This was my first trip to Tehachapi, in 1989. The exact dates are lost to history as my contemporaneous notes have disappeared.
I really miss the sound of EMD 645 turbo-charged prime movers and the way they filled the canyons with sound, before government busybodies forced the manufacturers to equip all locomotives built after 1980 with exhaust silencers.
1) The program opens at Bealville in the late afternoon with trains in
both directions passing through Tunnel 5.
2) The next morning we are at the Loop to watch a westbound Santa
Fe unit coal train meet a Southern Pacific general freight with
mid-train
helpers. Then a Santa Fe intermodal passes with a Kodachrome GP-35 in the consist. An SP light helper set drops down the loop.
Another unit coal train, this time an Espee eastbound, climbs around the loop and crosses its own tail. This heavyweight has 4 units on
the head end (including a Kodachrome SD45T-2), 6 more units in the middle and a 3 unit set near the rear end.
3) Up near the top of the canyon we see a Santa Fe piggyback train negotiating the s-curves.
4) Moving down to Woodford, we catch a pair of Santa Fe westbounds.
5) Back at the Loop, an SP manifest exits Tunnel 10 and drops westbound down the grade. A Santa Fe leader heads up 3 brand new UP
SD60Ms on an eastbound manifest. The famous "Oil Cans" unit Tank-Train makes its usual late afternoon appearance as it heads for the Shell Oil
refinery in Carlson, CA.
6) An SP eastbound traverses the horseshoe at Caliente.
7) Were back at Bealville for one final train as it passes us and
climbs up and through Tunnel 5.