Nostalgia & History > Tehachapi Washout 1983

This is the way the double track at Bena looked on March 3, 1983. On the 1st, a veritable wall of water came down Caliente Creek, seen in the distance at the left, and smashed the bridge, taking the signal bridge with it. Luckily, no one was hurt that I know of.

---

Here's what the same location looked like about six months earlier.

---

For those not familiar with Tehachapi, the first photo was taken from the hill that's in the background in the second photo.

JohnSweetser Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> For those not familiar with Tehachapi, the first
> photo was taken from the hill that's in the
> background in the second photo.

Thanx John. That's exactly right, except the hill in the background in the second photo is the one a Cat is pushing down onto the tracks, and the hill I was shooting from is directly to the left of the SP helper set. :)

Very cool pics -- BOTH of them!

Isn't this also called "Sand Cut?" How did the water get that far up the cut but miss the facility in the middle of the valley ...centrifugal force as the water went around the bend?

Thomas

BTW, Todd, could someone modify the data base for the spell checker? "Tehachapi" corrects to "Tea cup!"

The two photos are taken at Bena. Sandcut is the next station to the west, or north, behind the photographer.

JE

Loved all that overtime.

cs16 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Loved all that overtime.


I bet it was exhaustive work and I know you guys were glad when you got the line back up and running. How long did it take to get it back up and running anyway? After the 52 earthquake it took SP 25 days to reopen the route! Was this repair quicker?

ProAmtrak Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>> I bet it was exhaustive work and I know you guys
> were glad when you got the line back up and
> running. How long did it take to get it back up
> and running anyway? After the 52 earthquake it
> took SP 25 days to reopen the route! Was this
> repair quicker?


We were on the mountain for 90 days. The signal system was up and working in about 4 weeks if I remember correctly, but a lot of it was on temporary wire. We had to install a lot of new pole line and a few ctc houses. The house from bena was never found. We strung a lot of duplex wire on the ground just to get the system up. It was quite a show watching all the heavy equipment rebuild the right of way.

cs16 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
It was quite a show watching all the heavy equipment rebuild the right of way.

I heard stories from the hands that did that, lots of OT and subsistance $$$$$$$$$.


TCS - la boys moving valley mountains

A couple of shots I took of Caliente.

---

---

Cool shots all.

Mike

Like a bridge (that used to be) over troubled waters...

dont know about you... But I was Feeling Groovy...(the 59th St. Bridge song)

I was on the first westbound train from Los Angeles to Bakersfield when the track was reopened. it was amazing to see first hand all of the devastation caused by this storm. Going through Caliente and seeing the wall of mud and dead trees and other debris that had washed down from the mountains. Standing water at Ilmon and all the way to Bena. Denny McNear was touring the project and he personally rolled our train by!

Posted from Android

Those washouts occurred during the great El Nino year of 1983.  Queen Elizabeth abandoned travel on her yacht from San Francisco to Santa Barbara due to very rough seas.  I remember her being driven in March to President Ronald Reagan's Santa Barbara ranch in four-wheel-drive SUVs.

This post would be total mud (no pun intended) if it wasn't for CS16's post that puts the actual situation in perspective. A big mess for sure.
Thanks, CS16.
Go

The El Nino helped cause a tornado in downtown Los Angeles. It was F-3 intensity ("strong") and it killed 9 people.


chakk Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Those washouts occurred during the great El Nino
> year of 1983.  Queen Elizabeth abandoned travel
> on her yacht from San Francisco to Santa Barbara
> due to very rough seas.  I remember her being
> driven in March to President Ronald Reagan's Santa
> Barbara ranch in four-wheel-drive SUVs.