Tehachapi Loop

Tehachapi Loop 

Instead of beating down the gates at the mall for the over-rated Black Friday Specials, Kirk's Mom took the family to a remote mountainous region to the northwest of the Mojave desert, the day after Thanksgiving, to watch freight train loops over/under itself on a portion of the Union Pacific railroad track through the Tehachapi (accent on the 2nd syllable) Pass called Tehachapi Loop -- a feat of railroad engineering to be marveled at.  You can see the freight train looping over itself on the panoramic picture I found on the web.  Here is a video of a train coming from the higher elevation, making a loop as it descends, and then coming out of the tunnel at the lower end of the Pass.

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P.S. Unbeknownst to me, the first snow of the year has fallen while I was editing the train video, with my head down.  The snow quickly covered the landscape in bright white; the photo below was taken an hour after the following video.

First Snow of 2011