Nostalgia & History > few SP in Tehachapis . . .

.  .  SP's Mojave Sub includes the Tehachapi mountains west of the town of Tehachapi with it's incredible curvature, grades and single track. A few taken west of the town of Tehachapi;
top: Pair of pushers assisting an eastbound empty sugar beet train at the east switch Walong, CA 7-72.
middle: Eastbound work train Woodford, CA 4086.
bottom: Eastbound climbing the grade near old east switch Allard siding below Bealville, CA 8-79.
JB



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/06/15 16:58 by 3rdswitch.

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These are 3 really great photos.  Really like the trains and units of the era.
Brian Stevens

Awsome Pictures.That 8502 makes me want to jump in the truck and go up there right now.

Ct97
 

Good stuff .Thanks. Bill Webb

Joe, that first shot is pretty outrageous!! Between the lighting and the subject
matter that just screams SP!!

Out

Made my day with this post. Thank you for sharing three outstanding gems.
—espee4ever

Also east of the town...they don't end at Kelcy's Restaurant...

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

callum_out Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Joe, that first shot is pretty outrageous!!
> Between the lighting and the subject
> matter that just screams SP!!
>
> Out

Yes and only if it were that way still.

Adam

Great photos.  Wish I'd gotten to Tehachapi before the mergers!

I've got an east-coast question about the sugar beets.

For some reason I remember reading that the beet trains were loaded in the agricultural areas down west of Bakersfield, and would run loaded up Tehachapi's west slope to beet refineries out east.  Seems logical to me, with limited knowledge of the area.  Yet, photo 1 shows eastbound beet empties.  How did the beet traffic move?

Thanks,
~RGDave

 

Anyone seen a pic of beets eastward
out of Bakersfield?

RGDave wrote:

> I remember reading that the beet trains were loaded in the agricultural areas down west of Bakersfield ....

I believe there was a beet loader on the Sunset Railway (which might qualify as being in "the agricultural area down west of Bakersfield") but most of the beet loaders in the San Joaquin Valley were north of Bakersfield.
 
> How did the beet traffic move?

Eastbound sugar beets went to the relatively short-lived Spreckels plant at Chandler, Arizona.  See my comment from 2006 about this plant at http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1242402 .  Westbound beet trains over the Tehachapis, destined for processing plants in California, would have beets from the Imperial and the Antelope valleys.  Conceivably, there could have been loaded beet trains running in opposite directions meeting each other in the Tehachapis.

By the way, there is no apostrophe in "Tehachapis."  While "Tehachapis" may look odd, that is the correct plural form.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/15 18:03 by johnsweetser.

johnsweetser Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> RGDave wrote:
>
> > I remember reading that the beet trains were
> loaded in the agricultural areas down west of
> Bakersfield ....
>
> I belive there was a beet loader on the Sunset
> Railway (which might qualify as being in "the
> agricultural area down west of Bakersfield") but
> most of the beet loaders in the San Joaquin Valley
> were north of Bakersfield.
>  
> > How did the beet traffic move?
>
> Eastbound sugar beets went to the relatively
> short-lived Spreckels plant at Chandler,
> Arizona.  See my comment from 2006 about this
> plant at
> http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,
> 1242402 .  Westbound beet trains over the
> Tehachapis, destined for processing plants in
> California, would have beets from the Imperial and
> the Antelope valleys.  Conceivably, there could
> have been loaded beet trains running in opposite
> directions meeting each other in the Tehachapis.
>
> By the way, there is no apostrophe in
> "Tehachapis."  While "Tehachapis" may look odd,
> that is the correct plural form.

Not quite so. Beets could move out of the lower San Joaquin Valley to Betteravia in the spring. Sugar companies would sell beets to each other if one plant is overflowing. Chandler was a Oct-Jan operation when it was cooler.
 

Fascinating stuff, guys.  Beets sometimes in both directions on Tehachapi!  Amazing.

Thanks much!

~RGDave

WAF wrote:

>Beets could move out of the lower San Joaquin Valley to Betteravia in the spring.  Sugar companies would sell beets to each other if
one plant is overflowing. Chandler was a Oct-Jan operation when it was cooler.

If a photo caption on p. 23 of the Fall 2001 issue of SP Trainline (magazine of the SP historical society) is accurate, then Chandler apparently wasn't just an "Oct-Jan operation."  Here is what the caption stated:

"While the movements of beets over Beaumont Hill and the Tehachapi were predominently westbound, there were exceptions to the rule.  In June at El Casco, California, above, a set of Colton-based GP9 helpers shoves hard on a string of eastbound beets destined for the Spreckels plant at Chandler, Arizona."

timz wrote:

>Anyone seen a pic of beets eastward out of Bakersfield?

P. 23 of that Fall 2001 issue of SP Trainline had two photos of an eastward beet train at Woodford.  Continuing with the above caption:

"Several years later, at Woodford, California, in April 1973, at least seven heavy six-axle units boost the beets toward the summit of Tehachapi Pass.  At times on these grades, it was possible to see loaded beet trains meet each other going in opposite directions."

I will concede that some eastward beet trains over the Tehachapis could have been destined for Betteravia, which is on the coast near Guadalupe.

The Fall 2001 SP Trainline had a long article on sugar beets and the SP.




 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/15 12:55 by johnsweetser.