Western Railroad Discussion > Waiting for Winter on Donner Pass

I spent the better part of the last week up near the summit of Donner Pass trying to make the best of the lack of snow. Sugar Bowl didn't open on Friday for skiing and snowboarding as planned due to mild temperatures and a lack of snow. Ditto for the Royal Gorge Cross Country resort. Errands in Truckee and chores around the cabin, coupled with an intermittent car issue that will require a shop visit tomorrow, mostly kept me from getting track-side as well.

I did manage to get out for a couple of hours on Tuesday, November 23rd. Amtrak 5 (WB California Zephyr) was heading over the summit and meeting an EB freight waiting at Switch 9. As I was heading down to Emigrant Gap to see what was waiting to head east, I came across the WB Z train led by UP 7834. (Presumably the ZG2LT) Deciding to see if the light was good to grab a shot of this train near Casa Loma, I didn't quite manage to get out in front of it enough to get set up. I was again skunked at Dutch Flat. I finally settled for it coming into Colfax, with plenty of advanced warning of it's approach from my vantage as I watched it cross Long Ravine over I-80. Unfortunately I didn't stick around for Amtrak 5, which was much closer behind than I had thought and running down Track 2 as it prepared to make its stop at Colfax.

Making lemonade from a week full of lemons.

Sean

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Nice image and an amusing narrative. As my dad was fond of saying, "You pays your money and you takes your chances." Better luck next time.
—Mac

Fun Fact: The road to the right of the track is the abandoned RoW of the Nevada County Narrow Gauge. The NCNG had a turntable off to the right somewhere near here, but I’ve never found any trace of it.
SR

BTW: The road is named, appropriately, Narrow Gauge Lane.

Posted from iPhone

I was aware of the NCNG RoW and the appropriately named Narrow Gauge Rd., but I haven't driven down it. It looks like you can take it all the way from Colfax to Carpenter Road in Long Ravine.

I took a look at Signor's book on Donner to see if his map of Colfax showed the location of the turntable you've looked for. I found the answer on pp 90-91. There originally was an S shaped jog in the main that started west of Grass Valley Rd. and ran east of where 174 currently crosses over the RoW. The mainline was realigned and the yard expanded between 1909 and 1914. The current mainline alignment runs across the location of the NCNG turntable, which would have been located about 100 yards west of the 174 overpass.

Sean

No snow forecast for the Sierra Nevada before December 5, and only a few inches forecast for the next week thereafter.

You can drive most of the way to Carpenter Road, but I doesn’t quite go through. There are several places where I-80 takes bites out of NCNG RoW, and eventually there’s a large parcel of private property you can’t get around.
SR

Nice shot!

RC Lundgren
Elgin, TX

Imagine if the NCNGRR had been saved?  Get on at Colfax, ride up to Grass Valley /Nevada City, see the Empire Gold Mine State Park, stay overnight, visit the downtown areas.  What a great ride that would have been--it could have been the Sierra's version of the Durango & Silverton.