Tehachapi Double-Track Project

[jagged ben]

This one's also new.  Four tunnels in one shot.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=565317

[ednadolski]

Four tunnels in one shot.

Fun fact: if you built that scene to scale in N, the visible part of that train would be ~ 20 feet long.

Ed

[jagged ben]

Fun fact: if you built that scene to scale in N, the visible part of that train would be ~ 20 feet long.

Ed

You mean from the locos to where the train disappears into tunnel 14 right?
I gather you don't mean to exclude the portions that are invisible inside 15,16 and 17.  Or do you?
 

[ednadolski]

I gather you don't mean to exclude the portions that are invisible inside 15,16 and 17.

Heh heh, that didn't occur to me but yeah I guess my choice of words was ambiguous.

Perhaps I could have said something more specific, like "based upon the straight line distance on Google maps from the estimated position of the front coupler on the lead locomotive to the south portal face of Tunnel 14, not allowing for track gradient, curvature, or the distance travelled by the train in the time used to take the picture".      OTOH I suppose one could save some money on track, ballast, stack cars, and containers by building a static scene and not modeling the parts of the train that are actually in the tunnels. 

Ed

[ednadolski]

This one's also new.  Four tunnels in one shot.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=565317

After poring over that pic again, one thing that strikes me is how much work and cost it would take to double-track that portion of the line.   Seems safe to presume that section will remain single-track for the foreseeable future.

Ed

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Fun fact: if you built that scene to scale in N, the visible part of that train would be ~ 20 feet long.

Ed

Which means you'll be doing it to scale, right?

[jagged ben]

Fun fact: I don't have half of the 53' well cars necessary for a 20' train.  (Anyone who produces the NSC version would break my wallet.)

[ednadolski]

Nice aerial video, with a recent view of the newly-graded roadbed at 7:36:

A bit older (Nov 2015) but still another really good aerial:

Ed

[Hamaker]

Thanks for the updated view of the double track work.  I've spent hundreds of hours watching train traversing the Loop over the decades I lived in the area.

[jagged ben]

Both videos demonstrate well why they are doing the project.  Walong is not a particularly useful siding.  I feel all the luckier for having caught a meet there on one of my three visits.

 The train in the second video is well over 4000ft.  And it's crazy what people are doing with these drones.

[mu26aeh]

Watching that first video, I got an idea in my head.  Railfan Yoga and Meditation ! 

That footage is simply stunning.  With the shots from high above, you lose how massive everything is, almost like you are looking at a scale model. 

[GaryHinshaw]

I've been collecting photos of the pass for almost ten years now, they span 50+ years of railfanning efforts, and this angle is entirely new.  effin amazing. 

I had to read the caption to recognize this one.  My first guess was somewhere out on the Coast Line.

[James Costello]

Another uncommon one:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=569956&nseq=1

[jagged ben]

Seems like there's some competition going on for finding new angles!

[GaryHinshaw]

Another uncommon one:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=569956&nseq=1

When I first saw the thumbnail for this one, I thought it was a shot of a massive derailment. 

Sadly, most of these new angles require one to either blatantly trespass, park illegally, or both.  Last time I was down there, I took a hike up one of the hills over Caliente (without a camera...) and a Kern County Sheriff's officer saw me from his SUV, so he lingered in the area.  I came down the back side of the hill and walked back to my car along the road.  He drove by, checked me out, nodded his head, then drove off without a word.  It could easily have turned out otherwise though. 

The view was fantastic!