Mojave Subdivision

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The Tehachapi Loop, the defining feature of the railway, as it traverses the Tehachapi Pass Letecky pohled na Tehachapi Loop.jpg
The Tehachapi Loop, the defining feature of the railway, as it traverses the Tehachapi Pass

The Mojave Subdivision refers to a series of railway lines in California. The primary route crosses the Tehachapi Pass and features the Tehachapi Loop, connecting Bakersfield to the Mojave Desert. East of Mojave, the line splits with the Union Pacific Railroad portion continuing south to Palmdale and Colton over the Cajon Pass and the BNSF Railway owned segment running east to Barstow. Both companies generally share trackage rights across the lines.

History

SP 9266 near Mojave, California in March 1983 SP 9266 near Mojave, CA in March 1983 (32985230712).jpg
SP 9266 near Mojave, California in March 1983

The route over the Tehachapi Pass was constructed by the Southern Pacific Railroad as their main line south to the Colorado River. As part of their charter, the company was steadily building south in the San Joaquin Valley after having abandoned plans to do so via the coastal route. Built simultaneously to the Fresno Subdivision, the rail head reached Goshen in August 1872, Delano on July 14, 1873, Caliente on April 26, 1875, and Mojave on August 9, 1876. [1] The completion of the line through the Soledad Canyon in 1876 provided the first link between Los Angeles and San Francisco via rail. [2] The Victorville Cutoff was opened in 1967, and the Union Pacific's track over the Cajon Pass was built by the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad. [3]

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway had purchased the San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railroad in 1898, but the valley was isolated from their mainline which ran from Needles to Los Angeles and San Diego. After the Valley Division was opened in 1900, they negotiated with Southern Pacific for the right to run trains over the Tehachapi. [4] This trackage rights arrangement persists to the era of the railroads' successors: Union Pacific and BNSF.

Operations

ATSF 5134 in the Tehachapis in March 1985 ATSF 5134 in the Tehachapis in March 1985 (28358391732).jpg
ATSF 5134 in the Tehachapis in March 1985

Both the Union Pacific and BNSF operate trains between Barstow and Bakersfield. As of 2003 the line between Mojave and Bakersfield sees 39 freight trains daily, with 28 operating between Mojave and Barstow. [5]

When Amtrak restarted passenger train service in the San Joaquin valley in 1974, Southern Pacific protested having trains run between Bakersfield and Los Angeles; the railway over the Tehachapi was among the busiest single-track railway lines in the world at the time. [6] The Coast Starlight occasionally utilizes the route when there is planned maintenance along the Coast Line. Metrolink trains on the Antelope Valley Line between Palmdale and Lancaster operate on the parallel Valley Subdivision, owned by the Southern California Regional Rail Authority. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antelope Valley</span> Valley in Southern California, United States

The Antelope Valley is located in northern Los Angeles County, California, United States, and the southeast portion of California's Kern County, and constitutes the western tip of the Mojave Desert. It is situated between the Tehachapi, Sierra Pelona, and the San Gabriel Mountains. The valley was named for the pronghorns that roamed there until they were all eliminated in the 1880s, mostly by hunting, or resettled in other areas. The principal cities in the Antelope Valley are Palmdale and Lancaster.

<i>San Joaquins</i> Amtrak service in San Joaquin Valley, California

The San Joaquins is a passenger train service operated by Amtrak in California's San Joaquin Valley. Six daily round trips run between its southern terminus at Bakersfield and Stockton, with onward service to Sacramento and Oakland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California State Route 14</span> State highway in Los Angeles and Kern counties in California, United States

State Route 14 (SR 14) is a north–south state highway in the U.S. state of California that connects Los Angeles to the northern Mojave Desert. The southern portion of the highway is signed as the Antelope Valley Freeway. Its southern terminus is at Interstate 5 in the the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Granada Hills and Sylmar just immediately to the south of the border of the city of Santa Clarita. SR 14's northern terminus is at U.S. Route 395 (US 395) near Inyokern. Legislatively, the route extends south of I-5 to SR 1 in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles; however, the portion south of the junction with I-5 has not been constructed. The southern part of the constructed route is a busy commuter freeway serving and connecting the cities of Santa Clarita, Palmdale, and Lancaster to the rest of the Greater Los Angeles area. The northern portion, from Vincent to US 395, is legislatively named the Aerospace Highway, as the highway serves Edwards Air Force Base, once one of the primary landing strips for NASA's Space Shuttle, as well as the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake that supports military aerospace research, development and testing. This section is rural, following the line between the hot Mojave desert and the forming Sierra Nevada mountain range. Most of SR 14 is loosely paralleled by a rail line originally built by the Southern Pacific Railroad, and was once the primary rail link between Los Angeles and Northern California. While no longer a primary rail line, the southern half of this line is now used for the Antelope Valley Line of the Metrolink commuter rail system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tehachapi Loop</span> Rail line spiral between the Central Valley and Mojave Desert

The Tehachapi Loop is a 3,779-foot-long spiral, or helix, on the Union Pacific Railroad Mojave Subdivision through Tehachapi Pass, of the Tehachapi Mountains in Kern County, south-central California. The line connects Bakersfield and the San Joaquin Valley to Mojave in the Mojave Desert.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tehachapi Pass</span> Route in the Transverse Ranges between the Central Valley and Mojave Desert

Tehachapi Pass is a mountain pass crossing the Tehachapi Mountains in Kern County, California. Traditionally, the pass marks the northeast end of the Tehachapis and the south end of the Sierra Nevada range.

<i>Coast Starlight</i> Amtrak service between Seattle and Los Angeles

The Coast Starlight is a long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak on the West Coast of the United States between Seattle and Los Angeles via Portland and the San Francisco Bay Area. The train, which has operated continuously since Amtrak's formation in 1971, was the first to offer direct service between Seattle and Los Angeles. Its name is a combination of two prior Southern Pacific (SP) trains, the Coast Daylight and the Starlight.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cajon Pass</span> Mountain pass in Southern California

Cajon Pass is a mountain pass between the San Bernardino Mountains to the east and the San Gabriel Mountains to the west in Southern California. Created by the movements of the San Andreas Fault, it has an elevation of 3,777 ft (1,151 m). Located in the Mojave Desert, the pass is an important link from the Greater San Bernardino Area to the Victor Valley, and northeast to Las Vegas. The Cajon Pass area is on the Pacific Crest Trail.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daggett, California</span> Unincorporated community in California, United States

Daggett is an unincorporated community located in San Bernardino County, California in the United States. The town is located on Interstate 40 ten miles (16 km) east of Barstow. The town has a population of about 200. The ZIP code is 92327 and the community is inside area code 760.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Joaquin Valley Railroad</span> Central California freight transport company

The San Joaquin Valley Railroad is one of several short line railroad companies and is part of the Western Region Division of Genesee & Wyoming Inc. It operates over about 371 miles (597 km) of owned or leased track primarily on several lines in California's Central Valley/San Joaquin Valley around Fresno and Bakersfield. The SJVR has trackage rights over Union Pacific between Fresno, Goshen, Famoso, Bakersfield and Algoso. The SJVR also operated for the Tulare Valley Railroad (TVRR) from Calwa to Corcoran and Famoso.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California Southern Railroad</span> Former railroad in California

The California Southern Railroad was a subsidiary railroad of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in Southern California. It was organized July 10, 1880, and chartered on October 23, 1880, to build a rail connection between what has become the city of Barstow and San Diego, California.

Fred Thomas Perris was Chief Engineer of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway, who oversaw the construction of the last leg of the 2nd Transcontinental Railroad from Barstow, California through Cajon Pass and down to San Bernardino and Los Angeles, a task that employed six thousand laborers, and is still in use by BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad He also laid, track from Riverside, California to San Diego, California laying out a series to town sites along the track, one of which, Perris, California was named in his honor. The city of Perris, California, a station on the California Southern Railroad, was named in his honor.(Its Cajon Pass. Not El Cajon Pass according to Chard Walkers "Cajon. Rail Passage To The Pacific")

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad</span> Former train operator, now owned by Union Pacific

The Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad was a rail company in California, Nevada, and Utah in the United States, that completed and operated a railway line between its namesake cities, via Las Vegas, Nevada. Incorporated in Utah in 1901 as the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, the line was largely the brainchild of William Andrews Clark, a Montana mining baron and United States Senator. Clark enlisted the help of Utah's U.S. Senator Thomas Kearns, mining magnate and newspaper man, to ensure the success of the line through Utah. Construction of the railroad's main line was completed in 1905. Company shareholders adopted the LA&SL name in 1916. The railway was also known by its official nickname, "The Salt Lake Route", and was sometimes informally referred to as "The Clark Road". The tracks are still in use by the modern Union Pacific Railroad, as the Cima, Caliente, Sharp, and Lynndyl Subdivisions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bakersfield station (Amtrak)</span> Amtrak train station in Bakersfield, California

Bakersfield station is an intermodal facility in Bakersfield, California. It is the southern terminus of Amtrak California's San Joaquins route, with Amtrak Thruway buses continuing to Amtrak stations and bus stops throughout Southern California and Nevada. The station opened with a celebration on July 4, 2000. It contains an 8,300-square-foot (770 m2) train station with two platforms and three tracks, as well as a 17-bay bus station.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern Transcon</span> Rail corridor owned by BNSF

The Southern Transcon is a main line of BNSF Railway comprising 11 subdivisions between Southern California and Chicago, Illinois. Completed in its current alignment in 1908 by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, when it opened the Belen Cutoff in New Mexico and bypassed the steep grades of Raton Pass, it now serves as a mostly double-tracked intermodal corridor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transportation in Kern County, California</span>

Kern County’s transportation system was quoted as the “unseen industry.” Located at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, the county is at a prime location to ship goods west to the central coast, south to ports in Los Angeles, and east to corridors that connect to the rest of the country. It is also on major corridors that link to all northern points.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railroad</span> Short lived railroad from Stockton to Bakersfield (1895-1898)

The San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railroad was a California rail line between Stockton and Bakersfield constructed in the late 1890s and very shortly thereafter purchased by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad and became their Valley Division.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stockton Subdivision</span> Railroad line in California

The Stockton Subdivision is a railroad line in the U.S. state of California owned by the BNSF Railway. It runs from the Port of Richmond, where trains interchange with the Richmond Pacific Railroad, to Fresno where the railway continues south as the Bakersfield Subdivision or the Union Pacific Fresno Subdivision. The line was originally constructed by the San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railroad in the late 1890s before being acquired by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and becoming its Valley Subdivision. BNSF spent $17.5 million to upgrade track, bridges, and crossings along the line in 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Valley Division</span>

The Valley Division of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway ran from San Francisco to Barstow in California. It is currently in operation as the BNSF Railway's Stockton Subdivision and Bakersfield Subdivision.

The Fresno Subdivision is a railroad in California owned and operated by the Union Pacific Railroad. Mostly built by the Southern Pacific Railroad in the 1870s, the line traverses the San Joaquin Valley on a northwest to southeast alignment.

References

  1. Daggett 1922 , pp. 123–126
  2. "The Southern Pacific Railroad: See How the Train Station Functioned as a Stop". Santa Clarita Magazine. December 20, 2007.{{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
  3. Signor 1988 , p. 37
  4. Daggett 1922 , pp. 340–342
  5. Union Pacific Tons per Train (PDF) (Map). Trains. 2003. Retrieved September 11, 2023.
  6. Solomon 1999 , p. 20
  7. SMA Rail Consulting (April 2016). "California Passenger Rail Network Schematics" (PDF). California Department of Transportation.

Bibliography

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