Wish You Were Here - Volume 01 .... Up through Cajon Pass and Two days in the Tehachapi mountains

On Saturday September 04, 2004 I made a return trip to Tehachapi. This was the first time that I had made it up to this area since June of 2003. My plans for the trip included a Saturday morning drive from where I live (Huntington Beach, CA) up to Cajon Pass. Once in the area I exited the 15 freeway at Keenbrook and followed the tracks using old Route 66. My first train encounter of the trip occured along this stretch.

A BNSF trailer train and a UP train meet at Keenbrook. The UP was on the Palmdale cutoff tracks and the BNSF was on Main 1.
Just two minutes later the same BNSF train met another UP train that was approaching on Main 2

I continued up route 66 and as I approached old Cajon station there was a BNSF stack train coming down on Main 2 right behind the UP train that was just seen at Keenbrook.
Heading up the hill and into Sullivan's Curve was yet another stack train with 2 SD40-2's running helper service taking up the end of the train
Since route 66 does not continue under the 15, I hopped on the 15 and took it to Hwy 138 and followed that up to Cajon Summit. At Summit was another BNSF train which had an ex-Union Pacific engine in the consist; NREX #5080

After passing Summit, I hung a left at Summit Valley Road hoping to have the same luck and catch a few trains along this stretch of the pass. All I found was a freshly graded dirt road. For those that do not know - Summit Valley road follows the rail line from Summit to Hesperia and a good 2 to 3 mile stretch remained unpaved, but was always graded.... A trip to Cajon last Saturday (10/02/04) presented fresh asphalt on the road into Hesperia (see News and Observations page)...
Anyways I made it all the way to Hesperia where I did manage to find a local tied down at the junction where the Cushenberry line branches off east. The engines were hidden from good sun view by an empty lumber car, and there was a nice looking BN caboose on the other end (my first BN caboose seen in person- after all this time)

After this great find I headed back over to the 15 freeway and continued towards Barstow. I cut across Hwy 58 and started my trek towards Mojave.

Along Hwy 58 I came across a BNSF baretable train just west of Hinkley.
And then these three engines heading eastbound as light power just east of Kraemer Junction.

Into the town of Mojave .... In UP's Mojave yard, there was a nice looking string of engines sitting on the south end.
The UP 8800 was soaking up the morning sun with the SP roman lettering showing through the road grime.
A couple engines back sat SP 8694, one of the few if not only SDP45's still in SP paint. The engine has been downgraded to a straight SD40M-2 but still maintains the unique body style.

I took my usual route into the town of Tehachapi ... via Monolith off of Sand Canyon so I could follow the railroad tracks in hopes of getting that morning east bound train heading towards Mojave. Well I had no luck in those regards. There was a lone BNSF C44-9W tied down just east of Summit switch, so I used the morning sun to get a photo of the backside.
The Union Pacific is getting a new building for their MOW station in Tehachapi ... the building is across the tracks and street (cady-corner) to the old SP depot they are currently in. Looks to be one of those pop up type buildings with pre-fabricated walls with a pieced together ceiling....

There was a BNSF manifest train stopped at Marcel with BNSF 968 on the point.. DPU on the end oof the train was 1 C44-9W and a GP60B.
I exited at Keene and headed towards Woodford where I found this UP mixed intermodal train stopped on a red. I had read on Trainorders that the dispatcher was giving work windows to MOW curve crews so I figured this was one of those windows. There was a crew working on the curve right behind this UP train, and also a crew working on the curve at the start of the Walong siding ... so trains were stopped in both directions for quite some time. I grabbed a few digital pics before moving along to see what else was stopped further up the line.

There was nothing at Bealville as I headed past there. I made it over to Caliente and explored the area along Caliente Bodfish road. Down at the side of the road sat this BNSF box car. Obviously from a recent derailment, the thing is .. the tracks were up above the box car, so I am guessing they pushed it down one of the roads.
Up onto the plateau that overlooks the Caliente area is where I went next. This was my first time up here, and I was inpressed with the view. Down along the mainline were more scattered derailed cars.
Just as I was about to leave, a BNSF stack train came around the corner. Coming from the are of tunnel 2 .. this train must have been moving either at Cliff when I passed by, or it was stopped at the siding between tunnel 2 and Bealville.