My great great grandfather, Josef Halter, had a homestead next to the Loop from the 1870s through the early 1900s and was employed as a woodcutter by Central Pacific. Woodford Rd approaching Walong was once called Halter Grade after him and the name still appears on some older maps.

Shout out to the retired signalman for his work in getting that wonderful display up and running thank you sir from an old Aussie train fan!😬

Every time I take a rail trip, particularly on Amtrak's long-distance routes, I never cease to be amazed at the skills of the surveyors.  The plotted incredibly efficient routes long before the age of computers, lasers, and other advanced technology.

Actually the host was right about wheel slip. Only locomotives have sand and that is for starting out from a stop with a heavy train to prevent wheel slip. The rail cars have no sand. So lack of friction with steel wheels on steel rails is a huge limiting factor in regard to what percent grade a train can handle.

If you noticed at the top of the loop was a white cross, that is in memory of 2 Southern Pacific crewmen that were sadly killed on 5/12/1989 when SP 7551 East ran away with 69 cars miscalculated with trona and derailed into some homes.  Everett Crown and Allan Reiss lost their lives along with 2 children, engineer Frank Holland survived along with the crew on the helper set.

Mark, the guy who talked about the signals, has a wonderful YouTube channel where he really explains how the railroad works and the history. His tunnel series is very interesting. Since he worked for SP/UP, he knows how to get into some very cool spots. Everyone loves the loop, but for me, how the railroad managed the damage of several tunnels during an earthquake in the 1950’s is fascinating. The railroad knew how important this track was and worked quickly to reopen the track.

Hi David, here in New Zealand we have a similar thing ,its called "The Raurimu Spiral". It was built around 1905. Its an amazing engineering feat build to help trains climb a steep slope on our main trunk line, North Island.

I used to go to Camp Earl Anna in Tehachapi and my dad would take me to see the loop. Good memories.

We live about 10 miles from the loop. It's one of the places we all take visitors! It's awesome

I lived in Tehachapi from 1988 to 2004. It's a great town.

Tehachapi resident. Love my town.

My Grandpa graduated from LSU as a Civil Engineer about 1909 and was hired by Southern Pacific in SF..  He did not work on this project but did go down to Old Mexico to help build the line from Mexico City ro Guadalara.

I am not a Railfan but have ridden the rails many times in the States, Europe, Central America and Japan.   The line across Donner Pass is another brilliant achievement.  I have been to the Wind River Canyon and marvelled at the tunnels at the head of the Canyon & I've driven thru the Tehachapi  pass several times and have always thought of Abuelo Mio.

My dad worked as an engineer/conductor for the CSX railroad in the Southeast, so I had a couple of HO and N gauge trainsets growing up. When I lived in San Diego in the early 1990s, there was a model train museum in Balboa Park that I used to visit a good bit.  Back then the museum had multiple layouts that included the Tehachapi Loop and a few others, including the Goat Canyon Trestle on the Carrizo Gorge Track in the Anza-Borrego mountains near San Diego. The trestle is the largest free-standing trestle in the world.

When Hurricane Kathleen tore through the area in 1976, many tunnels and trestle beams collapse, causing the Southern Pacific Railroad abandoned the line. The abandoned line has also suffered a good deal of fire and flood damage over the years. A section of the trestle was damage by fire sometime in 1990s when I lived in San Diego. The landscape is both stunning and very harsh, but Nathan still should go to San Diego and do an episode on the abandoned rail line.

Nice. The spiral was invented for the Swiss Alps where trains have a challenge or two.
If you like this easy, single exposed loop, consider the engineering behind BC's Spiral Tunnels where they did this inside a mountain. Twice.
There are a pair of 270° looping tunnels inside rock faces where a train disappears and returns 50 feet higher or lower and crosses over or under itself. There are viewpoints for each tunnel.

On a side note, if you're ever in San Diego, there is a very accurate replica of the Tehachapi Loop in the model railroad museum in Balboa Park.  Very Cool!

My late father worked as a Southern Pacific RR Trainmaster in the Oakland/Bay Area for 27 years. This would've kept him storytelling for hours❤

I've been to Tehachapi, to the rail museum, and to the loop over a decade ago.  Tehachapi is gorgeous and If i had to live in Socal, I would live there

If you didn't know that was full size that could almost look like a model railroad set the way it loops around together!

My granparents lived down the hill in Arvin to the West and we lived in Rosamond to the East. We would meet at the loop in Spring for picnics and to watch the trains. We always were hoping for a long one so it would cross over itself. When regular passenger train service ended in 1971 we rode the Greyhound to L.A. and rode the last trip to Bakersfield via the loop. There used to be a restaraunt inTehachipi that had a scale model train of the loop and a train running. Good memories! The loop was a big part of my first 25 years as I went by it all the time for visits to my grandparents place. The depot museum is well worth a visit.

I live near Hewes St. in Orange, CA. It was named after David Hewes, who provided the gold spike in the transcontinental railroad. Later in his life he came here to Orange from San Francisco and established a ranch where he produced wine grapes, walnuts, and sheep.