UP Canyon Sub, Feather River, is it another line to be worried about like Moffat?

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

I was thinking about this earlier today as I caught up on the Rio Grande thread down the page.

When I moved to Roseville 5 years ago, UP was good for a number of trains through the canyon in addition to the Canyon Crawler, but over the past few years, almost everything has moved over to Donner. Donner received extensive rehabbing over the past few years. Summit Track 1 is still pulled up, but the bores have all been notched and floors lowered.

My understanding is that while the former WP is a genetler ruling grade, the rockslides during winter are actually harder to deal with than the snow on Donner.

Last time I was up in the canyon, the only traffic I saw was BNSF coming off the inside gateway. The other day I did see what appeared to be a canyon crawler (might have been the Redding Turn) Sitting in Roseville, but that’s the first time I’ve seen the train in a long time.

At this point, what prospects does Feather river have? Relief valve? That BNSF train Salt lake to Oakland that was mentioned in the other thread. I’ve seen it in Roseville. It runs over Donner. Although, I haven’t seen it in a number of months, it could have been rerouted to Canyon and simply skipped Roseville.

Anyway, just curious if anyone has any insights on the former Western PAcific and what UP sees it’s role as.

2

I think it’s two different situations.

The Overland Route is two MT (but still not completely CTC AFAIK) and today could handle much of the Moffat traffic. The latter will always have rockslide issues in places like Glenwood Canyon.

The now preferred Donner Pass route still has some single track bottlenecks and can get one heck of a lot of snow in the wintertime. The Feather River route is close by in case a reroute is needed; the alternatives through Oregon or over Tehachapi are not very palatable.

I think the Feather River route will be maintained and used as it is today for the foreseeable future.