Exploring the Tunnels on Tehachapi Pass: Part 1
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- Опубліковано 2 жов 2019
- There were originally 17 tunnels on Southern Pacific's Tehachapi Pass. A line change in the 1930s necessitated the creation of one more before tunnel #1 so it became tunnel #1/2. Only 12 remain today and I thought I'd do a piece on them and some of the interesting history behind some of them.
Railroads have never been averse to punching tunnels through mountains and the Tehachapi was no exception. Most of the tunnels on the "Mountain" were under 500 feet in length but still make for some cool photo and video opportunities, two of them being at the top and bottom of the most famous piece of railroad in America and quite possibly, in the world; the Tehachapi Loop.
Some are right next to state Highway 58, some are remote and difficult to get to.
Because of my intimate knowledge of and problem free access to all these locations, I am able to take you to places you may never have been and some you likely never get to see and, I'll talk about the history surrounding many of them.
So, join me on a tour of the Tehachapi Tunnels!
Tunnel 5 GPS 35d 16' 34"N 118d 36' 58"W
Link to Tunnels Part 2 • Exploring the Tunnels ...
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That was really cool. I was a truck driver for several years and have driven through there... a lot... always loved it when I got to see a train climbing the pass.
23:15 Thanks for the video, it brought back some memories.
Back in the late eighties when I was working with KCFD, we had a grass fire below the track that burned along the hillside. It is very steep and there’s lots of debris from the railroad scattered along the hillside. We ran a hose line underneath the track to allow the train traffic to continue. It was a scary feeling working below the track and seeing the trains slowly moving along directly above us. We were there for a few hours, and very fortunately nobody got hurt!
Years ago I told my wife about when I and my brothers were kids in the seventies and used to go through the tunnels. I related the first time we got caught in tunnel 5. I was about seven years old and my brother seven years older. When we saw the light of the train coming into the tunnel my brother said to me, "Lay down against the wall and keep you're f$cking head down or you will lose it." Of course it tuned out to be one of those extra long trains. The cars going over our heads and I still remember the sound of things flying inches over my head. My wife of course never believed me about how tight those tunnels were, until I searched for a video of the tunnels on youtube and a shot of a train coming out. Then she said we had to be crazy to do stuff like that, but I told her, that's what kids did in Tehachapi back then.
Thank you for informing ME and others about how they built the tunnels and how they updated the history.
My pleasure! Thanks for checking it out!
I'm so happy that he informed YOU about the tunnels.
Excellent video. Was out to see the loop in 2007. The grades that weave through those hills are really something, and your video shows this really well. No wonder it takes 4 and 5 engines to pull the trains.
Thank you Mark for your videos of Tehachapi. I'm a railfan and frequent the area. I enjoy your knowledge of the area, keep the video's coming!
Thanks for the compliment. More to come, for sure!
Good video, beautiful area.
Very cool!
Great video Mark! I have lived nearby (Walker Basin) since 1994 and have spent hundreds of hours around these tracks. It's nice to get more of the history of the area.
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the subscription. I hope you find time to enjoy more of them as well as the ones upcoming!
Thanks to you, I now know what a Telltale is! Interesting.
I had to do some research to see what they were called, so it was a learning experience for us both!
Retirement is great! My Dad and I went to Kelso and saw the Big Boy. I'll post the video tomorrow!
watching this from adelaide,, south australia... google map this,,, the twists and turns on this line,, its crazy.. zoom in on satelite and you can see the tunnels.. its pretty cool..
Thanks! I don't imagine you get to see a lot of big elevation changes on the railroads there. I once saw that Australia has the longest section of straight track in the world. That's pretty cool too!
Thanks for the comment and for checking it out!
@@MarkClayMcGowan thats the indian pacific.. goes from one side of the country to the other,, on the nullarbor plain.. 478 kays or 297 miles of dead straight track.
we do have some old tunnels from the steam era that were used as a mushroom farm and now for expensive wine storage... that line was made redundant when they built a new line the other side of the canyon.
south of adelaide there is another long tunnel that is on private property now.. the bloke uses it as a garage for his car..could be the worlds longest underground garage..lol
@@peterbrittain1963 how cool! I didn't know about the tunnels or line changes. There are abandoned tunnels here I've heard of being used as wine cellars. Interesting!
We have loads of train tunnels that are no longer used in my area, which at least one having been converted into art of a walking trail, while the remainder of the tunnels being abandoned, & at least a few flooded.
Nice I like the old railroad road communication pole lines signal
Have you seen the video I did on the poleline? It's in one (or both) of the "How things work" playlists.
Thanks for checking it out!
@@MarkClayMcGowan yes I did
I had no idea the Tehachapi route hit over 3%, that's super steep for a class 1 mainline! I work for G&W on the old SP Siskiyou line and always wondered how we kept this line alive running trains on 3.6%. It always seems like such a waste of money when you only run 12 loads at a time with 2 sd40s...
Well, that 3.2 is only for about 300 yards approaching tunnel 14 so they have a good run at it! Thanks for checking it out!
Fun fact: the original telltales were lengths of yarn , or :"ticklers", set atop the jibs of sailing ships, allowing fine tuning of the sails, to take best advantage of the prevailing wind. It predates railroads. There was also a telltale compass in the captain's quarters, so he could be sure of the course he was on, without having to go to the helm.
That is interesting! I love facts like that. Thanks for sharing!
Very interesting Tidbit of the Notching of the Tunnels by Santa Fe Railroad for Double Stacks. 👍
On my HO SCALE layout, all tunnels have been “untunneled” ..... you have a better term for it. 🤔 Reason: Derailments caused by ..... you guessed it..... center beam lumber cars. 😬
😂😂😂👍👍👍👍
“Daylighted” is the term you use!
The tunnel ruins at tunnel 4, that ballast is so clean and so perfectly shaped, it almost looks fake. I cant imagine what those guys have to do to keep ballast looking that puuurty.
They had just run the ballast shoulder cleaner through here. I caught it operating in my video "A Day Working in the Desert". You should check it out!
Being from, Ohio this is completely foreign looking to me. Barren but very beautiful. Shows the difference in different parts of the USA. By the way, did you shut off trains while you did video?
At tunnel 3 you mentioned the earthquake in 1952 destroyed the tunnel. I remember that earthquake being reported on by Clete Roberts on Ch 5 KTLA Los Angeles. The report was being broadcasted from what was the town of Tehachapi as the town was just about leveled by the quake which was a magnitude 7.1. I was 7 yrs old living in Rosemead, CA.
Mark B No CA Brentwood
I did a video about the July 52 quake and the damage it did to Tehachapi and the railroad in the Bealville area and another on the August 52 quake that did so much damage to Bakersfield. Both are in the "History" playlist.
Thanks for checking it out!
Did all these tunnels have to have their floors lowered to accommodate double stacking?
No. They "notched" the inside of them in curved tunnels. The roadbed in tunnels IS lowered once in awhile though, as part of routine maintenance.
Gotta get the high rail on the truck and drive through some time!
I wish I'd had that opportunity after I started my channel! I retired before I got to know the track inspector in the area.
Why does tunnel #1 have wires and a antenna?
All the tunnels have an antenna, most are just at the portal rather than above the tunnel. Those are for the radios used to keep the head end in contact with the remote control helpers. I have a video about them in the "How things work on the railroad" playlist.
Thanks for checking it out!
So this video became video #1/2
Could you add an overhead map of this area? I think that would help us all understand The Big Picture. Great series and thank you.
If you go to Google Earth you can punch in these coordinates then just follow the imagery around. Tunnel 1/2: 35 17'46" N, 118 40'05" W. Tunnel 17: 35 10'31" N, 118 28'53" W. Let me know if it worked out for you. I'm trying to find a map with all the tunnels on it but have had no luck. I have a wall map that's about 8' long and 2 ' tall of the track from Bakersfield to Summit. Maybe I'll draw the tunnel locations and shoot a video of it! Thanks for checking it out!
i used google earth..type in Tehachapi loop.. then scroll down,, could be scroll up in your case as i am in australia.. lol
the google map shows parts of the track missing next to the highway.. click on satelite and those missing bits are the tunnels..
cool little doco there Mark... cheers..
@@peterbrittain1963 I'm glad you enjoyed it. I appreciate all my subscribers but especially those from other countries who share their insights and experiences and appreciate this piece of the railroading world.
Take care!
WHY DOE THAY CURV TRACK ON OPEN PLANES?
To keep the grade as shallow as possible
You said "your ex-wife? I thought that you were married!!!
Oh, I have a couple of exes and none live in Texas!
Interesting, but... It makes absolutely no sense, without a map to go with it.!
You should have had a map, to show us exactly where you are, where the track used to go, and, where the track goes nowadays.
I always suggest folks use Google Earth to check it out. These videos were already very long and difficult to edit and including maps would have made it worse. I spent almost three months shooting the segments!Also, these were some of my earlier videos and I had no clue how to add such things.
I've included the GPS coordinates of tunnel 5 for the first piece and the Loop for the second in the description of each video to help with Google earth.
I hope that helps.
Thanks for checking it out!