I believe there is a wye at Norden in Donner Pass which is used to turn plow extras. One leg of the wye extends over the mainline, and I'm guessing this is what collapsed under the plow. The weather up there can be brutal, of course, and if there was a thaw or heavy rain, the ground under the trestle supports may have eroded. Another factor may be the years of deferred maintenance suffered by the snow-related infrastructure during the latter Espee years, when the road hit hard financial times and traffic was diverted off its portion of the Overland Route after the UP-WP merger. This recalls the 1952 stranding of the City of San Francisco in the same area by heavy snow. I just love the fact that in 2008, the media still refers to trains "chugging" along. Guess what, folks, they use diesels now, and have been for 60 years! Paul B The plow fell through the tracks. I imagine there was a walkway on or alongside the tracks as well. Details: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/02/01/state/n192015S22.DTL or: http://tinyurl.com/368o9p Todd K. Stearns - - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Montgomery, Edward T" <Edward.Montgomery_@_fcps.edu> To: <erielack_@_lists.railfan.net> Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2008 8:51 AM Subject: (erielack) Off Topic Confused Railroad Issue > I woke up this morning hearing that Amtrak Trains 5&6 could not make it > through Donner Pass with the e/bound being pulled back to Reno and the > w/bound stuck in the mountains until the tracks could be cleared by UP. > Reports say a UP plow "fell through a walkway" blocking the track. I'm > trying to figure out what the "walkway" was to cause such a problem. Did > it take out a snowshed or something like that? The news reports aren't > very clear. > > Ed Montgomery The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List http://EL-List.railfan.net/ To Unsubscribe: http://Lists.Railfan.net/erielackunsub.html ------------------------------
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