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A rare treat, always a bucket list item for me to shoot Union Pacific 900082 rotary plow, and at Dale Junction.

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UP 5011 with support and tool cars hurries into Cheyenne past Archer on 3/12/23 for building the snow train the following day.

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UP 900082 Rotary Snow Plow Deployment-PCYRW-12 Steam crew had assembled a special consist at the Steam Shop in Cheyenne and powering up and integrating in a special train for snow fighting at Rawlins to Green River, WYO. In this frame PCYRW-12 is on track 2 at Dale Junction nearing Hermosa Tunnels. With no traffic on the Overland Route due to closures west of Rawlings, the rotary crew had the whole railroad to Rawlins open to them. 3/13/23, I/80 was blown shut with drifts and snow blinding so accessing the ranch at Dale was a challenge, chains and 4x4 land and so go but worth the effort, bucket list item checked off. Last time this plow saw the light of day was 1/07 and it was the other-way not here at the Sherman Highlands. Here? No idea, 80s?

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Mercy!  You really worked hard for these photos, Erik.  Fortunately, you know the territory.  Great results.

In the summer of 1954, when I was 8, we took the City of Los Angeles (before dome cars were added) on the through Pullman sleeping car from Los Angeles to Omaha, where it was then placed in the Omaha Road's North American to Minneapolis then to Minneapolis.  

Crossing Wyoming, there were lots of snow fences and I asked one of the Trainmen what they were.  He explained blizzards to a kid who lived where it snows an inch every 40 years.  He told me about how the UP sometimes had to run plow trains to keep the cuts open.  

And he also told me about the rear end collision in winter weather just a couple of years earlier, at Wyuta, so I kept a close eye to the rear from the observation car, even though it was summer.

Last edited by Number 90

I've been wondering what it looks like over Donner Pass this season, with the insane amounts of snow falling in the Sierra Nevadas.

Question coming from the word "insane".

From the nightly news it does appear that insane amounts have been falling in other places in California.  But is that also true in the Sierra's too, or is it just returning there to an amount more in line with the typical average back when the snowsheds were originally built and the plows initially deployed?

BTW -- I'm trying to keep my question technical and avoid getting tangled in emotional topics like climate change.

Mike

Last edited by Mellow Hudson Mike

I've been wondering what it looks like over Donner Pass this season, with the insane amounts of snow falling in the Sierra Nevadas.  A lot of UP snow plow action? 

We have friends that live in Lake Tahoe just down the road from Donner Pass, they just posted a photo from a recent ski day next to a trail marker sign. You typically look up to read these signs 8' to 10' high and they were sitting on it with their feet still on the ground.

Question coming from the word "insane".

From the nightly news it does appear that insane amounts have been falling in other places in California.  But is that also true in the Sierra's too, or is it just returning there to an amount more in line with the typical average back when the snowsheds were originally built and the plows initially deployed?

As of a week ago (and there's been more snow since then, with more coming), the Northern Sierra had 178% above normal snowfall, the Central Sierra had 227% above normal, and the Southern Sierra had 272% above normal. Some places in California are breaking 40 year snowfall records. The Lake Tahoe area has also set records - almost 700 inches so far (that's over 58 feet). Donner pass is only about 21 miles from there, and at a higher elevation, so no doubt they've had more snowfall than that.

Last edited by breezinup

Interesting that UP runs rotaries back to back with the engines in the middle so they can go either direction, and with F7 B power units. Pretty neat that the rotaries and B units still retain their SP lettering. As an aside, Donner Pass action seems to get a lot of attention, but the BNSF also has a nice fleet of modern looking rotaries, all painted up in the sharp modern orange & black livery. Pictures on line, and also there's an article at their website, "Snowplow Operators: BNSF's Winter Warriers.

Last edited by breezinup

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