Last weekend, I gazed down upon that famous spiral officially known on the late Southern Pacific as Walong, but to the rest of the world as the ‘Tehachapi Loop’.

It was, and still is, one of the great places to watch trains; and on this day it didn’t disappoint. I’d been away a long time and now I was back.

The last time I was here, I’d stayed with my friends Dave and Helen Burton, who lived just over the hill on the north side of the spiral. Back then, Southern Pacific still owned the line, and the merger that was to consume the Santa Fe Railway was still more than a year away.

Now, SP, Santa Fe, and Dave and Helen are all just memories.

It was strange to watch a train traverse the loop. I was delighted to see it, but sad. It was like seeing some weird vision of the future.

So, I made these images—my first digital photos of this often-photographed landmark—while thinking back to earlier times.

I dedicated books to both of my friends: to Dave, I dedicated my BNSF book of 2005.

Tracking the Light is Daily.