The locomotive, the train and the railroad: image and memory of a masculinity narrated in southern Brazil

Abstract

This paper addresses the relationship between machines and people in the context of the production of masculinity in railroad workers. The research is based on ethnography carried out over three years (2015-2018) among retired railway workers and their families, residents of the city of Pelotas, southern Brazil. It interpretate the narrative identity of a retired train driver, Orlando Chagas, highlighting the images that constitute this act of "presenting himself": his collection of photographs, a Hollywood action film and the oral narrative itself. Gender plays a central role in the interactions between railway workers and machines. The train driver's memoirs show how gender is attributed to the train and oscillates between the feminine, "the locomotive" and the masculine, "the train". While the locomotive may have different affectionate nicknames, the train is always fighting or dueling with the driver, an onslaught in which victory represents the affirmation of professional talent, of the masculine condition and of duration (dureé), in contrast to the discontinuity of the profession.