Stock Photo - Engine driver reversing a historic steam train at Paranapiacaba station; near Sao Paulo, Brazil. In 1856 the British-owned Sao Paulo Railway Company was awarded the concession to operate a rail line between the port of Santos and Jundai, 70km north of Sao Paulo city, in what was then a developing coffee-growing region. The 139km line was completed in 1867, remaining under British control until 1947. Overcoming the near-vertical incline of the Serra do Mar that separates the interior of the state from the coast, the line was using the largest funicular system in the world and was regarded as an engineering miracle.