{"id":16352,"date":"2016-08-06T05:36:07","date_gmt":"2016-08-06T09:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=16352"},"modified":"2016-08-04T01:12:11","modified_gmt":"2016-08-04T05:12:11","slug":"caliente-traffic-jam-traffic-in-the-tehachapis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/caliente-traffic-jam-traffic-in-the-tehachapis\/","title":{"rendered":"Caliente Traffic Jam\u2014Traffic in the Tehachapis."},"content":{"rendered":"

Having been stuck in a few Los Angeles area-tailbacks lately, I\u2019ll say, it\u2019s no fun<\/em>. However, when the railroad gets jammed, it can make for some bountiful photographic opportunities.<\/p>\n

Union Pacific owns and dispatches the old Southern Pacific route over the Tehachapis, yet BNSF (operating on a trackage rights arrangement inherited from the Santa Fe ) runs the lion\u2019s share of the traffic. The mix of UP and BNSF plus outstanding scenery and blazing sun have the stage set.<\/p>\n

To adapt a\u00a0hackneyed Hollywood phrase; \u2018Light, cameras, action . . .\u2019<\/p>\n

On this late July afternoon UP wasn\u2019t having a good day. One of its northward trains developed braking problems descending near Cable and northward trains began to stack up behind it, including the BNSF \u2018Earthworm\u2019 unit grain train that we\u2019d photographed earlier in the day (see: The Earthworm and a Joshua Tree<\/a>)<\/p>\n

UP\u2019s southward trains hadn\u2019t faired much better; as a very heavy manifest had struggled upgrade at a walking pace adding to more congestion.<\/p>\n

By evening, UP\u2019s northward train had reached Caliente, where it held the mainline short of the first intermediate signal (as instructed by the dispatcher),while a BNSF southward manifest was in the siding.<\/p>\n

More southward trains were coming behind this train, as the loaded northward earthworm crawled downgrade and stopped at the pit of the Caliente horseshoe, short of the grade crossing.<\/p>\n

Gridlock!<\/p>\n

Three trains at Caliente and nothing moving. Furthermore, a pair of UP Z-trains were making a meet at Cliff.<\/p>\n

At this point it was like shooting fish in a barrel, to use another handy clich\u00e9, and the evening light was only getting better.<\/p>\n

Stay tooned! \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

\"Trains
Trains on all tracks and nothing moving; UP DPUs on the back of a northward freight holding\u00a0\u00a0the mainline, a BNSF northward train in the siding, while on the upper level of the horseshoe is the BNSF ‘Earthworm’ grain train, with its headend holding on the opposite side of the grade crossing \u00a0behind me.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Head-end
Head-end of the Earthworm grain train. Just standing there in warm California sun. I think Kodak exited the Kodachrome business too soon!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Finally,
Finally, the BNSF Earthworm gets a signal. Here’s today’s photo lesson:\u00a0By shifting the focus from the locomotives to the ballast in the foreground I’ve altered the natural perspective. Essentially, I’m tricking the eye into looking down and this focus combined with the pastel lighting makes the scene seem more like a diorama. Of course you may need to view this image larger than 3×5 inches to get the full effect.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ok,
Ok, enough playing around, here I’ve focused on the main event as\u00a0the rails have begun to squeal.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Looking
Looking railroad timetable north (formerly this was west under the old SP timetable) \u00a0the earthworm descends toward Bakersfield.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"First
Here we have the first set of DPUs (distributed power units\u2014railroad speak for un-manned radio-controlled remotely-placed locomotives.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"And
And a new BNSF GE-built Tier IV works as a second set of DPUs at the back of the grain train.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Some
Some quick driving to a pre-selected overlook granted me a final view of the Earthworm as it rolls along Caliente Creek. Who said, ‘you can’t have your cake and eat it’?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having been stuck in a few Los Angeles area-tailbacks lately, I\u2019ll say, it\u2019s no fun. However, when the railroad gets jammed, it can make for some bountiful photographic opportunities. Union Pacific owns and dispatches the old Southern Pacific route over the Tehachapis, yet BNSF (operating on a trackage rights arrangement inherited from the Santa Fe … Continue reading Caliente Traffic Jam\u2014Traffic in the Tehachapis.<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[10],"tags":[820,3717,1636,3735,80,3734,1090,3733],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/BNSF_Tier4_Caliente_DSCF1181.jpg?fit=2449%2C1633","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BVuC-4fK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16352"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16352"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16363,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16352\/revisions\/16363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}