Nostalgia & History > Working the hill - Tehachapi

Not sure if I posted this before, SP SD40R 7325 leads the eastbound oil cans approaching Tunnel #2 near Allard-Bealville, CA in February 1984 (Don DeLay photos).

---

---

Great pair that brings back great memories.
JB

Great location.
The cans were a favorite, but who remembers that Oil was packaged in a can amd not a plastic bottle.
t4p.

In my memory I can hear and feel those units, great phots.
I have been led to believe that on the SP "The Hill" was Donner Pass and "The Mountain" was Tehachapi Pass.
Comments?
Happy Thanksgiving everyone

The Tehachapi dispatcher was known as the Valley-Mountain job, but FWIW only Donner was ever called Mountain Subdivision in the timetable.

Don't recall what the oil trains were -- did they start as six 12-car sets? Then they expanded somehow?

Before they started, the Spec Instr said a 10000-ton train wasn't legal with only one helper.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/24 16:18 by timz.

As the trains keep getting bigger over Tehachapi we're seeing more and more use of the
"swing remotes". What was once common is new again.

Out 

The few times I saw the oil train they were using 10 or 11 units.  4 or 5 up front 5 or 6 swing and 1 or 2 on the tail.  And when 5 or 6 big units pull a heavy load past you the noise and ground vibration is something a railfan doesnt forget.  My first experience here and my last was MRL SD45 helpers on Bozeman Pass.
RB

TCnR Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Great location.
> The cans were a favorite, but who remembers that
> Oil was packaged in a can amd not a plastic
> bottle.
> t4p.

Vaguely, I was a kid when my dad bought oil for the car in cans.  I also remember Hershey's chocolate syrup in a can instead of a plastic bottle, too.  But I especially remember seeing the oil cans on Tehachapi a few times, plus the loading facitliy in Bakersfield along Highway 99, when we'd visit my grandparents.  The good old days!  Wish I had snagged a photo or two of the UP cans through Simi Valley when my in-laws lived there, but never pulled that off.

Nathan

The climb out of Oakridge to Crescent Lake was also known as the 'Hill'.

>In my memory I can hear and feel those units, great phots.
>I have been led to believe that on the SP "The Hill" was Donner Pass and "The Mountain" was Tehachapi Pass.

Great shots, the Oil Cans were the main attraction back in those days. Thanks for sharing them.

Tom

timz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Tehachapi dispatcher was known as the
> Valley-Mountain job, but FWIW only Donner was ever
> called Mountain Subdivision in the timetable.
>
> Don't recall what the oil trains were -- did they
> start as six 12-car sets? Then they expanded
> somehow?
>
> Before they started, the Spec Instr said a
> 10000-ton train wasn't legal with only one helper.


I believe they were 13 car sets weren’t they? Originally BKDOL (Bakersfield - Dolores Loads, which became BKDOU (Bakersfield - Dolores Unit train) after SP changed nomenclature. I can still hear the two stroke prime movers screaming and the traction motors whining!

Posted from iPhone

TCnR Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Great location.
> The cans were a favorite, but who remembers that
> Oil was packaged in a can amd not a plastic.
> bottle.sed to ehlp him in the summer as a kid delivering cases of motor 
> t4p. 

I clearly remember motor oil in cans.  I had an uncle who was a bulk oil agent.  In the summer, when I was a kid, I would help help him deliver cases of motor oil to the various service stations in his territoy.  

Thanks for posting these nice images.  

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/24 07:59 by ntharalson.