I just discovered this railway and wondered if anyone here had anything to add. It is an example of one of those wonders that, before the internet, we just never knew about. I wish I had known. I would have made the trip just to see it.
The Paranapiacaba funicular apparently connected the port city of Santos to Sao Paulo. It covered the steep mountainous midsection of the route. It was really more of a grip cable railway than a funicular. That is, more like the San Francisco cable cars. It appears (I do not speak Portuguese) that the system consisted of five cable segments with separate power houses and cable winding machinery, all steam powered to the end. The way it worked, trains were broken up into cuts of 2 or three cars and moved over the five inclines and then reassembled at the other end. Small steam dummies with cable grips moved the cuts of cars over the inclines. The steam dummies provided power to move the cuts on the flat sections in the terminals.
From what I can translate, apparently there were two parallel inclines. The older incline was completely scrapped and the right of way used to construct a modern rack railway in about 1973. This modern route is electrified and whole trains can be hauled up the mountain without switching. These trains are also heavy, modern sized freight cars.
The newer incline (but still 80 years old) apparently kept operating. And this I do not understand, why once the new electric route was available, they did not scrap the entire operation. Apparently a fire in the base (lowest elevation) power house shut the line down to revenue service in 1981. However, it appears the upper incline continued in tourist service for a few more years. Online images today show the line overgrown and in complete disrepair, but in place. A number of images show the steel bridges are completely rusted through, and this may have been the reason for the final abandonment.
Video of the line in revenue service in 1976:
https://youtu.be/JVgdBRo7TV4
Video of the line in what appears to be tourist passenger service in 1988:
https://youtu.be/uQ66q2yL_30