museums and railways: a study about preservation of railway heritage in são paulo estate

This paper presents three examples of museum of industrial heritage in Sao Paulo State (Brazil), theirarchive and preservation actions in the last years. These institutions have been object of our research: the Companhia Paulista Railway Museum in Jundiai, the Railway Museum and Center of Documentation of RRFSA/Bauru, Railway Museum in Sorocaba. All these museums are in old railroad area, with different problems of preservation (installations, collections, visitations). We aim to expose, on one hand, the current state of the railroad heritage that came to be assembled in the collection ofthese museums; and, on the other hand, understanding the nature of public cultural actions in these cities and the characteristics of the museums established there. In the methodological aspect, we did historical research on the formation of the museum, activities (the project and objectives, exhibitions proposals and educational activities), and we interviewed officials.