Amtrak's San Joaquin offers direct service from Oakland to Bakersfield, but with a time penalty over driving.
See https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/public/documents/timetables/San-Joaquins-Schedule-102819.pdf
rdamonOne other option to look at is to fly in/out of Bakersfield (BFL)
Looking at the time options and ridiculous airfares, this local has one word: OUCH! Shades of the midwest .... At least Bakerspatch has the best lower cost motel options in the region to compensate.
Cajon Pass is in National Forest and has much better photo access options. By contrast, Tehachapi is all private property adjacent to the RR ROW; grade crossings and public roads are the remainder. Good to have a good telephoto lens or a drone ....
EDIT: meant to add that Tehachapi webcam #1 will show westbounds stopped at CP Cable (end of 2MT), which usually means that eastbounds are coming.
Links to my Google Maps ---> Sunset Route overview, SoCal metro, Yuma sub, Gila sub, SR east of Tucson, BNSF Northern Transcon and Southern Transcon *** Why you should support Ukraine! ***
One other option to look at is to fly in/out of Bakersfield (BFL) and in/out of Ontario (ONT) United has non-stops out of SFO to both locations.
kgbw49Tehachapi has single track at many locations but unless there is a track-work window that shuts down train movements for a period of time,
This often happens on Mondays. The Tehachapi railcam can give you an idea of how traffic is going through town. (URL may change over time if there has been an outage.)
Train frequencies are in your favor because there are a lot of train movements each day on each pass, so you can get a lot of shots in relatively quickly. Cajon has 4 main lines and something seems to be moving almost all the time on one of the tracks. Tehachapi has single track at many locations but unless there is a track-work window that shuts down train movements for a period of time, you usually don't have to wait too long for a train to appear. Frequent trains means you can get a lot of photos in a shorter period of time. Good hunting!
Thanks for the help on this. I will certainly consider ONT. The drive is a good idea, although I don't drive long distances well.
> train frequencies are in your favor
What does this mean?
Is it possible to shoot Tehachapi at night? (With lots of remote flashes.) Or would that cause undue reaction from the RR staff?
NorthWest make a great point.
The option of a one-way car rental and a return flight would make a good trip ..
You could head down CA99 and maybe see the CA HSR work. Through Tehachapi to Barstow alnong the BNSF head down old 66 following the BNSF tracks to Summit and down to San Bernardino to the Colton Fly-Over and back to the bay area out of ONT.
Get a SUV with AWD ..
It's only about a 5 hour drive from San Francisco to Tehachapi, which is probably faster than traveling to a Bay Area airport, flying to an LA Basin airport, and picking up a car, particularly if you already have a rental car in San Francisco. Almost certainly far cheaper, too.
I'd wake up early one morning to beat traffic, drive to Tehachapi and spend the day there, stay in Mojave, Barstow or Victorville, then do Cajon (or Beaumont) and drive to your airport of choice from there (I'd probably chose Ontario if possible).
Haven't been to Tehachapi in a while, but many of the popular spots should still be accesible. The light on Cajon is generally better in the morning, as shots are usually on the east side of the tracks.
Hope this helps.
From LAX to the Cal-138/I-5 interchange is about 80 miles or so, 60 of which can be heavy traffic. Caltrans has a real-time traffic map which can give you a look at conditions, as a preview. Click the "Options" button, then select the first five options offered under "road conditions" and you will see speeds, incidents, etc.
From ONT to the same interchange is about 25, less problematic miles (except at drive time, of course),
From ONT to Tehachapi is about 125 miles, not problematic for the most part, 100 miles from Cajon.
Finally, LAX to Tehachapi, up I-405 to Cal-14 over to Lancaster/Palmdale and then to Cal-58 at Mojave to get to Tehachapi is about 125 miles as well, a much more annoying trip than ONT to Tehachapi most times of day. Good news about that route is that Cal-14 is close to the old SP line from the San Fernando Valley all the way to the Cal-58, and Cal-58 has the UP line close at hand all the way to Tehachapi.
Canon Pass and Tehachapi are roughly 110 apart. You might be able to do it because train frequencies are in your favor.
rdamon is right - Ontario Airport is a stone's throw from Cajon Pass and much easier to get to and from compared to LAX.
Over on the 405 you can get bumper to bumper traffic at any hour on the clock, and both Tehachapi and Cajon Pass are a tough commuter drive back to LAX.
If you can fly into Ontario (ONT) would will be in striking distance of Cajon.
I have the opportunity to extend an unrelated trip to California (San Francisco) by a couple of days. My time is constrained to about two days, three if I remove margin for travel error. Is it feasible to fly into the LA area (LAX is the "obvious" spot from an airline point of view), drive a couple hours north to Tehachapi and Cajon Pass, and do it meaningfully in a couple of days? I'd be in SoCal solely for this purpose.
What is the current status of the space around Tehachapi? A couple of years ago things seemed to be a bit more closed up than they had been in the past, but I don't see any comments more recent than early 2017.
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