Nostalgia & History > On the Coast Line in 1998

Back in 1998 I was driving from Bakersfield to
San Jose to see my son and I stopped HERE !
Spent a couple of hours at this location before
continuing. I now live in  western Washington
​and have only been back here  on #11 and #14.


Between King City and Harlem @ MP155
​Tunnel # 5 1/2. My Altamont TT says the
tunnel is at MP152.0. As you can see in the
​photo the signal is at  MP # is 155.2. ????


First NB intermodal w/ 7046 leading
​Second is  the SB Coast Starlight
Third is the NB Santa Margarita Turn

​This was the only time I spent at tunnel # 5 1/2
nice place to park right next to the road and Railroad
​except the local  deputy checking on if I was OK ?

Thanks for looking

Jay

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Been on that road between King City and Soledad, CA. several times over the years. Nice area if you can catch a train. Great that you caught several trains.

Larry

Been there a few times myself, amazing catching three moves, nice.
JB

UP renumbers all mile posts and signals on the old SP Coast Line a number of years back and eliminated several equations in the timetable as well.  For the Santa Barbara area, the difference between the SP mile markers and UP mile markers was 3.3 miles.  Altamont Press TT #20 reflects the current mile markers under UP.

Examples:
State Street in Santa Barbara was MP 370.8 and now MP 367.5
The west switch Santa Barbara was MP 368.3 and now MP 365.0
Hot box detector in Hope Ranch was MP 366.3 and now MP 363.0

I've been down there quite a few times recently (seeing as I have to run to King City every Wednesday). Quite often I'm able to catch the Starlight, and fairly often at the tunnel.

Brody Wyrick
Reno, NV

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Nice images there!    It's a certain part of the Coast Line that doesn't really look like any other part of the Coast Line.
So only being a little familiar with the area, why did SP choose to dig a hole in the mountain instead of go around it?   Looks to be plenty of room unless they needed to head in a certain direction.
 

> So only being a little familiar with the area, why did SP choose to dig a hole in the mountain instead of go around it? 

See the fifth posting in a thread from three years ago:  http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,2909189,2909432

johnsweetser Wrote:
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> > So only being a little familiar with the area,
> why did SP choose to dig a hole in the mountain
> instead of go around it? 
>
> See the fifth posting in a thread from three years
> ago: 
> http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,2
> 909189,2909432

Interesting.   One of the more rare ways a tunnel was chosen!