15 engines on a loaded Southern Pacific coal train on Tehachapi Loop!
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Published 2012-08-12
MARCH, 1987 - Toward the end of yet another great day of railfanning in the Tehachapi's, my brother and I decided to hang out on the west side of Tunnel 9 and wait for some over-under action. In short time the sound of EMD's, working hard in the distance was unmistakable. Suddenly, the whining of dynamic brakes was also being heard, and it was clear that a train was coming downgrade on the loop. I pointed the videcamera at the tunnel and the drama unfolded with a Santa Fe mixed freight coming to a stop on Walong siding. As it stopped, the upgrade EMD's were becoming louder, and I pointed the camera at the Southern Pacific engines coming toward us. The coal is from the D&RGW. SP gets it at Ogden, UT and it runs across Nevada and into California via Donner Pass to Bakersfield through Tehachapi & over Cajon to its destination in Southern California where there was actually a coal burning facility. I spent a lot of time over the years trying to figure this one out and then saw some other videos showing a coal train over this line and on Cajon. It ran about once a week to Kaiser Steel At Fontana, CA. The sights and sounds that were upon us were "railfan nirvana", and this sequence remains one of my favorite railfanning experiences of all time. This clip is unedited. It is presented as I filmed it from my original VHS master. It is also just a small part of BKVP's popular 3 disc DVD set, "Railfanning Tehachapi and Beyond, 1987 & 1989". Enjoy!
All Comments (21)
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am 51 years old and all my life I have been a fan of the sound of EMD two-stroke locomotives. For me there is no better sound than that. I live in Argentina and I grew up here listening to those same engines, but in a 12-cylinder version (the sound is the same). I always wanted to visit the United States and be able to enjoy what is seen in this video. Unfortunately, by the time I was able to fulfill my wish and visit Tehachapi, Cajon Pass, etc., we were already in 2018 and all that wonder that we see in the video no longer exists. The current General Electrics are fine, but there is no point of comparison with the old good EMD! Now all the trains seemed boring to me, almost identical and monotonous, and the very quiet locomotives, even the SD70s are very quiet, it´s a shame. The video is spectacular, thank you very much for sharing it, I saw it several times!!!! and at maximum volume so and I imagine I was there!
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Loved those SD40T-2 tunnel motors!
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Miss those SP dirty , grimy, EMD's.
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Dang, I don’t think I’ve ever seen them run TWO manned helper sets at mid-train before. I’d love to know what the gross tonnage of that train was.
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I worked for NS and Southern for 25 years and worked on coals trains with 7 units but this is amazing to me. 15 mighty beasts pulling their burden
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I just love the sound of the thousands of horsepower.
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The billboard era in boxcars were still mainly in vogue for both Santa Fe and Southern Pacific, with "Super Shock Control" on most of Santa Fe's boxcar fleet and "Hydra Cushion for Fragile Freight" on some of Southern Pacific's boxcar fleet. And of course Southern Railway had the slogan "Southern Serves the South" on most of its freight car fleet.
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These were the "good ol' days". Filthy SP units and trains full of cars from different railroads. And, both trains had a caboose! Great stuff!
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Back in the good ole days when locos could vibrate your house and knock down hanging photos a half-mile away.
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We drove out from LA, used to hang around for hours watching the loop, counting cars, pointing out rarely-seen railroad names on the boxcars, eating lunch. We NEVER saw a pass-by like this. Thanks for saving and posting this video, it truly is a look into the past, yours, ours, SP's and Santa Fe's.
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Ok... if this video doesnt make you miss southern pacific... then i don't know what will. That had to be the biggest coal drag ive seen in a long time!!😊😊
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Its just absolutely nuts how theres soo much soot that even the cab windows look spray painted!
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Back when you still had a caboose, too... way more boxcars than you'd see now, as well, everything seems to be double-stack wellcars, centerbeams or such now.
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I'm a retired engineer. I was hired by PC NJ Div. November 26, 1974 as a student engineer. The company, as well as myself, didn't like the term fireman. When diesels with dynamic brakes, radios, CTC, cab signals and dead man devices came into play, engineers should have been the crew, with an occasional student engineer. All the bankruptcies deteriorating infrastructure you can spell it out with 3 words. United Transportation Union, and all its predecessor unions! The caboose should have gone the way of the dodo back in the1950's and all the "loads" that rode in them.
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AWESOME AWESOME Magicla days of legendary 1980s tehachapi loop railraoding . I ma speechless at tthe glory here. I witnessed this IN Person in 1985--86 AWESOME.
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Hey, some old CNW covered hoppers there at about 5:25..Those are long gone..
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Wow, those SP locos are just filthy, and the caboose at the end, beautiful, just beautiful. Make you really wish going back in time was possible.
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Track goes over circles around and then goes under. So cool
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Cool to see truck trailers mixed in there on the manifest train too, you don't see that often either anymore.
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Pretty insane this, that's one loco for every five and a quarter load of coal. The last set of helpers sounded good because the train loco's emerged at the top of the loop at the same moment and their sounds mixed up well. Also noticed this SD45 with snow shields and the SF F45 unit in the other train (that had the only non EMD loco in the consist on this video, a Dash 7)
