Donner Pass Snow Sheds 4 wheeling through the abandoned sheds
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- Опубликовано: 26 авг 2011
- See link at bottom. Video shot going from the East end of the old Union Pacific snow sheds that crossed Donner Summit. This route was replaced by a tunnel called "The Big Hole" that eliminated this route.This video was taken in August, there was still a lot of running water and huge deep puddles inside some of the snow sheds and tunnels. I had my Jeep in 4WD just to be safe, probably was not needed but I cautioned on the safe side. These snow sheds were about 3.4 miles long total.. I do not commend trying to do this in a car, you need at least a pick up truck to do these tunnels. Note that in one shot I am parked on top of the 75 foot Chinese wall and to the right is actually the Upper Chinese wall. There was a Chinese man named Fong Quong that operated a 24 hour Commissary in the snow sheds east of Soda Springs, this is very interesting and has photos and more history donnersummithistoricalsociety....
One of my train videos, show how they would "remove" icicles from the snow sheds and tunnels -- small ones with a shotgun, larger ones with a blasting cap. The [old] Sp crews knew what they where doing when came to removing snow on the pass.
Great video.. Thanks for posting
That museum has a lot of cool old pictures of the Donner area. After exiting the last snow shed going East the old roadbed crosses over the top of the new tunnel, then just past that is Eder. We camped there last year, our group of about 25 people will be having a camping trip again this weekend June 22nd to 24th. We are Railfans, we photograph trains and shoot video. It is a cool place to watch trains and there are always a lot of them up there.
Drove through there yesterday in a Ford Fusion (before I knew that I couldn't make it in a car, lol) and had no problems at all. Cool that we have been left physical access to the history up there.
OUTSTANDING! 'great video
I grew up in Sacramento and spent much time Fanning Donner, but never in these Tunnels ! Used to be offices and workshops near the old turntable at Norden, but guess those have been removed and those tunnels daylighted. Damn NOISEY inside a tunnel when run eight Locomotives blasted thru !
A few years a go I went with a school group through that last tunnel you went through. It was winter so there was like a foot of rock solid ice on the ground. Everyone kept slipping. We hiked all the way from this historical museum off highway 80 to the summit. The total hike was 7 miles.
Oh, and great video.
@Alwaystrains I believe it was around 1993 when they started using the new tunnel and removed the tracks from these sheds.
These sheds are part of the original Trans Con route over Donner. The tracks were pulled up in 1993 for cost reasons. The "Big Hole" (track #2) has been in service since the 1920's when Harriman from UP had controlling interest in the CP/SP railroad. The 20's is when they double tracked the "hill".
This route wasn't replaced by Tunnel 41. Tunnel 41has been there for years. These tunnels were abandoned due to the high cost of maintaining the track through them. So they bottle necked the railroad at Tunnel 41.
+Juan Dia Thank you.
It.s a wonder trains came through these sheds. Must have been a single track operation.
Tunnel 41 aka "The Big Hole" has been in service since the 1920's. It's not like they punched a new tunnel through to replace the track in this area. You were on the old Number 1 track or primarily the West Main while Tunnel 41 was on the number 2 track. They did like to run West trains through the big hole to save time but it was basically the East main. You were on the old Central Pacific Railroad, or the first Transcontinental Line".
+Juan Dia Thanks for the additional information.
sniperjdp No problem. I was the track gang foreman at Tunnel 6 during the winter of 1982-83. We had over 800" cumulative snowfall that winter. On good days we'd use the motor car, on snowy days, we'd use a 5 man Thiokol snow dozer. I'll post a picture of a similar machine. It has a straight 6 cylinder engine in it as I recall.
sniperjdp I ran motor car through all that area and in 2009 I drove my personal pickup through all the tunnels with my family. Did you notice the vertical shaft in the middle of Tunnel 6 when you were there? The Chinese bored down in the middle so they could work at 4 faces at once instead of just 2, in order to speed up the process. And they started playing around with nitro glycerin in those tunnels, with some pretty disastrous results.
I climbed in by hiking up the mountainside by the great "china wall".
@Alwaystrains @Alwaystrains Abandoned back in around 1993 when they put in the new tunnel called "the big hole" there.
@rbryanhull Some cars have driven it, I would not take either one of our 1985 Corvettes through there though!!! The roadbed was pretty much OK but where I was worried was with the deep puddles inside where you could not see if there were big rocks below the water level waiting to break an axle there or bend a wheel inside the sheds. A lot of history up there, did you make it to Shed 47?
@Alwaystrains Abandoned back in around 1993 when they put in the new tunnel called "the big hole" there.
The "Big Hole" was built in the 1920's when they double-tracked the entire line. It has been in use since then. The reason(s) for pulling up the old #1 Track in the 1990's were economic. Traffic on the line was way down, the grade through the old tunnels was more challenging, SP was just about broke and needed the rail elsewhere. Most important of all, SP had a new president who had made a name for himself single-tracking the (largely flatland) Illinois Central and thought he could do the same through the mountains.
@sniperjdp Oh ok thanks for telling me. This is really weird but last year I swear I saw diesel exhaust coming out of one of them!
When were these sheds abandoned? I used to drive over Donner Pass on interstate 80 and would always see these sheds on the opposite side of the lake. I didn't know if trains where going through them or not.
i wasthere a few weeks ago. the west enterance was closed off.but we climbed up to an opening by the chinese wall. i dont know if youre able to drive in it anymore. the one enterance was gated and said no trespassing
can't drive thru , but just step over the gate at west end of tunnel 6. You can see thru it, from the Donner Summit Rd as you approach, and park close to the west portal. John Carleton, Sacramento Ca.
I was up there August 17th, there is another way in but I can not disclose it on the internet.
See any big foots?
Squatch!!!
were you not afraid of a ghost train steaming down the tracks at you.....
Why doesn't someone just drive their car thru ? Is it too narrow for a car ?
Does anyone know if the rails are still there? TIA.
The rails have been removed, likely in early 90's. Easy access, right off the old Donner Summit Rd (old US 40). Gate is there, to keep vehicles out, but people walk them every day... John Carleton, Sacramento Ca.
why is this called snow sheds?
just looks like a tunnel
now abandoned
A tunnel is carved into the rock, a snow shed is a man made structure. Look closer at the video and you will see a combination of sheds and tunnels there.
Thanks for the reply a good addition to the knowledge base
Here in PA we have The abandoned PA turnpike tunnels
(can be found here on YT)
I'm refering to the one called Sideling Hill.
It closed in 1968 because it wasn't cost effective to bore a second tube.
The road would get traffic back ups from the road becoming one lane bottleneck at the tunnels and this reminds me of that
there is talk of making it a biking trail a good idea I 'd say
@@SRBrown-vn4sw They eliminated Tunnels 6 through 12. In most of the same area, they placed wood, then upgraded to concrete snow sheds in order to keep the line open in winter. You have no idea how deep the snow gets up on Donner Pass.
God damn graffiti I'm so sick of looking at that shit, its not art work it's vandalism