In the long and inglorious history of exploitation and in the annals of construction megalomania, (a phenomenon known as `White Elephants` because of their uselessness) - the Trans-Amazon Railway stands out in all its senselessness and tragedy.
Doomed to failure in advance, the cursed project also known as the Madeira-Mamore railway was supposed to bring civilization to the heart of the Amazon. The chances of success of this project existed only in the minds of politicians and nowhere else.
An extraordinarily difficult area for carrying out construction operations, at the beginning of the 20th century, without any infrastructure, hostile tribes, insects, diseases, jaguars and anacondas lurking around. Of course, when there are enough poor people who do not choose much for work, it is not a problem. `Work for nothing, do not sit for nothing`, said their Balkan counterpart. In this case, die for nothing of malaria.
366 kilometers of railway, which became known as the Devil's Railway, took 5 years to build and 13,000 lives of workers.
It is said that a person was buried next to each wooden sleeper on which the rails were laid. The construction that caused so much suffering to people who had never been lucky in their lives, had no chance of succeeding in establishing traffic. Amazonia proved stronger than progress, so finely embroidered on the Brazilian flag, and vegetation and moisture swallowed the damned railway, along with the stations, tanks, locomotives....branches that lead nowhere, stations that no one gets on, locomotives that do not emit smoke, bridges that no hope crosses, thousands of graves that have no names.
Only a small part of the railway remained that could be maintained and cleared of vegetation. The rest was forgotten, like many other projects where the stakes were someone else's fate and lives...
As someone with a dose of morbid resignation noticed, the reason the railroad was being built was that in the 'other world' there was a shortage of suffering human souls, so the demons of this world decided to fill the quota...
The train that is supposed to conquer the Amazon has not yet left the station.
(Roger Mortis 035)
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