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Devil's Doors Curve

Devil's Doors Curve

Kristina Pålsson©1995
Kristina Pålsson's Thesis Cover Page Photograph.

Kristina Pålsson, Jerry Pry, Renato Gaudio, Chuck Moulton and me all have pictures of this curve.  Together, the pictures span about 60 years.

Photo courtesy of Chuck Moulton.

In each of these cases, the photographer is standing on a bridge looking into the Dorfur Valley. Rob Dickinson has a map of this area on his site from James L. Woodward.  This bridge is marked on that map as just after the highway bridge at Devil's Doors.  Further down the hill, the picture below was taken.  As Charles was on bicycle, this is not too distant from the previous picture.

Ralph R. Reinhold©1961
It is interesting to note that there is little difference in the vegetation between my picture (above) and Chuck Moulton's (below).  What little difference is present could be accounted for by the changes in the seasons.   It looks like his was taken just before the rainy season....if I remember right, there wasn't much of a rainy season when he was there.

Chuck Moulton©1972
 I never knew the name of this place until I saw Jerry Pry's pictures. By the time my watch came around, we called this area Python Valley.

Pictures Courtesy of Jerry Pry
 


Photo courtesy of Renato Gaudio

Charles Moulton©1972

In the left hand picture, the train is coming around the same corner shown on the other photographs.  After it has passed under the bridge, it is passing the 111 kilometer mark on the way to Asmara.  It is blowing steam and black smoke in a railfan's dream photo scene.  Another piece of information that Chuck's picture tells us is that the tamping machines are not a new addition to the line.  The center groove in the ballast is an artifact of machine tamped gravel.
 
 

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