Day 4: Donner Pass to Reno

Early start today… early as in 4am NZ time early! Tahoe is pretty cold at the hour of the morning, but i wrapped up warm and was soon on my way. For the curious… here is what $29 buys you…

Not shown is the heater that would probably shoot flames on the highest setting, and the nicer-than-home bathroom.

Was soon on the road and heading for Truckee… yes I had a plan in my head. Drove through some amazing fog on the way, according to the car it was about –2 to -3°C outside. The frost was just amazing…

Frost on the barbed wire / Looking across the fields

Truckee was similarly cloaked, only colder. Parked in "the only free parking spot in town" which just so happened to be right outside the train depot and had a good nosey around. Couldn't see much on account of the fog, but got some shots of the snow fighting machines…

Pair of Gp35s and a flanger idling away, waiting for duty.

The attention to detail on these is amazing. Here are a few things I spotted…

Air hoses taped together / Icicle breaker on the cab roof, covers over the horns to keep snow out, and snow covers over the air intakes.

Steel mesh over the cab windows so they don't shatter if they hit a snow bank, and special "clear view" rotating windows that spin any snow off.

Here are the railway yards… those locos above are in this picture!

Given the early start I hadn't had breakfast, and I fancied something warm, which is why a few moments later I was inside a diner ordering a breakfast of pancackes with syrup, strips of bacon, a scrambled egg and an amazing hot chocolate that looked like some kind of chemistry experiment gone wrong.

Inside the diner

Saw a train go past but I was too content with my breakfast to mind. I knew the Amtrak would be along soon anyway. After brekky I headed up the hill again.

Dense freezing fog over Lake Donner and Truckee

Took a detour through the old Donner Pass railway route, before they bored the "Big Hole". Yesterday's post showed some of the snow tunnels, but today I went up and had a look in them. WOW!

 
Chinese Wall, and the start of the very long snow tunnel seen yesterday. The drop off on either side of this embankment was spectacular!

Couple more tunnels, you can see all the way through to the other side of the hill from here / Entrance to the snow shed, notice how deep the snow is.

Inside the snow shed and tunnels. Look at that ice!

Inside that snow shed was amazing. I spent so long gawking at it all my boots froze to the floor, had to yank myself free. The icicles from the ceiling are as thick as my neck. The two huge white curtains are solid walls of ice. Spectacular stuff, and all in very good condition. Seeing the Rio Grande/Southern Pacific tunnel motors fighting their way up this grade must have been an amazing sight. There are Youtube videos of SP trains crawling out of these tunnels at walking pace, the noise is fantastic!

The icicle breakers on the locos above are to snap off the massive icicles that would otherwise form in the tunnels. Back when cars were shipped on open wagons the icicles were causing extensive damage as they smashed into the cars, no doubt shattering windscreens and denting bodywork. So that is when the icicle breakers came along. These days I doubt an icicle stands much chance against a 40' shipping container, but the locos still have the breakers fitted each winter regardless.

After that back down "my" road again, was much easier today because the ruts were well formed and still nicely frozen. By the time I went to come out again they'd very kindly plowed the road down to gravel. Got into position and waited for the Cal Zephyr to arrive.

Was shooting into the sun so lighting was terrible, but I was very pleased to bag this one :-) I then settled into position to wait for the next train, which I was sure couldn't be far off, especially when the signals lit up indicating an uphill train from the opposite direction. Before long this fellow crawled into view…

Around the corner and into the tunnel

According to the scanner AMTK62 wasn't far off, but he never materialised. I later saw what was probably him at Reno… so he'd gone the complete opposite direction. I don't pretend to understand. So while I waited for the phantom train I met a couple of dogs who were having a whale of a time. Here is one them…

At one point "Pony Boy" (as they called him) went sprinting up the wrong track, probably deliberately, and then broke the speed barrier coming back when his name was called. Being a dog he tried to cut the corner… unfortunately instead of going over the top of the snow bank the soft snow caved in and he ended up as a canine snow plow. He loved it of course!

Happy with my Donner Pass haul for today I headed off for Truckee to get some more shots of the flangers.

They had four flangers sitting in the yard ready to go, and a rotary snow plow for really serious snow removal. The flangers have recently been upgraded and are amazing machines. All the brown bits are blades that can be moved in and out to control where the snow is shoved. They're set up with full driving cabs, so they can control the locos behind them, and they have all sorts of gear inside for when they get stuck, e.g. generators, emergency food, a refrigerator, picks, shovels, etc. Serious business, and they're ready to go almost immediately.

Truckee is an odd place…

Historic Downtown Truckee… they're BIG on the rustic historic look bit

Four Wheel Driving is serious business here, but convertible VWs not so.

And what is this I spy in the distance? Another train!

Good old SD70s. The big wagons are what cars are shipped in these days, totally enclosed against vandals and icicles

Was still only 10am NZ time, but I had to move. Off to Reno I go…