Tramway do Rio do Ouro/Vista do trem de serviço

One train halts on a track, while another train with a much larger steam engine waits behind it. A number of individuals on the train pose for the photographer, a customary practice in railroad photographs. Marc Ferrez made this image to document one of the new railroads expanding throughout Brazil in the 1880s for state-sponsored geological commission, but it also demonstrates a clear disparity between two socio-economic classes. A group of laborers stands out in the sun on the left, while the well-dressed men on the right remain under the shade of a canopy.