#Rio Grande Southern

[20th-century-railroading]

D&RGW train (Narrow Gauge), engine number 340, engine type 2-8-0 and Rio Grande Southern engine number 455, engine type 2-8-2 Freight, westbound; on the Rio Grande Southern, 22 cars. Photographed: near Hesperus, Colo., June 14, 1942.

[luhafraser]

Pray for Rio Grande do Sul/Brazil🙏🙏🙏

😔😭

[venusssworldd]

eu disse "ó como você chega na minha terra!"

ele respondeu: "quem disse que a terra é sua?"

POLÍTICOS SULISTAS COMO O EDUARDO LEITE PRECISAM SER RESPONSABILIZADOS!!! EXISTE CULPA SIM!!!

[markonpark]

The Galloping Goose. Vintage snapshot photo of a Rio Grande Southern Railroad car for the U.S. Mail Express. https://markonpark.etsy.com/listing/1569068314

[eraserdude6226]

So Brandon is going to spend 3 hours in El Paso today. Big F'n deal!! They've already sanitized the areas he'll be in so the MSM in the pool will be like "so what's the problem?"

I just want to know what happened to all the people???

And the only answer I could come up with was "Soylent Green IS people!!"

And if you understand that, I congratulate you on having many orbits around the sun!!

[aryburn-trains]

Eastbound Ski Train Fraser, CO April 1996

[trainphilos]

New Toys!

During the last few weeks a couple of new items were added to the rolling stock roster of my model railway. As per usual I had totally forgotten having “pre-ordered” them over a year ago. Model train manufacturers tend to announce new future projects with an option for the customer to “pre-order”. This pre-ordering process gives the manufacturers a rough idea on how many model train enthusiasts…

[1cafezinho]

Hello everyone,

Brazil is underwater, and we come here asking you for your help.

As some of you may know, the state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS) has been getting torrential rains since last Monday (29/04/24).

In four days, it has rained 436,2 millimeters (17,2 inches), which’s triple the normal amount in a month, which is 140 millimeters (5,5 inches) 

More than two great rivers in our region had their volume duplicated, or sometimes, triplicated in size.

This means all the cities that are close to these rivers ended up completely underwater

There were more than 110 towns flooded and the estimate is that more than half a million people have been affected by this climate disaster. There are also thousands of people who are arriving in my city (the state capital, Porto Alegre) as climate refugees, coming from communities displaced by the floods.

Through this unprecedented tragedy we have been really happy to see entire communities mobilizing to help others. Still, there are people who have lost everything, especially those in marginalized communities living in precarious, unsafe and unsanitary housing.

That’s where you come in. We need money. Money to buy food, clothes, medicine, basic hygiene products, mattresses so that refugees have a place to sleep, basically everything.

Right now, the biggest demand is drinkable water: my city is almost completely out of water, because the water treatment stations have been flooded. 

We understand that you may be able to give very little, but also what is little to you means A Lot more to us. Just a dollar is enough to buy 5 liters of fresh water. 

Here are the links for international donations: 

(these donations are managed by people I know and trust. if you can, donate to them and not the government, but I’ll include that below as well. we don't trust the government to do anything right now, basically) 

This is another option:

Government donations:

And here is some international news coverage of what’s happening:

PLEASE share and donate anything you can. Everything is greatly appreciated. 

[sandwichtribunal]

The Xis Burger of Southern Brazil

"At the core of this sandwich was the steak, dominating its flavor rather than becoming simply part of the ensemble, drawing the cheese, the egg, the bacon, the wild mix of condiments into its orbit." The Xis Burger of Southern Brazil

Hard to believe that it was only 6 months ago–2022 being the longest year in recorded history–that my friend Matt asked me if I’d ever heard of a sandwich from the south Brazilian state Rio Grande do Sul (referenced previously in our writeup of the sandwich Farroupilha last year) called Xis. Yet I appear to have received that text message just this past June, upon which I added the sandwich to…

[reasonsforhope]

— Recent giant anteater sightings in Rio Grande do Sul state indicate the species has returned to southern Brazil, where it had been considered extinct for more than a century.

— Experts concluded that the giant anteater ventured across the border from the Iberá Park in northeastern Argentina where a rewilding project has released around 110 individuals back into the habitat.

— The sightings emphasize the importance of rewilding projects, both to restore animal populations in specific regions and help ecosystems farther afield.

— Organizations across Brazil are working to protect and maintain current giant anteater populations, including rallying for safer highways to prevent wildlife-vehicle collisions that cause local extinctions.

Playing back hours of footage from a camera trap set in Espinilho State Park in the south of Brazil in August 2023, Fábio Mazim and his team banked on possible sightings of the maned wolf or the Pantanal deer and had their fingers crossed for a glimpse of a Pampas cat (Leopardus pajeros), one of the most threatened felines in the world.

What they didn’t expect to see was an animal long presumed extinct in the region. To their surprise, the unmistakable long snout and bushy tail of a giant anteater ambled into shot.

"We shouted and cried when we saw it,” the ecologist from the nonprofit Pró-Carnívoros Institute told Mongabay. “It took a few days to grasp the importance of this record. A sighting of a giant anteater was never, ever expected.”

Last seen alive in the southwest of the Rio Grande do Sul state in 1890, the giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) has since been spotted 11 times since August 2023, although the scientists are unsure whether it’s the same one or different individuals. However, the sightings confirm one clear fact: The giant anteater is back.

It's a huge win for the environment. Giant anteaters play an important role in their ecosystems, helping to control insect numbers, create watering holes through digging and are prey for big cats such as jaguars and pumas.

The habitat of the giant anteater stretches from Central America toward the south cone of Latin America.

Its conservation status is “vulnerable,” although it is considered extinct in several countries, including El Salvador, Guatemala and Uruguay, as well as specific regions such as the states of Rio de Janeiro, Espirito Santo, Santa Catarina and (until now) Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil and the Cordoba and Entre Rios regions in Argentina.

‍In the last six months, the giant anteater was spotted on camera 11 times in the Espinilho State Park in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. It was the first time in 130 years that the species has been seen alive there.

Yet not only is it a triumph for conservationists to see these animals returning to Brazilian biomes, it’s also a surprising mark of success for a rewilding program about 150 kilometers (93 miles) away in neighboring Argentina.

‍Rewilding Argentina’s biomes

‍Iberá National Park in Corrientes province in northeastern Argentina is a 758,000-hectare (1.9 million-acre) expanse of protected land comprising a part of the Iberá wetlands with its swaths of grasslands, marshes, lagoons and forests. The region was once home to just a handful of giant anteaters after habitat loss, hunting and vehicle collisions decimated the population.

Since 2007, the NGO Rewilding Argentina, an offspring of the nonprofit Tompkins Conservation, has been reintroducing the species back to the area, most individuals being orphaned pups rescued from vehicle collisions or poaching.

So far, they have released 110 giant anteaters back into the wild. Nowadays, several generations inhabit the park, transforming it from “a place of massive defaunation to abundance,” Sebastián Di Martino, director of conservation for Rewilding Argentina, was quoted as saying in an official statement.

The project has been so successful that the giant anteaters appear to be venturing farther afield and moving to new territories beyond national borders, such as Espinilho State Park in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul region...

Experts now hope that a giant anteater population can reestablish itself naturally in Espinilho State Park without the need for human intervention.

“The giant anteater returning to Rio Grande do Sul shows the success of the work done in Argentina and how it’s viable, possible and important to do rewilding and fauna reintroduction projects,” Mazim said. “It is also an indication that the management of conservation units and also the agricultural areas of the ecosystems are working,” he added. “Because if large mammals are coming from one region and settling in another, it is because there is a support capacity for them. It is an indication of the health of the environment.”

-via GoodGoodGood, via May 25, 2024

[20th-century-railroading]

Fourth South Switcher by James Belmont Via Flickr: Rio Grande 135, an EMD SW1200 switch engine, pulls through North Salt Lake, Utah on D&RGW's Ogden main the afternoon of Aug. 4, 1992. It seemed there was no assignment too difficult for these little "end cab" switch engines to perform.

[bitcell]

a few tips about favela5/brazilian culture if you want as reference to write fics

forever and mike have very strong accents, but forever's carioca accent tends to make him drag the words or extend consonants or add almost a hiss (categorized by the dragged -s) sound at the end of a word, while mike has a very strong center-west accent, meaning that his -r is very accentuated

pac and cellbit are from the south of brazil

although cellbit is from rio grande do sul, he doesn't have a southern accent, instead he has a paulista (from são paulo) accent, which is considered very neutral

brazilians tend to be very touchy, so if this is something u want to work with and showcase as a cultural difference, go crazy.

brazilians love to hug/touch and kiss people on the cheek to greet them.

black coffee. none of that iced vanilla late americanized shit. if you want to talk about their coffee habits, it's almost always going to be no sugar or milk and hot.

brazilians can understand almost everything in spanish, esp mexican spanish. the same doesn't apply to spanish speakers because portuguese has phonemes that don't exist in spanish. so like how cellbit said once, he can understand 90% of everything that roier says, while roier said he can understand 20%

a few extra facts about ccs!favela5

cellbit, mike and pac lived together for a few years

pac and mike lived in canada together (their vlogs there are super nice, idk if they have subtitles tho D:)

pac and mike are the equivalent of captain sparkles to the brazilian mc community

felps and cellbit have been best friends for around 12 years

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Rains, destruction and deaths in the south of Brazil demand a new term to define a climate catastrophe

Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced in Rio Grande do Sul floods

On April 27, MetSul, a meteorology agency, posted on X (former Twitter) a warning about a cold front, heavy rain, gales, and hail, and risks of severe weather in parts of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil's southernmost state. This is the same state that endured three climate disasters in 2023 alone, with 80 people confirmed dead and many cities hit.

The following day, the agency posted another alert: ”Serious risk of floods in southern Brazil because of excessive to extreme rain. It has already rained 200 mm [8 inches] in some areas and projections indicate much more water coming. 2023 scenes of flooded cities will be repeated.”

Two days later, they began to post about overflowing creeks, rising river levels, and flooding while The National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet) put the entire state under alert, showing a varying scale from yellow to red, the latter being the larger portion. On April 30, the local government confirmed eight dead and 21 people disappeared.

Ever since the publication of this story on May 7, the worst natural disaster in the history of Rio Grande do Sul has registered 100 dead, 128 disappeared, and over 1.4 million people affected. Sums that seem still underreported when one sees the images of entire cities underwater.

Among the 497 cities in the state, 414 were hit so far. And, as you read it, there is a chance people are still waiting on roofs for rescue, trapped in houses and buildings surrounded by water. Others are still looking for victims of landslides; and many are without access to clean water, power, or ways of coming and going from their cities, with bridges missing and roads destroyed. The rain is moving south and is forecasted to return to other cities already impacted.

Continue reading.

[markonpark]

The Galloping Goose. Vintage snapshot photo of a Rio Grande Southern Railroad car for the U.S. Mail Express. https://markonpark.etsy.com/listing/1569068314

[born-in-hell]

Hi!

As some of you might know, southern Brazil, specifically the state of Rio Grande do Sul, has been struck by heavy rains and a consequential flood. The rains started on monday (29/abr) and only stopped today (5/mai), in Porto Alegre ─ the state capital, and the city i live in ─ and in the other cities nearby.

The lake that borders PoA (named Guaíba) has reached more than 5m up its normal level. This is higher than on the historic 1941 flood. The city's center ─ a big residential and commercial hub, beyond being the host of most of our public services (such as the city hall and the state government) ─ is completely taken by the water. Many other neighbourhoods were also affected.

Smaller cities that also border Guaíba were even more heavily affected, such as Eldorado do Sul, whose territory was almost 100% flooded.

The state is, for a lack of a better word, abandoned by the people that were supposed to aid.

Our governor, Eduardo Leite, is more worried about his plitical campaign ─ making dramatic videos, changing his facebook pfp to one of him with a public defense vest, making streams with no useful information ─ than with the people's lives. This year, he destinated only R$50.000 (~ USD250.000) for the Civil Defense. For the entire year. He is now, delegating the responsibility of recuperating our state to the Federal Government, stating that "the rbuilding of the RS will demand a Marshall Project".

Porto Alegre's mayor, Sebastião Mello, has vanished. He sold our city out to big enterprises ─ Melnick, Zaffari and Panvel, mainly ─, and hasn't destined any public resources to maintaining the Mauá wall (a wall built after the 1941 flood with a system made to protect the city from other floods), which caused many points to fail and the water to invade the city.

This is the danger we all face with a neoliberal system.

Neoliberalism is an individualist ideology. All these people and companies I named did close to nothing to help us. Or even made it worse. The Civil Defense, for example, published a map of all the areas that would be affected, but had to take it back, since it didn't consider the topography.

Its the people for the people.

This situation is being aided by people using their own resources. Donations of various natures and volunteer work. It is very beautiful, in a way. It shows that colaboration and union can do great things. It shows, at least to me, that the world can reach, one day, a self sustaining way of living, contrary to the ultra-individualistic capitalism some preach. Humans can, and are, good.

But it also lays out how much the people that govern us failed us.

Human lives were lost because of their negligency.

This flood isn't normal. It is a product of the huge levels of degradation multi-billionaire companies are causing the world, supported by higher class and their representatives. Eduardo Leite changed almost 500 points of our state's Environmental Code, for the worst, when he was first elected in 2019. His actions, and the actions of all other neoliberal politicians, such as our ex-president Bolsonaro, are what created this situation. They are responsible for everything that is going on here.

This flood isnt the only environmental crisis this state has faced in the last 6 months. This isn't the last one that will happen.

This text is, beyond a personal vent, a warning. We need to keep fighting against a system that is actively trying to kill us. Please, do not support ideals and people ─ especially if said people will rule you ─ that go against the environment, that preach that the capital, the money, the posesions, are more important than lives. Of the people, of the animals, of the environment. Fight for a better world, i know there can be one.

Always be aware of the climate in your areas. Things like this won't happen only here. Please be safe.

Sorry for the long post.

If you're interested in donating, @decaf-lesbian made this post with some links for international and national donations.

-> If you're from Brasil, check this link, that has a copilation of maps of risk areas, shelters, places to donate to, etc, made by a UFRGS student.

[aryburn-trains]

The ski train is about to depart with the two cleanest locos that North Yard could find, soon after its departure the westbound California Zephyr will arrive and one of the F40's will be attached for the climb up the Moffat Road. April 05, 1992