WOW - Russ that is a fabulous photo by Jeff. It shows the Devils Nose switchback between Sibambe and Alausi in Ecuador. The lowest diesel hauled train with all the people on the freight car roofs is sitting in Sibambe station. From Sibambe the mainline climbs up the Devil's Nose switchbacks on the route from Guayaquil to Quito. My 6 year old daughter and I hiked up the same mountainside that Jeff is standing on, and took movies of trains climbing the switchbacks. My daughter made the painful mistake of sitting down while I was filming, and ended up with a substantial number of cactus thorns that had to removed before climbing back down. All part of the adventure, which I may cover in some future posting.
At Sibambe the branchline to Cuenca connected to the narrow gauge main line, another spectacular railroad into the Andes.