“Ultimate Tehachapi”

At long last I am finished my Pentrex “Ultimate Tehachapi” DVD; eight hours, two discs, over 300 trains.

Warbonnet in front of two pumpkins through Tunnel Nine under the Tehachapi-Loop.

It means I can move on to DVD number-two, “Cajon II,” (ka-HONE) apparently a DVD-production of a Video-Rails’ video shot in the ‘90s at famous Cajon Pass in southern Californy.
As such, the content of Cajon II is Cajon before Santa Fe and Burlington-Northern merged, and before Southern-Pacific was taken over/merged/bought out/whatever by Union-Pacific.
At that time, Union-Pacific had rights over Santa Fe’s line through Cajon — it was their way of getting into Los Angeles.

The Keed.

Pumpkins at Cajon.

We visited Cajon about three years ago. By then it was BNSF, and a Union-Pacific freight was stopped in a siding at the top of the hill on Southern-Pacific’s old Palmdale Cutoff.
Explaining here: Santa Fe’s line through Cajon is westbound; their way of getting into Los Angeles.
The old Southern-Pacific Palmdale Cutoff, built in 1966-1967, paralleling the Santa Fe, is eastbound; a way for trains from San Francisco to bypass Los Angeles.
The Cutoff ends at Colton Yard east of Los Angeles. Trains can continue east on the old SP Sunset Route across southern Californy and Arizona.
The Gadsden Purchase, the final addition to the continental United States in 1853, which also includes a small southern portion of New Mexico, was to allow railroads to build a southern transcontinental railroad in the U.S.
We stood atop the massive summit-cut Santa Fe installed a few years ago.
The cut lowered Santa Fe’s summit about 60-75 feet, and also removed some difficult curves.
Watching trains there was just like the mighty Curve. BNSF was fleeting eastbound; two could be seen far away slogging up the grade, as one passed through the cut below.
And then there was that Union-Pacific freight holding the siding on the old Palmdale.
The crew was very angry (I had my scanner), and wondered if the Los Angeles dispatcher had forgotten about them.
Most of the Palmdale is single-track, but nothing had come up. I guess they were holding that siding some time.
Santa Fe has two tracks through Cajon.
One is the original line, and has a 3% grade. The westbounds descend that.
“Track-uh Two-uh” is more circuitous but only 2.2%. It’s more northerly, but eastbound — the climb.
Cajon II has the old Santa Fe paint-schemes. Most extraordinary is the infamous “Warbonnet” scheme: red nose on silver cab with a yellow Santa Fe shield-herald on the red.
Santa Fe debuted this scheme in the late ‘40s on passenger-trains; passenger locomotives with fluted stainless passenger-cars. The locomotives had the Warbonnet-scheme. (Most famous was the Santa Fe “Super-Chief;” the preferred cross-country conveyance of Hollywood stars before air-travel.
The Warbonnet-scheme was so beloved, Santa Fe started applying it to their freight-locomotives a few years ago.
It looks fabulous; but there also are the pre-Warbonnet scheme: blue and yellow.
In fact, I think the blue-and-yellow scheme looks as good as the Warbonnet-scheme. To me that’s the proper ATSF scheme.
Many of the locos in Cajon II are pre-Warbonnet; plus the Southern-Pacific locos are their standard filthy dark gray with red — plus Rio Grande locomotives they got when they merged with DRG&W. Many of the SP (and DRG&W) engines are tunnel-motors.
BNSF adopted a variation of the Warbonnet scheme; dubbed by railfans “the pumpkin.” That’s because it’s mainly orange, with a smattering of green. Most of the BNSF locos on “Ultimate Tehachapi” are that, although a few still have the Santa Fe Warbonnet-scheme.
Video-rails was bought out by Pentrex. Video-Rails was a victim of the railroad video wars.
I only have a few Video-Rails tapes — they tend to be overproduced.
My favorite is one of 611. It has a long segment of pacing the side-rods that is fabulous.

-By any means whatsoever all railfans should be required by law to visit Tehachapi at some time in their lives.
We’ve been there at least twice, and every time I’ve come away amazed.
Long ago Southern-Pacific (or maybe at that time Central-Pacific) descended the huge San Joaquin Valley in central Californy, and ended at Caliente; at the foot of the Tehachapi mountains.
To get to Los Angeles from the San Joaquin the railroad had to climb over a mountain-range, and/or cross the high-desert east of L.A.
For years people never thought a railroad would cross those mountains, but Southern-Pacific’s William Hood slung a horseshoe around Caliente’s neck, and built a railroad up the Tehachapis.
His destination was Tehachapi-Pass, but to get there meant lots of tunnels, and winding back-and-forth.
The ruling grade is 2.5%; but most famous of all is that the railroad had to be looped over itself during the ascent: the famous Tehachapi-Loop.
The railroad climbs the Loop, so the the top track is 77 feet above the one below; but the Loop is tight enough for a train to travel over itself.
We waited three hours last time, but never saw a train. Did see a few in the canyon approaching Caliente, and one departing up the hill toward the Loop, but that was all.
What’s most amazing is the railroad itself — it twists and turns and wiggles back-and-forth.
First north, then south, then north again, then finally west with that Loop.
The ruling grade is 2.5%, actually a segment at 2.49%.
Most of the ascent is a tiny bit less, but well over 2%; not impossible, but tough.
The mighty Curve is 1.8%. Portions of the B&O’s West End go over 2.5%.
What’s extraordinary is how the line yaws back-and-forth to surmount a seeming wall of mountains. Tunnels were required. 12 are left. They number through 17.
A segment approaching Caliente is 2.5%. —Caliente is the base of the grade.
The line was Southern-Pacific (now Union-Pacific); but over half of the traffic you see is Burlington-Northern-Santa-Fe. That’s because AT&SF negotiated trackage-rights on the line, after it was surmised that building a competing railroad was near impossible.
The all-powerful Tim Belknap at the mighty Mezz, who apparently grew up in Africa, regales me with tales of the infamous “Lunatic-Line,” a line supposedly more challenging then anything I’ve ever seen.
But far as I know, the Lunatic-line is only meter-gauge, which is a little more than three feet. Standard-gauge is four-feet-8&1/2-inches (Tehachapi is standard-gauge).
Although the Lunatic-Line may be five-feet (for all I know); there were railroads built to a five-foot gauge. I think the Russian railroads were five feet; as are the Philly trolleys. Erie Railroad was originally built to a six-foot gauge; as was the Peanut.
The Lunatic-Line has an incredible topographic challenge, mainly the Rift-Valley, requiring a climb of over 1,000 feet.
Tehachapi climbs 3,000 feet according to my map.
Tehachapi has always been an impediment to railroad traffic. Years ago Californians were considering tunneling under the mountains to replace the Tehachapi-grade.
Hasn’t happened so far. Such a tunnel would be well over 20 miles long, and it would still have to climb to the high-desert.
I have the feeling Tehachapi will remain in use; much like the mighty Pennsy’s assault of the Allegheny-range; which includes the mighty Curve. It’s already built, and doing any better would cost bazilyuns.

“The mighty Curve” (Horseshoe Curve near Altoona, Pennsylvania,) is by far the BEST railfan spot on the entire planet.

RE: “Track-uh Two-uh.......” I have used my railroad-scanner in hundreds of locations, and everywhere the dispatchers seem to imitate Marlon Brando’s Godfather-character.

“611” is Norfolk & Western Railway’s #611 4-8-4 steam-engine; perhaps the most phenomenal steam-engine of that wheel-arrangement ever built. It was restored and running a few years ago, but has since been retired. (It was built in 1950.)

“The all-powerful Tim Belknap at the mighty Mezz” is City-Editor Tim Belknap of the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper, where I once worked. I posted an e-mail of his that had a few spelling-errors, and my macho brother-in-Boston loudly declared the reason the Messenger was so reprehensible was that Belknap was the editor. He’s one of many.

“The Peanut” was originally the Canandaigua & Niagara Falls Railroad, built long ago, and now abandoned. It was eventually taken over by the New York Central, where the company’s president, a Vanderbilt (in the late 1800s), called it “a peanut” compared to the mighty New York Central mainline across New York state.