The Mojave Subdivision refers to a series of railway lines in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

. The primary route crosses the

Tehachapi Pass Tehachapi Pass ( Kawaiisu: ''Tihachipia'', meaning "hard climb") 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 ...

and features the

Tehachapi Loop The Tehachapi Loop is a 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 ...

, connecting

Bakersfield Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Kern County. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Valley (California), Central Valley r ...

to the Mojave Desert. East of Mojave, the line splits with the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pac ...

portion continuing south to Palmdale and Colton over the

Cajon Pass Cajon Pass (; Spanish: ''Puerto del Cajón'' or ''Paso del Cajón'') 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 Andre ...

and the BNSF Railway owned segment running east to Barstow. Both companies generally share trackage rights across the lines.

History

The route over the

was constructed by the

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was ...

as their main line south to the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

. As part of their charter, the company was steadily building south in the

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven ...

after having abandoned plans to do so via the coastal route. Built simultaneously to the

Fresno 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. Rou ...

, the rail head reached Goshen in August 1872, Delano on July14, 1873, Caliente on April26, 1875, and Mojave on August9, 1876. The completion of the line through the

Soledad Canyon Soledad Canyon is a long narrow canyon/valley located in Los Angeles County, California between the cities of Palmdale and Santa Clarita. It is a part of the Santa Clara River Valley, and extends from the top of Soledad Pass to the open plain of ...

in 1876 provided the first link between Los Angeles and San Francisco via rail. Union Pacific gained trackage rights over the

in 1905. The Victorville Cutoff was opened in 1967 under Southern Pacific. The

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison and Topeka, Kansas, and S ...

had purchased the

San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railroad 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 Val ...

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. This trackage rights arrangement persists to the era of the railroads' successors: Union Pacific and BNSF.

Operations

Both the Union Pacific and BNSF operate trains between Barstow and Bakersfield. the line between Mojave and Bakersfield sees 39 freight trains daily, with 28 operating between Mojave and Barstow. When

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

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 A single-track railway is a railway where trains traveling in both directions share the same track. Single track is usually found on lesser-used rail lines, often branch lines, where the level of traffic is not high enough to justify the c ...

lines in the world at the time. The ''

Coast Starlight The ''Coast Starlight'' is a 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 formati ...

'' occasionally utilizes the route when there is planned maintenance along the Coast Line. Metrolink trains on the

Antelope Valley Line The Antelope Valley Line is a commuter rail line that serves the Northern Los Angeles County area as part of the Metrolink system. The northern segment of the line is rural in character because it travels through the sparsely populated Soledad C ...

between Palmdale and Lancaster operate on the parallel

Valley Subdivision A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over a v ...

, owned by the Southern California Regional Rail Authority.

References

Bibliography

* * *

External links

Rail lines in California Southern Pacific Railroad Union Pacific Railroad lines BNSF Railway lines {{California-transport-stub