Western Railroad Discussion > Opening Act for a Winter Storm on Donner

Winter 2024-2025 started off promising on Donner Pass. There was really good snow from Thanksgiving through mid-December. Things somewhat fizzled from there on, with most storms dumping a mix of rain and snow at best, or just rain. The outlook for Friday, January 3, was a little more promising, with temperatures forecast to drop over the course of the winter storm warning that was issued for the Sierra Nevada. Given that I had little interest in skiing or riding "dust on crust" at Sugar Bowl in a blizzard, I grabbed the snowshoes and headed down to Norden to try to catch a couple of trains as the storm was rolling in.

Photo 1: UP 7314 leads the 4x2 eastbound ZLTG2 as it approaches the snow shed at CP RV191 West Norden. The snow is starting to fly, but it wasn't coming down as heavy as I had hoped for at this time. There was a lot of wind on the lead in with this storm, and we were fortunate that the power stayed on at our cabin through the duration.
Photo 2: The DPU power entering the shed.
Video: As mentioned, there was a good amount of wind. My "dead cat" equipped shotgun mic was giving a low battery warning, so I skipped it in fear of losing audio half way through the recording. As such, there is a lot of wind noise. My light weight hiking tripod and the camera's IBIS also struggled a bit with the heavy gusts.

Cheers,
Sean

---

---

You must be a registered subscriber to watch videos. Join Today!

Fantastic stuff here, Sean!

texchief1

Great still shots and a very nice video! I didn't find the wind noise very objectionable.....

James Nelson
Thornton, CO
www.flickr.com/mojaveflyer

Cold weather never looked so good!

Posted from Android

As always, quality Excellent images Sean, great job!

Great post!!