Western Railroad Discussion > The True American (Donner Pass)

I posted something similar to this a couple years ago, but the subject still comes up now and again so...

American was a stop on the SP's crossing of Donner that existed simply to allow passenger to step off and gawk for a few minutes.  There was never a settlement at American, just a viewing platform.  The trains stopped stopping in the 30's, and by the end of the 40's the name was dropped from ETT's forever.
In more modern times the dramatic overlook at Gorge is often mistaken for American.  TRAINS misidentified it in their All Donner issue years ago, and later even Signor got it wrong in his Donner Pass book!
American was actually about a mile or so east of Gorge.
Below is the famous photo of American in Signor's book, and I'm sure in other sources as well.  I took the drone out to American this afternoon to catch #6 passing the iconic location- I tried to line view up as best I can with the drone's wide angle lens to match the old photo.  This is the Real American.
I've marked the locations (Gorge & American) on the map.  An odd bit of detail:  The view below Gorge and American is not even of the same river!  American looks down on a tributary of the river seen below Gorge.
SR

About the name "Gorge"...     Up until double tracking made it redundant (It had been part of the Staff System that went away in the 1920's) there was a Gorge Depot.   Like American, Gorge eventually disappeared from ETT's too.
The spot has never had a proper RR name since.    Today the names Casa Loma, Rocky Point, Rawhide Crossing, Coal Point, and (cringe) American get used.  Probably others as well.  But none of these are really RR names.   
It seems to me Gorge is about as accurate as it gets.

Thank you.  You can go back to whatever it was you were doing...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/21 18:21 by BoilingMan.

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Thanks for posting and for the information you provided.  2 questions; how far east of Gorge is American, and how do you gain access to Gorge?  Thanks for any information you can provide.  

Wasn't there a similar viewing are constructed around the corner from Cape Horn overlooking the river far below?

Regards, Jim Evans

I have a 1925 ETT and it shows it as exactly 1 mile between Gorge and American.
To get to Gorge follow Casa Loma Road to the end of pavement. When you get to the end of pavement you will have just passed Gorge- it’s over your right shoulder.
To continue on to American cross the track there (Rawhide Crossing) and continue (railroad) east on the MoW road that is right up against the track in the ballast (ground clearance advisory here). In a half mile or so you’ll run out of road, and have to walk the last 100yds or so.
Easy!
SR

I am glad that you got it sorted out.

Is there a signal for eastbounds?

There used to be an eastbound P plate signal at Gorge for a slip out detector maybe 100' feet short of the signal at American. Does that make sense?
 

There IS an EB signal, but it’s long out of service- head turned.
There are still slide detectors, but I didn’t know exactly how they’re read. (Do signals even have P plates any more?)
SR



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/21 19:55 by BoilingMan.

Slide detectors knock the track circuit down that they are in. They put the signals at stop at either end of the track circuit (block) that the detector is protecting.

BoilingMan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There IS an EB signal, but it’s long out of
> service- head turned.
> There are still slide detectors, but I didn’t
> know exactly how they’re read. (Do signals even
> have P plates any more?)
> SR

But…. those signals tied to the detectors no longer carry any markings indicating that connection?
Is that the result of CTC?
SR

A nice post.

Robert Morris
Dunsmuir, CA
Robert Morris Photography

Thanks for the clarification. I was never sure where American actually was. Is it possible to get above the trees to get that shot with the canyon/ river in the distance at American (not at Gorge), or is it drone- only now?

Posted from iPhone

Yes, you can get up on top of the cut behind the tracks for a similar shot- a bit of a slog getting through the manzanita and whatnot, but it can be done. That’s where the old photo was taken from (with much less vegetation I imagine!) and I did it a few years ago.
The drone was just hella easier!
SR

If you just want the view the passengers got way back when, there are a few breaks in the trees.

Boiling Man, thank you so much for posting this one--I had asked this question several days ago, and then you deliver!  Many thanks.

In the current photo, it looks like the old wooden platform was in the same area as those electronic gagets--notice the curve beginning in both photos after the straight section.  The only problem is now the trees have done a great job growing up!  I'm sure SP kept things trimmed back then to afford a spectacular view.  And it is spectacular.

One of my best memories of that very area was many winters ago, when it was early Spring.  It was cold, some snow on the ground, and raining.  I went up there, and walked down to the tracks.  Across that huge canyon, where men toiled endlessly in centuries past all along the river looking for gold, or digging mines, you could see many slender, beautiful waterfalls cascading from the distant cliffs.  The rain clouds would obscure them, and then they'd reappear.  It was mesmerizing--waterfalls everywhere, all falling down into that canyon, where there is still gold in the soil, far below Theodore Judah's path across the Sierras.

Another thing that utterly fascinates and baffles me about this area is how the 49er geologists figured out that the Sierras once had ancient river beds that flowed North-South, not East-West like the current rivers.  The current rivers and their canyons formed after earthquake activity lifted the Sierras up, creating a new downward slope for the water to erode the rock and soil.  I've seen photos of wild geology in that area, where the rock types are vastly different within a short stretch.  It takes a really good eye to see the ancient river beds, if you find one.  But once they found them, that's when hydraulic mining began, and the gold diggings payoffs were immense, more so than the eariler efforts at mining.

Gold Run is one of those places,  The SP line sits on top of a now heavily washed away and eroded wall of an ancient river bed.  The SP had to hire gunment to stop the miners from washing it all away!  Going to it now, and peering over both the north and south sides of that skinny wall / ROW is almost alarming.    The miners almost won--the trains are literally passing by there on a relatively thin wall of remaining dirt jutting up into the air!  And all that dirt under UP's tracks has lots of gold in it!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/21 22:24 by coach.

They should still have a P plate, but it is the UP so anything goes. It might be in their special instructions that signals #### are protecting these detectors. We had P plates on signals at the end of sidings in CTC territory for high water detectors and slide fences if the detector was between the CP and intermediate, also with a P plate. 

BoilingMan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> But…. those signals tied to the detectors no
> longer carry any markings indicating that
> connection?
> Is that the result of CTC?
> SR



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/21 11:21 by SP4360.

Interesting photos- many thanks for posting. According to an article in the San Jose Mercury News, dated March 18, 2014 and entitled "A Pacifican's lifetime ride with the iron horse". Emperor Dom Pedro of Brazil was left behind at the "American River Canyon" (overlook) in 1876. As I recollect from one of my books, the crew realized they left him behind and backed up the train to pick him up.

Great post!
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