My grandparents used to live at the toll house ranch. Its the one a bit sways from the post office and it has the big blue barns. Beautiful, I miss it so much
Great job. I'm buying a ranch property near Lena Lake. I'd love to learn more about that entire area, from Isabella down into the Ranken Ranch. Nice job.
Would have loved for you to be facing away from the crossing, so that we could see the train that was over your left shoulder do the curve on to the crossing. Other than that a very informative video on an area I have on Trainz which now puts that route into perspective.
I lived in what was then a green painted house in Havilah in 1952 when an earthquake occurred opening up large cracks in the road in front of out house. I went to the fist and part of the second grade in a school that was located on a hill in Caliente. There was an place in Caliente that had a gasoline pump that you had to pump the gasoline from a tank up into a glass cylinder on top of the pump then you let the gas feed into your pickup truck gas tank by gravity. There also used to be a tall post like device where outgoing mail was hung on a bag and as the train went by very slowly someone in one of the train cars has a pole with a hook on it that he used to grab to mail bag and pull it into the train car. We lived there when my father worked on the building of the dam for what would later become Lake Isabella. We later moved to the Keystone Ranch in Walker Basin and still later moved to a trailer parked along the Kern River where other construction workers lived. Went to school in Kernville until the dam was finished.
Yesterday, July 26, 2024, the entire town of Havilah burned to the ground as part of the Borel Fire. It is currently heading into the Walker Basin. Caliente Post Office is still in operation. I was a mail carrier there for several years in the mid 2000’s. Funny, I never noticed the grinding rock! I remember the rock, but never looked closely at it! My mail route took me around the entire Caliente loop through Caliente, Twin Oaks and Walker Basin. It was nice to learn a bit more history about the area! Thanks for a great history lesson!
Back around the late 90's and early 2000's I used to drive up to caliente from Bakersfield, and where those houses are across the track to the north, there was a house where a guy had some signals and railroad signs in front of it. Unfortunately, someone told me they had a bad encounter with the guy, as he had this habit of running people off, rather than talk to anyone. But it is his property. I was interested in his signal collection. (No, I'm not talking about Bill Stokoe, he was in Tehachapi. This was someone else there in caliente,)
Cool, what do you guys call the things you plug into the track/rails with wires leading into the cabnet/ bungalow/ signal shack from the track ? At CP they call them track taps, you have to use a hammer to hammer them into the hole in the rail, sometimes if you cant get the old taps out, you have to drill a new hole for the new cables /taps.
We just call them track wires. We've been welding them to the rail since the 90s. It's actually policy to not drill the rail unless absolutely necessary. We use temporary clamps if for some reason we can't bond it right then. Thanks for the question and for checking it out!
Interesting history of the town. First time I visited Caliente was back in 2000. We stopped and ate lunch at the post office and made a phone call on the pay phone. Question regarding the #2 track alignment. Why is the main and #2 track spacing so wide thru the straight stretch? Seems like all the pictures I’ve seen of caliente it’s been the spaced that way for years.
The water columns were between the tracks and needed to accommodate the spouts. The spacing returns to normal about a half mile west. Thanks for the question and compliment and for checking it out!
I see people out with detectors occasionally but I don't know what they find. Along the tracks it's more likely you'd find a bunch of junk though. Maybe where the old stations were? I have a video on here about them. Thanks for checking it out!
I went up there a few times with a friend in the early 80s. The club was still using it. I was going to mention it but there's nothing left of it. Thanks for checking it out!
I like those mountains 🏔 up there is that also caliente? Looking for a real estate person to help me there. All help is welcome 🙏. Also are there any organic farms there?
the mountains to the southeast are the tehachapis where keene and tehachapi are. there may be some small farms in the area. to the northeast are the paiutes where paris/lorraine, twin oaks, walker basin and havilah are. it is more ranching than farming country. sorry for no caps. i'm in a cast!
Not true! I spent a ton of time in Caliente at my Nana's house (Glory Wirth). She owned the first house at the bottom of the turn, right across from the railroad tracks. She drove school bus for Caliente school and she ran the bar that also was a motel (her house) for all the guys on the railroad that sits right next to the post office. I have more info if you need
I went with what's in the history books and from two long time residents. If I ever get the time to do an updated video, I'll get in touch. I'd be happy to have another perspective
That doesn't sound right. The major damage was down below. The bridge in Caliente across the creek was completely gone, so you couldn't get from 58 or Bena Rd to the Lion's Trail (to Havilah, Bodfish, Isabella) anyway, as it was on the north side of the creek. The only way in was by train, and that was not possible for over a week.
The huge El Niño that happened in Feb 1998 did a massive amount of damage to Caliente Creek Road, between Caliente and Twin Oaks. It was months of rebuilding the road. I wasn’t living up here in 1983, but in ‘98, Caliente Creek Road was impassable for quite awhile. Had to go all the around via Lion’s Trail. (The damage started a bit further down the road)
Thanks. It is a pretty cool place for checking operations out. I always try and envision the sights and sounds of the past when I'm at those places. Thanks for checking it out!
