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8.76Km. This stretch of track includes the problematic 'Puerto de los Peines' - Pass of the combs. This is the section that passes through the Puerto; in only 4.6km there are five tunnels and a bridge as well as cuttings through stone and huge embankments. In addition, there was a steep incline to 'El Apeadero' which required that iron ore trains be split at Pulpí and brought up by the loco in halves. In fact, the last 500 metres had an incline of 1 in 57. See video.
The track passes through a mining area which caused terrible problems for The GSSR due to the greed of two mine owners as well as being the site of the worst accident in the history of The GSSR whereby, on 25th May 1927, an iron ore train lost its brakes leaving Almendricos Station and ran out of control the 10Km through Pulpí Station and into the rear of a mail train. It has been calculated that it was travelling at 56Km/h at impact. Ten people died and twelve were injured. See Accidents.