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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wolverine GTR" data-source="post: 20254922" data-attributes="member: 158020">දුම්රියෙන්_යක්ෂ_නහයට-The Devil’s Nose Railroad- When Ecuador President General Eloy Alfaro took office in 1895, and  announced that a new railway line would be built connecting the coastal  city of Guayaquil with the capital, Quito, in the highlands, a fierce  opposition arose starring both conservatives and liberals. Many people  at that time thought the Andes could not be conquered by rail. Despite  protests and discouragement, General Alfaro hired a couple of US  contractors and tasked them to build the "most difficult railway in the  world." A partnership between the government and a North American firm  was forged leading to the foundation of the Guayaquil and Quito Railway  Company, and construction of the historic line began in 1899.   <img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ffhMTeKhvLg/V1HGsXnUDLI/AAAAAAABNxY/NRviup6HoYA/nariz-del-diablo-912.jpg?imgmax=1600" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Building a railroad in the highlands was not an  easy task. Frequent seismic activity, heavy rainfall, jaguars,  poisonous snakes, malaria, dysentery, and yellow fever delayed progress.  The most technically challenging part of this rail route, however, was a  sheer rock face known as the Devil’s Nose, or Nariz del Diablo, that  stood between Alausi and Sibambe. To ascend this 800 meter cliff, the  engineers carved a series of steep switchbacks that allowed the train to  climb at a gradient of 1-in-18 by alternately advancing and reversing  up the tracks. The railroad will rise with a grade  of 3.5% along a narrow cornice cut by blasting the wall of the  perpendicular rock of the Nose and will extend beyond the bifrucation of  the railway.  When the train goes beyond the bifrucation, a switchman  will jump from the locomotive and raise the lever to change the track;  then , the train will continue on its way up to the next narrow cornice,  in reverse, until the next switchback.  Then, the switchman will change  the tracks again, and the train will continue on its way through the  cornice, until crossing the Devil's Nose. It was  said that the Devil's Nose was damned by the Satan because he didn't  want a railway to be built there. And acts that goes against the Devil's  wishes are paid for in human lives. By the end of construction of the  Nariz del Diablo portion of the track, more than 2,000 workers had died  from disease, labor, or the climate. Among the casualties were workers  brought from the English colonies in the Caribbean, mostly from Jamaica,  hundreds of prisoners who were forced to work with promises of freedom,  and Major John Harman, the chief engineer of the project himself.   Nevertheless,  the completion and the first ascent of Nariz del Diablo in 1902 was one  of the most incredible feat of railway engineering at that time.   The  line continued operating, with interruptions, until 1997 when  landslides during El Nino devastated the tracks, effectively shutting  down the entire line. Currently, only a 12-km stretch from Alausí to  Sibambe is open that take tourists through gorgeous mountain scenery and  a thrilling descent over Devil’s Nose.   <img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-11BYkubrb7Y/V1HGuXuWDnI/AAAAAAABNxg/JT7mhFwKHIA/nariz-del-diablo-49.jpg?imgmax=1600" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />   <img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-eSMSKvyGHRs/V1HGwch34VI/AAAAAAABNxo/3EGlVgVnwoo/nariz-del-diablo-79.jpg?imgmax=1600" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />   <img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-uDq6qHR_CjU/V1HGyrIancI/AAAAAAABNxw/0885z3vNF5U/nariz-del-diablo-19.jpg?imgmax=1600" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />   <img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Qm8WV-I-v84/V1HG0if126I/AAAAAAABNx4/m-fYoDAMHEg/nariz-del-diablo-106.jpg?imgmax=1600" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />   <img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TNpHxBTlpGk/V1HG3Gf4yPI/AAAAAAABNyA/UrTVKLgeKf0/nariz-del-diablo-45.jpg?imgmax=1600" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />   <img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7fogZcw5puQ/V1HG7C5YtdI/AAAAAAABNyI/6uq3R6q-q8c/nariz-del-diablo-55.jpg?imgmax=1600" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />   <img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/--tg4e5hIlsY/V1HG9cIM2wI/AAAAAAABNyQ/g11bjtk4w4g/nariz-del-diablo-62.jpg?imgmax=1600" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />   <img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-r8jadijY0Is/V1HG_V-WASI/AAAAAAABNyY/3tQ_CTmEXdQ/nariz-del-diablo-82.jpg?imgmax=1600" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />   <img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-KUa73OLRO10/V1HHBTA60SI/AAAAAAABNyg/VyCLxf3kmM8/nariz-del-diablo-212.jpg?imgmax=1600" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />   (Previously it was possible to ride on the rooftop. This is not allowed now.)   <img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-AY-IBBDwVlI/V1HHDhtzzZI/AAAAAAABNyo/oDgipl88riY/nariz-del-diablo-222.jpg?imgmax=1600" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />   <img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-MLs44F5IDwc/V1HHF1_X7zI/AAAAAAABNyw/Dv6zYVdoDi0/nariz-del-diablo-115.jpg?imgmax=1600" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />   <img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-gygXe6hMOi4/V1HHJOX6-iI/AAAAAAABNy4/ClW9SmfdPX0/nariz-del-diablo-1413.jpg?imgmax=1600" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />   <img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-5CVXXK7kKdc/V1HHLV3580I/AAAAAAABNzA/HN_HISZlqZA/nariz-del-diablo-1111.jpg?imgmax=1600" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />   <img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-R5-f8mADuqk/V1HHNhOsjzI/AAAAAAABNzI/v8UnQlWaOXw/nariz-del-diablo-512.jpg?imgmax=1600" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></blockquote>

Verification: Nawa warak dahaya keeyada? (Namaya wadi kireema dahaya)

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