Two shows with the complete story of the avalanche on Donner Pass that rolled a diesel, trapped a crew and closed Donner Pass for 9 days. Meet the crew, see the rotary go out, hear the rescue and see the UP crews reopen this important mountain pass.
There is not much quite as awesome as the spectacle of a rotary snow plow as it clears the upper reaches of the 10-thousand foot Cumbres Pass line for the first time in a decade.
The sequel to “Rotaries: Avalanche on the Mountain”. Find out what happened after the avalanche and the 9 days to open Donner Pass. Ride with the rotary crew!
12 hours a day, 6 days a week for 3 months, Union Pacific and a team of skilled contractors made history by rebuilding two Jordan Spreaders. Watch the work – and the action as it plows snow.
One of the railroad’s most important tools for battling the snows during unusually heavy Winter seasons just got re-enlisted: The Rotary Snow Plow! And it comes just as an avalanche traps a crew on the mountain.
The railroad’s battle with snow is legendary. Machines of Iron brings you action shots of wedge plows, both steam and diesel rotaries and a modern day Jordan spreader.
Here is a rare steam powered rotary snow-clearing operation on the former Rio Grande Narrow Gauge (now Cumbres & Toltec Scenic RR) in northern New Mexico and Colorado.
Let’s take a trip to southwestern Ontario, to capture snow plow action on Canadian Pacific and Canadian National branch lines. This footage was shot in 1988, and most of these lines are now abandoned.
The Union Pacific’s Donner Summit line crosses the Sierra Nevada range at over seven thousand feet. Keeping this “All Season Pass” open is vital to the railroad and California’s economy.
This is the story of nature’s bitter legacy of snow on the mountain each winter season and the Union Pacific’s annual effort to keep a green light burning on the mainline.
Fierce winter storms can dump up to 35 feet of snow on the Sierras. Dispatched at any time, day or night, Flanger trains are called to duty when storms produce a depth of snow six inches or more above the rail. Two hours.
The rotary is rarely called out… but January 1993 saw a series of storms with heavy snowfall in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The Union Pacific mainline through the Feather River Canyon was hard hit. And so the rotary was called to duty.
Those of us who enjoy the action of railroading, generally focus of the locomotives and cars, both freight and passenger. But these would not be available to us were it not for the personnel and equipment that maintain the right of way.