Western Railroad Discussion > Look at that rain on Donner Summit

Pretty incredible what the summit has gone through the past six weeks. 

Does rain help the snow-efforts on the pass?

Another long week of snow coming too. 

Hang in there the sun is climbing higher by the day!

Chuck

My layman's guess is that rain makes snow clearing much harder.  The snow absorbs the rain and becomes considerably heavier and harder to move.  Hopefully, UP has the track cleared and is just dealing with slides, collapsing berms, and water drainage.

still might be snowing on some parts of donner pass but does seem to be maybe raining more then snowing.
awhile ago flanger got caught by a snow slide just west of the bighole, they asked for a snowcat to come help and they sent two of the gp38-2s to help dig her out 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/14/23 12:13 by traindave.

The rain freezing at night then some snow sounds like a lot of avalanching. 

Respect for those working in these conditions. 

Lots of EB trains today no Amtrak. 

Chuck

flanger might now be unstuck and back on the move 

radar Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My layman's guess is that rain makes snow clearing
> much harder.  The snow absorbs the rain and
> becomes considerably heavier and harder to move. 
> Hopefully, UP has the track cleared and is just
> dealing with slides, collapsing berms, and water
> drainage.

Fact is rain on the snow makes things very bad to drive in due to slush trying to guide the car and weight of it to move off of tracks or roads. When it freezes then comes another problem crust forms on top of the snow instead of smooth plowing now you get chunks.

Man talk about a mess that's about to happen, hope those crews are hanging in there still!

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