7th
We hit up Tehachapi for one of our summer campouts on friday the 7th,
the traffic was pretty slow as we made our way through the canyon, we didn't see
our first train until we reached the detector at 347.0 only to hear the familiar voice
letting us know that an intermodal was winding through the hills towards our camp at Caliente.
We arrived at Caliente at about 7 P.M with more freights lined to come through. The good part about
where we were is that we could hear the detector both at 328 and 347 so we knew what was coming
at us most of the time. I kept my camera stashed as I was trying to maintain battery for the next day.
After a semi-sleepless night filled with helper units and grain trains , I managed to wake up and head for Tehachapi to get breakfast and get cleaned up. At the time we left there was a UP manifest in the hole
with a reported dead 2nd unit, an SD70M, this train had been in the siding since 5:30 or so A.M according to Curt , Kevin and Chuck.
While on the way up to Tehachapi I managed to snag a shot of a BNSF GEVO leading a stacker through
the upper tunnels of the route, another pro of riding in the passenger seat !
After a stop at McDonalds we headed back down to camp to find the UP train still in the siding
with no reported sign of any help being sent. Kevin and Curt said they had heard some sounds of
an air compressor coming from down in the canyon so we hiked down to see if we could find some DPU's.
Not only did we find them but we found a Northbound as well
Dispatch made well to run trains around the stalled trains all day, it wasn't long before we
heard the detector at MP 328 going of to tell us that another train was coming at us. We were quite lucky to have the oddball power units throughout the day.
We heard some discussion on the radio regarding the use of a unit from a downhill train
to get the stalled UP moving. Thinking this would be something to watch we headed up to the
signals to see what we could get before the light died.
The lashup was a UP AC4400CW ( 5722 ) a UP Phase Two SD70M ( 5129 ) and a UP SD70ACe ( 8389 ) that
looked as if it had been used in tunnel service quite a bit.
The first train down was a BNSF Manifest that had to stop a bit down the tracks due to
a dragging chain off an Alaska Flatcar
My light started to die quick so the next few shots didn't come out so well, the empty manifest came
down and decided that they were going to bury their spare SD70M as 4th in tow of the stalled Southbound
After the sun went down and I lost all hope for good lighting, the nortbound power hooked onto their train
and the conductor on the Southbound began knocking off brakes and preparing to get on the move
Dispatch said they'd wait for one more train and they'd be on the move so we hung out for a bit
to watch them notch up. Not having my tri-pod with me prevented me from getting a shot of the
train they waited for, but after it cleared they got the green and proceeded up the hill after 16 or
so long hours of waiting. Even with the helping SD70M they were only making 10 MPH out of Caliente
and by the time they hit the detector at 347.0 they weren't even making that. Now dispatch
was faced with the problem of getting the overpowered brookly bound Z train by a severly underpowered
UP manifest ! Gotta love Union Pacific
I managed to get a bit more sleep saturday as I was a worn out a consderiable ammount compared
to Friday night. The trains continued at a steady pace all through the night up until the sun came up.
We began our packup and said our goodbyes to another trip sucessfully taken ! Thanks alot to Curt, Chuck, Kevin and his dad for making this another terrific time speant in the Tehachapi's
All images and content © 2005 Shane Palus.