Western Railroad Discussion > Yesterday’s Train Today, a Rolling Meet on Donner

Tomorrow’s Train Today. It seems like it would make for a marketing slogan and evoke some type of futurism laden vision for rail transport. I doubt that being on tomorrow’s train today was on the minds of the crew of an eastbound manifest departing Roseville on the afternoon of Tuesday, July 29, 2025, however. By the time I encountered said manifest the next morning, it was yesterday’s train today to me. I’m not sure what transpired to allow the west slope of Donner to hold onto this particular train for what was likely 12 hours in excess of what it should have. Given there were five units on the point and the fourth unit, UP 6196, appeared to be offline, I’d suspect it was a power problem. (It usually is.)

I almost didn’t get out to shoot on the morning of Wednesday, July 30, 2025, due to overcast skies that were threatening thunderstorms over Donner Summit. From my cabin a couple miles southwest of Norden I could just see some breaks in the clouds, so I took the easy option and headed to West Norden. I knew from the Colfax railcam that there was an eastbound manifest making its way up the mountain, and if the cloud cover proved to be a bust I wouldn’t have invested too much effort getting trackside. The eastbound I ended up getting on Main 2 wasn’t what I expected, but it didn’t matter as the storm light was fantastic. Suddenly I heard a roar over my left shoulder, and the westbound ZG2LT showed up on Main 1 to crash the party. It was an added bonus.

Photo 1: UP 5360, 7376, 8390, 6196, and 8606 are on the front of this eastbound 5x3x0 manifest at the top of the grade at West Norden on the morning of Wednesday, July 30. I believe this train had departed Roseville the prior afternoon and encountered a problem climbing the grade.
Photo 2: UP 6005, 6611, and 7990 arrived leading the 3x2x0 westbound ZG2LT on Main 1, obstructing my view of the eastbound.
Photo 3: The three DPUs on the manifest. The ZG2LT was hustling at what appeared to be track speed after topping the grade, clearing the way for me to shoot the DPUs.

Continued…

---

---

---

Video: I managed to get the rolling meet on video. The eastbound slowed for the ZG2LT but never fully came to a stop. I see plenty of meets at Norden as trains are clearing the Big Hole, but I don’t often catch rolling meets. The entire duration from the eastbound entering the frame to exiting the frame was over 9 minutes. I’ve greatly sped up portions of the video to include the entire train, so you’ll have to brace yourself for the warp speed segments.

Cheers,
Sean

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

Wow, great lighting.  Before I read your caption I had thought you might be using a polarizing filter.

Very nice video!

texchief1

"Left Roseville the previous afternoon....".  Wow.  PSR working so well.

Great video! Timing is everything.... 

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

Great shooting. You certainly took full advantage of the excellent atmospheric conditions. Also, an excellent location. 10/10!
 

Very nice stuff.  Yep power issues have been a frequent problem on Roseville Sub eastbounds it seems.  Add more locos?  Maybe run more EB via Canyon Sub.. heh..  

Awesome!