Looking down on the BNSF summit.
A westbound BNSF freight at their summit.
Our train started down the grade into the Mojave Desert at Hiland.
That was a very long BNSF train down below.
Hiland is a long siding as are the other ones on this line.
Mount San Gorgonio.
The west end of Hiland siding.
Views looking down into Summit Valley. I returned to my seat and started working on this story as the train descended the desert side grade of Cajon Pass then the speed increased as we made our way out into the Mojave Desert.
Views of the Joshua Trees native to the High Desert. The train ran past the sidings at Phelan, Wash (the latter with an eastbound Union Pacific manifest in the siding) and Vulcan before we closed on Palmdale.
Two views of Palmdale Jct after which we paralleled the Metrolink tracks to Lancaster on our way north.
Lockheed Martin plant in Palmdale. We passed the siding at Oban and paused for a few minutes north of Lancaster at Ansel.
The High Desert of the Mojave. The train went up Ansel Hill out of the Antelope Valley and I walked to the Great Dome for my first visit and sat at a table.
The hills became interesting the closer we came to Mojave.
The forward view in the Great Dome as we neared Mojave.
The BNSF line from Barstow joined our route for the trip to Bakersfield, which I had ridden that line behind Santa Fe 3751 in December 1991. From here I walked forward back to the "Pony Express" and chatted with Stan Garner, the car's owner. We talked most of the way to town of Tehachapi, where I made sure Stan saw the station there. Since I had covered the crossing of the Tehachapi Mountains on my Coast Starlight detour trips a few years ago with hundreds of pictures, I would limit my picture taking so returned to my seat and kept working.
At Cable, you had a good view of Amtrak 165 leading the train. I relaxed as the we went through Cable, followed by the tunnel section and reached Marcel where we stopped an eastbound BNSF stack train. Once we left there, there was one tunnel until we reached the world-famous Tehachapi Loop.
The train had reached Tunnel 10, which we ran through and the view became clear. We would now travel around the Tehachapi Loop.
That was our trip around the world-famous Tehachapi Loop. I went back to work as the train ran the rest of the way to Kern Junction where we stopped so our BNSF pilot could board for the remainder of trip to the Bakersfield Amtrak station. After a crew meeting, we proceeded westward onto the BNSF.
Leaving the former Southern Pacific for the rails of the former Santa Fe. The train slowly made its way to the Bakersfield Amtrak station, where our trip today ended. I detrained and walked up to the front for pictures.
Our train at rest at Bakersfield.
Amtrak P42DC 156. I walked across the street to the Best Western Plus Hill House for the night and finished the story, then called Winston to proof it. I met Conductor Larry and he drove us out to his girlfriend Julie's house and the three of us went to T-Bones for dinner where I had a good steak. Upon my return to the hotel, I inserted the corrections into the first three parts of this story then checked the Internet before calling it a night.
