Thousands of rail photographers have made the pilgrimage to Cajon Pass, and the parallel former Santa Fe and Southern Pacific lines are taken for granted. It’s hard to believe that SP’s Palmdale Cutoff was only added to the pass fifty years ago. One of the largest main line construction projects in decades, the 78-mile line between Colton and Palmdale allowed SP trains to access Tehachapi without going through the bottleneck of Los Angeles. Here a westbound 98-car SP train climbs Tehachapi on the 1967 addition.
