Tehachapi Loop

We’ve been very busy the last few days working on a couple of projects you’ll hear more about later. But, today Dave left me working while he took some time off to go explore the Tehachapi Loop. He took my camera with him so we could share his adventure with you.

Just before he left the campground he heard the whistle of an eastbound train. He caught up with the train in Caliente.

The he got ahead of it a bit so he could see it again as it crossed under Bealville Road.

Then he drove on to Tehachapi to see the tunnel and the tracks around it. Here’s the lower end of the tunnel.

And here’s a satellite view of the area.

The Woodford-Tehachapi Road leads to a parking area with this view and historic markers.

But, look at this terrain view of the map.

See the dirt road leading up from the paved road to a turn-around? Follow it and you’ll find a parking place with a port-a-pot and this view.

If you leave your car there and hike up to the spot where the purple pin is you get the best viewing spot of all for watching trains travel around and through the loop.

And here comes the same train up the hill with Highway 58 in the background.

Eventually, we see the lead engine coming out of the top tunnel–

and nearly disappearing into a cut.

This train is so long we see part of it coming out of the tunnel on the left while the lead engines are still climbing the loop on the right; yet further to the right we see more of the same train still back by Highway 58.

This track is so convoluted here we see the lead engines passing their own mid-train helpers. Now that might not seem so odd if this was a case of the engines meeting as they  come up a switchback but this is a pass which means both sets of engines are traveling the same direction much as if one vehicle on a freeway was passing another vehicle.

Now we see the lead engines passing over the tunnel while more of its train is coming through the tunnel.

Then we see the smoke of the mid-train helpers as they emerge from the tunnel.

If you look closely at the above picture you can see a signal bridge in front of the mid-train helpers that marks the beginning of a passing track while in front of the lead engines you can see the other end of that siding. While the tunnel has only a single track this siding at the top end of the tunnel is there so downhill trains can wait for uphill trains to make the climb. But our train today is so long it laps both ends of that siding so it would have to be a much shorter train than is typically run nowadays for it to be stopped there to safely meet our train.

Finally the last car of this particular train exits the tunnel marking the tail of my tale.

I hope you enjoyed your ride.

Now I must go back to work on our projects since they need to be fully functional before we leave here tomorrow.

TTYL,

Linda