Gold Runner
Videos
The Gold Runner is a state-supported passenger train service operated by Amtrak in California's San Joaquin Valley. As of 2025, the service operates seven daily round trips between its southern termin
Then- San Joaquins train approaches the Oakland–Jack London Square station, 2024
Ex-Southern Pacific EMD FP7 on the San Joaquin at Oakland in 1975
Passengers in the lounge seating area in the café car of a San Joaquins train, 2014
A San Joaquins train powered by a Siemens Charger (left) and Capitol Corridor powered by a F59PHI (right) at Emeryville station, June 2018
Tehachapi Loop
Videos
The Tehachapi Loop is a 3,779-foot-long rail spiral on the Union Pacific Railroad's Mojave Subdivision through the Tehachapi Pass in the Tehachapi Mountains in Kern County, south-central California. T
Gold Runner
…from Bakersfield to Los Angeles, and Oakland to San Francisco. The San Joaquin could not continue south of Bakersfield due to capacity limits over the Tehachapi Loop, the only line between Bakersfield and points south and one of the world's busiest single-track freight rail lines. Amtrak chose the Santa Fe route…
Aerial overview of the Tehachapi Loop in 2022
BNSF train on Tehachapi Loop in 2011, with mixed trailer-on-flatcar and double-stack container manifest
A panoramic view of the Tehachapi Loop looking north-west
Pictorial cancellation from the Keene Post Office celebrating the Loop's 129th anniversary