Originally Posted by
serpens
If you're on the land side, then you'll be on the inside of the horseshoe curve and on the Grapevine side in the Tehachapi Mountains.
Wait, what? The
Coast Starlight follows the coast to get out of SoCal. It doesn't go through the Grapevine or Tehachapi - that's the inland route to go north via the San Joaquin Valley.
Are you maybe thinking Cuesta Pass, north of San Luis Obispo, to get into the Salinas Valley?