Tehachapi 7

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Sunday

Shortly after sunrise on Sunday morning, another BNSF eastbound slithers uphill...
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...with three mid-train helpers.
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A crossing in the Allard horseshoe.
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A Warbonnet leads a manifest east through Monolith.
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Triple Bo-Bos ease down toward the Caliente horseshoe and a crossing with the train slowly appearing in the distance on the track at top right.
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BNSF power relocation. GP60B in the middle.
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Crossing at Caliente.
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The 10 loco train crosses over the Bealville Rd after rounding the curve at Caliente..
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The same train blasting through Woodford.
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Another varied consist heads a 'short' manifest through Cable.
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The pair of helpers at the rear of the above train are seen from the same spot at the west end of Cable.
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The same train at the former tunnel4.
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A the evening sun sinks lower, a winged pig train heads uphill in the Caliente Narrows.
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The flying pig train is snapped in the very last of the sun at Cable.
Monday
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The early bird catches a somewhat mediocre UP combo - a pair of SD90s - entering the Allard horseshoe.
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This is not a terribly exciting shot either, but here goes anyway... The same train taken from the same spot. 
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A crossing at Allard. The Dash-8's are helpers at the back of the train headed by the SD90s. That's a boring shot too...
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A pair of green SD40-2 helpers providing dynamic braking.
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Crossing at Bealville.
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Another crossing at Bealville.
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Another train entering Allard with a Dash-8 and four SD40-2s.
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The same train taken from the same place with the same interesting power.
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Another colourful combo enters tunnel 10...
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...before our train can come around the loop.
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The train near Cameron - yes Virginia, those are Joshua Trees. 
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And lastly approaching Mojave. At this stage, I was getting bored and went snapping pics around California City for a few hours. 
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But luckily I came back to catch two clean Warbonnets leading a nice train at Sandcut
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And approaching Tunnel 2.
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Following the Warbonnets, was the daily loco train - this time with 12 locos. Seen here approaching tunnel 2. I'm amazed that I'd never found this spot up the hill before...
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The Warbonnets approaching Mojave. I screwed up the 12 loco train by taking it at 400mm with not enough depth of field (it was windy).
Tuesday

Off to the airport, but not before snapping this beauty lash-up near Mojave.
So that's it. The weather was fantastic, the BNSF trains unbelievable, I'm extremely pleased with my new Canon gear - what could be better?! 

Well, the old SP was almost completely absent from the hill on this trip and most of the UP trains had stingy loco combinations. Fast fading are the multiple scarlet and gray EMD locos and gone are the helper operations from Bena, replaced by run-through DPU assistance. Wish I'd gotten to Tehachapi a few years earlier. Still, can't have it all I suppose.

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