bench model that is seen on many postcards and photographs of the 1930s, 40s and 50s. It was built on Brill trucks probably by Trajano de Medeiros in Rio de Janeiro. [col. AM]
(11) The 10-bench cars were numbered 1-75. Here is number 36 on Praça 7 de Setembro [see map] before construction of the loop shown in pictures 14, 15 and 16. [pc, col. AM]
(12) An early 13-bench car of unknown origin. Rio de Janeiro had similar cars with 13 benches; it may have sold some to Belo Horizonte. [pc, col. AM]
(13) This 12-bench car, numbered 103, might be a reconstruction of the vehicle seen in picture 12. [pc, col. AM]
(14) A view south over Praça 7 de Setembro, with Av. Afonso Pena crossing left to right [see map]. That's São José Church in the distance. [pc, col. AM]
(15) Another view south over Praça 7 de Setembro. Note the tram station, upper left, on Av. Afonso Pena. Top center is Rua Rio de Janeiro [see map]. [pc, col. AM]
(16) Praça 7 de Setembro in a postcard dated 1937. The view is southeast down Av. Afonso Pena [see map]. The old "Viação Eléctrica" structure shown in picture 06 is visible among the trees in the distance. [col. AM]
(17) Looking southeast down Av. Afonso Pena toward Praça 7 [see map]. [pc, col. AM]
(18) The tram station on Av. Afonso Pena at Praça 7. the same structure can also be seen in pictures 15 and 16. [pc, col. AM]
(19) This 4-axle 12-window car, numbered 86, was built in Brazil in the late 1930s. It was photographed on 31 October 1958. [William Janssen]
(20) The 200-series cars were built in Belo Horizonte in 1946 using trucks acquired from trams in Worcester, Massachusetts. They had 14 benches and were among the longest trams in Brazil. 202 was photographed at the end of the Gameleira line [see map] on 29 October 1958. [William Janssen]
(21) Number 106, which had 12 benches like 103 in picture 13, heads bravely into a thunderstorm. [William Janssen]
(22) Car 103 again – see picture 13 – climbing an unidentified grade in October 1958. [William Janssen]
(23) Four-wheel 10-bench tram 68 on Av. Antônio Carlos on the Pampulha line, 30 October 1958. The car is signed "São Francisco" [see map].[William Janssen]
(24) Old and tired, car 26 rests at the end of the line at Pampulha Lake in 1958 [see map]. This is Belo Horizonte's "standard" car, also shown in pictures 10, 11, 23, 25, 26 and 27. [William Janssen]

(25) When the city's street railway closed in 1963, its mayor donated two 10-bench cars, numbers 55 and 69, to the tramway company in Lavras, 240 km southwest of the capital. [col. AM]

(26) Belo Horizonte 55 and 69 were renumbered 3 and 4 in Lavras (Lavras 1 and 2 had come from Germany in 1911). Number 3 was photographed in Lavras in 1965. The Prefeitura Municipal de Lavras kept its tramway going until 1967. [Donald Nevin]
(27) 10-bench tram 75 was preserved in Belo Horizonte and is displayed today at the Museu Histórico Abílio Barreto on Rua Bernardo Mascarenhas. This photograph was taken in March 2005. [Sergio Martire]

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