Tehachapi Loop De Loop

Thursday, August 6, 2020

Tehachapi Loop De Loop

A UP train is about to travel underneath itself in the Tehachapi Loop

Story & Photos By: Ken Hulsey

Here are the highlights from the third day of my Mojave / Tehachapi railroad adventure.

Sometimes to be a successful amateur train photographer you need Lady Luck to be on your side and over the past couple of days in Tehachapi she had opted to turn a cold shoulder my direction. Granted I had managed to get some very good shots of trains during that time but it seemed that I would just be at the wrong place at the wrong whenever a train was involved. Day 3 however was somewhat of a different story and I had been lucky enough to snap a handful of what I believe are some of my best train pics ever.

That being said I was beginning to view the famous Tehachapi Loop as my own personal nemesis. I found a great spot to photograph trains coming in and out of the loop and I waited and I waited. Two hours passed and not a single train. While atop the loop I was taken back by just how beautiful the landscape was and I did take several good photos of the surrounding mountains (I have included a couple of those with this post) but not a train in sight. After working on a good sunburn I opted to move off and take care of some other pressing business. As luck would have it a couple of hours later I would be back at my prized photo location when a Union Pacific mixed freight traversed the loop.

Earlier in the day just outside the town of Tehachapi itself I captured some rather dramatic shots of BNSF trains roaring past the gigantic sand plant. These are a couple of the best train photos I have ever taken... not to toot my own horn.

Another thing I want to address quickly is the rush of pure adrenalin I got from taking two separate photos. The first came when I opted to lay on my back and snap a photo of an approaching BNSF stack train. Let me tell you that it takes some stones to lay there prone while hundreds of tons of train comes at ya. When the ground begins to shake your first instinct is to get the hell out of there. The second thrill of the day came while I was taking the photo above of a UP mixed freight atop the loop. It's real thrill to watch a train travel back under itself but it is even more of a rush to try and take a picture of it while its moving just mere feet behind you while you try and focus your camera.

A Union Pacific mixed train atop the famed Tehachapi Loop.

Here is some history:

The Tehachapi Loop is a .73 miles (1.17 km) long 'spiral', or helix, on The Union Pacific Railroad line through Tehachapi Pass, of the Tehachapi Mountains in Kern County, south-central California. The railroad line connects Bakersfield in the San Joaquin Valley to Mojave in the Mojave Desert. The Tehachapi Loop was originally built and owned by Southern Pacific Railroad, with construction starting in 1874, and the first train to use it reaching Los Angeles in 1876.

The Tehachapi Loop takes its 'loop' name from the circuitous route it takes, in which the track passes over itself, a design which lessens the angle of the grade. The loop gains a total of 77 feet (23.5 m) in elevation as the track ascends at a sustained 2% grade. A train more than 4,000 feet (1.2 km) long (about 85 boxcars) thus passes over itself going around the loop.

Notable contributors to the project's construction include Arthur De Wint Foote and the project's chief engineer, William Hood.

The location of the loop is known as Walong, named in honor of Southern Pacific District Roadmaster W. A. Long. The loop contains a siding, known as Walong Siding. It also contains a tunnel, known as Tunnel 9 because it was the ninth tunnel built as the railroad worked from Bakersfield.

A large, white cross has been placed in the center of the loop, at the peak of the hill. Known as "The Cross at the Loop", it is in memory of two Southern Pacific Railroad employees who were killed in a train derailment on May 12, 1989 in San Bernardino, California.

Originally built by the Southern Pacific Railroad, the loop passed into the ownership of the Union Pacific following the two railroads' 1996 merger. However, trains of the BNSF Railway also use the loop under trackage rights. Today, the railway line, with almost 40 daily trains on average, is one of the busiest single-track mainlines in the world. Union Pacific currently prohibits passenger trains from using this line, which is preventing Amtrak's San Joaquin train from serving Los Angeles. A notable exception is the Coast Starlight, which uses the line as a detour if its normal route is closed.

- Wikipedia