Despite im a Norwegian i have benn quite interested in Donner Pass crossing, and i wonder how many train vil pass over donner each drection every day? And have the snow equitment begun running the pass or is it to early?
First off, welcome to the forum Paul.
I don’t know what the snow accumulation is now but there is a cold & windy storm moving in from the northwest this weekend and the snow level is expected to be down to 4000’ down here in San Diego. I know that because I will be traveling from San Diego to Modoc, co. tommarrow and have been monitoring the weather channel.
As for traffic, From the time of the SP-UP untill the Reno trench was completed (about 18 months ago) they were limited to 14 (I think) trains a day. Because Reno made such a big deal over the added downtown congestion they basicly agreed to hold traffic at pre merger levels till the trench was complete.
The Donner route traffic levels really dropped from what they were back in the days of multiple perishable blocks. And after the WP-UP-MoPac merger in 83 (?) changed the long time established traffic patterns on the Overland (SP-UP vs. WP-DRGW) and UP aquired the WP as there own route to northern California and SP was left to partner with the inferior route (DRGW), both time and traffic volume wise, the SP traffic over Donner really dropped. Sometimes less then ten trains a day crossed Donner, while the SP favored the Sunset route for the long haul on a already congested mostly single track Intermodal route. While the majority of the Northern Cal traffic across Nevada took the former WP Feather river route. Traffic on the SP’s Overland route over Donner was light enough that Under Ed Moyers tenure some 100+ miles of doubletrack were removed around Lovelock and 20 or so miles of track over Donner summit (the original track over the summit) to add more second main to the congested Sunset route.
So Reno saw the merger traffic increase projections and screamed bloody murder. They should consider themselves lucky that there congested downtown made it that long with the drop in traffic on that route.
Now that the trench is complete there sho
You are correct, the tunnels on Donner won’t allow double stack trains through.
Of course, Beckwourth has it’s own weather woes as washouts are a regular occurence.
The Foamer rumors which are probably more wishful thinking are that UP will drop the floors of the tunnels along the summit track one and relay track. The route hasn’t been sold to the state, so it’s available for use. Apparently it’s a haven for dirtbikes and ATVs. If nothing else I recommend everyone hike it from Norden.
Of course, they would still need to drop the other tunnels or raise/blast many more to make it a double stack route.
If donner sees 14 to 17 trains a day is that really a viable line? Seems that the money needed to keep donner open would exceed any ROI of donner. I.E. extra maintenance due to mountain grades, extra power on trains, snow removal in winter.
20-foot-2-inch domestic stacks, anyway.
A year or 2 ago, during the UP crisis, Donner was a lifesaver. Beckwourth was at capacity and Heavy rains were causing trouble with the line.
Additionally, any expansion of intermodal services out of the west coast are going to require Donner Pass. So yeah, it’s a viable route.
Thanks for all the awnser, is very kind:-) I feel much more smart now:-) I have a Cab video from donner and i noticed that threre were very many crossings in reno before the trench. On the video I saw many people running just before the train, luckaly there was no accident. About the snow, I think 4000 ft is aroud 1200 m so that just as high as Finse Station. The highest elevated staion in Norway. On the Hardangervidda platau. The record accotding to snow is 5 m on flat level. It was around 1910 i think, and as Donne the line had and still has many sheds. But the most on the east side of the divide was removed the the line was rebuild. So donner is smimilar to the Bergen Line in many ways.
Try this link instead: http://video.dot.ca.gov/asx/d3-floriston-80.asx
And yes, the frame rate & res are astounding