Western Railroad Discussion > MOGRV Grinding Over Donner Summit

On the evening of Friday, July 24th, I caught what I believe was the MOGRV as it tipped over the summit of Donner Pass at Norden. When the train passed my location around 8/10ths of a mile from the summit, the front of the train was still under power while heading down the grade, so the back of the train must have still been climbing the east slope through Tunnel 41.

Things were slow going over the summit. I don't know how long it was, especially given that I had to break up the video due to a low battery which finally gave up the ghost a few cars before the end of the train passed, but it took 7+ minutes to go by me. (The DPUs were in dynamic by the time they went by, and train speed had increased.)

Photos 1-3 show UP 7895 approaching the east end of the snow shed complex at Norden, CA.

Photo 4 and video to follow...

Sean

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Photo 4 of the engineer saying hi and the video. If you're the engineer and on this board, or if you know him and he's interested in obtaining a higher resolution image, send me a PM.

Sean



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/30/20 08:06 by broken_link.

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Ha, congrats on the engineer "peace sign"!  Nice unexpected treat! 
SR

I got one on the Coast back in the 80's...    made me laugh- a nice friendly gesture from the crew.

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You were standing just about at the top of the downgrade.
The track is basically level for 4000 feet east from
where you were.

Nice shots and video!

Nice! I would have loved to have seen the stretch of the Coast Line between Gaviota and Ventura in the 80s and earlier. Heck, I live in Burlingame now and would have loved to have seen the Coast Line in this area when SP ruled the rails and the Bayshore and Mission Bay yards still hosted regular freights. (Queue Photobob's "all crap now" comment!) Fortunately I have the work of others to get a sense of what it was like.

Sean

BoilingMan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Ha, congrats on the engineer "peace sign"!  Nice
> unexpected treat! 
> SR
>
> I got one on the Coast back in the 80's...   
> made me laugh- a nice friendly gesture from the
> crew.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/30/20 15:34 by broken_link.