Bringing Out the Big Blower

This morning, I heard the Union Pacific dispatcher telling a train crew out here on the Nevada Subdivision that they would be waiting for a while and they should not be in a hurry, because there was a "rotary curfew" over the mountains. That is the first that I had hear that Union Pacific gave up on using smaller equipment (flangers, plows, and bulldozers) to clear the snow over Donner Pass. As I've said, UP really doesn't like using the rotary snowplows, because once they start using them, they're pretty much stuck using them until spring melts the snow that forms that channels through the show. But after many days of trains not getting through, to the point that Amtrak had to terminate the California Zephyr at Salt Lake City, and with more snow falling (around a meter in the last round) and more forecast, UP appears to have run out of options. I hope one of the television stations gets a helicopter up to take pictures of the snow-removal operation.

Meanwhile, we did get more snow yesterday.

( It Amounted to Less Than it Appeared )

By the end of the day, only snow in sheltered areas remained.