Sitting nearly at the base of the Tehachapi grade, Caliente in its heyday was a busy spot on the railroad, today what's left is only a few houses and a general post office. The once 4 tracks that went through town are now just 2. At the northern end of town the railroad bottlenecks into a single track mainline and then rounds the horseshoe curve to travel back west up the grade to tunnels 1 and 2. It's the first of 6 true horseshoes on the climb for the Tehachapi summit that were made to maintain a consistent climb rate to the top of the hill. On this autumn morning Caliente's hills of emerald lie under threatening skies, that had already dumped a good amount of rainfall the night before. A rare ray of sunlight shines down at the luckiest of moments while a BNSF intermodal rounds the horseshoe curve and begins it's main assault on the grade. Once around the curve, the intermodal will slowly navigate it's way up to Cliff on the curviest section on the mountain, where 4 of the 6 mountain horseshoe curves are located.
