Western Railroad Discussion > 2/25 in Tehachapis- Action, Derailment CleanUp & Trespassing Cows

Saturday, Feb, 25th in the Techachapi Mountains was busy with freight, heading past the prior day’s derailment, and washed out roads around Caliente. The undercrossing at the UP bridge at Caliente was a mud-covered single lane marked with cones, with waters still pouring down Tehachapi Creek. But with the sun poking out and lots of green everywhere, it was a great day to be out on the hill.
1. Amtrak/CalTrans Cabbage 90225 awaits the first run of the day at Bakersfield Amtrak station.
2. Spectacularly green, though the sun angle doesn’t favor the morning shots at Tunnel 2 with UP SD70ACe 8785 pulling a lot of former trees.
3. Trying their best to be meet their early demise, the two steer in the bottom of the image headed directly into the path of UP 7613 (of course), ultimately missing them by inches thanks to a generous use of the loco's horn. Didn’t have the guts to keep shooting, but did stop at the Keene Café shortly after to eat one of their friends.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/17 15:28 by GeoAndy.

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4-5. A whole lot of grain heads around the loop with help in the middle and rear.
6. A couple of the racks that landed on their side on Friday were shoved out of the way just below the loop tunnel minus a few bits.
 

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7. UP AC45CCTE 7954 leads a string of Hub Group containers toward Tunnel 2 in early afternoon.
8. Not to be outdone, the UP intermodal way followed by BNSF 4567 with a heap of JB Hunt containers.
9. As the afternoon wore on, the eastbounds stacked up nose to tail as westbounds started to flow, BNSF ET44C4 3886 leads containers and racks downhill at Bealville Rd.  


 

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10. Back to Woodford, as UP AC45CCTE 2536 brings a mixed merchandise downhill.
11. With the eastbounds sitting still, we headed over to Tehachapi to catch BNSF SD70 9128 highlighting the convenient cooler storage feature inside the cab.
12. Plenty of action overall, but heading back to L.A., and catching one last Mojave-bound UP freight sitting at Ansel, with Trona-bound hoppers.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/17 16:38 by GeoAndy.

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GREAT PICTURES!!!

Awesome pics, I cant get enough of Tehachapi

Jon in Az

I miss tha tneck of the woods and the shot with the back at Walong, that's Woodford, but still great pics and it sucks another train ended up on the ground up there, what's going on up there that's causing these derailments on the hill!

Right, Woodford...not thinking while typing. Thx.--will update

Where's the beef ??

Tehachapi has never been the same without Loops access.   But you make it all look okay here.   Thanks for your sharp pics and accompanying descriptions.  The upcoming wildflowers should be record-like this year.

Jason Eminian
Smith Brothers Hobby Center

Those autoracks seem to be upside-down to me?   It seems that a car tipping over would normally have its wheels towards the rails, not the top towards the rails?  

The lens kind of makes it an illusion, the tracks are below ground level and the cars have been dragged up the embankment.

Cars were originally on the inside of the curve, straight lined in derailment.  Pictures shows them having been moved to the outside of the curve for dismantling, that is the road side of the curve for access.