Donner Pass abandoned snow sheds, February 9th (photos)

mfmalk · **Joined:** Wed Feb 17, 2010 8:39 am **Posts:** 121

I hope this finds you and your loved ones safe and healthy.

February 9th I spent the morning hiking and exploring the abandoned show sheds and tunnels near the summit on Donner Pass in California. At elevation 7,056 feet, Donner is a mountain pass in the northern Sierra Nevada range, above Donner Lake; 9 miles west of Truckee, California.

Donner Summit receives 35-40 feet of snow per year and sometimes 70. Snowdrifts can be dozens of feet high, with the constant possibility of avalanches. To keep trains safe and moving, the Central Pacific Railroad built forty miles of snowsheds to protect their tracks. Used were 65 million board feet of lumber and 900 tons of bolts and spikes. Eventually snow fighting equipment improved and some of the sheds were removed. The remaining sheds were rebuilt of concrete so that collapse was no longer a threat. Trains used these tunnels for 125 years, until 1993 when the line was rerouted to a new tunnel running through nearby Mount Judah. To think that Southern Pacific class AC 6000 horsepower 4-8-8-2 cab forward locomotives once made daily multiple round trips over the Donner Pass route between Sacramento and Reno, Nevada.

Follow the link below to my gallery of images from the hike, which are in chronological order from west to east, as I started at the west portal of tunnel #6 at Sugar Bowl Road, photo 2. The weather conditions were not the best for this activity, but I guess if I’m going to explore snow sheds I should do it on a nasty winter day.

https://www.losttracksoftime.com/p310206447

Enjoy,
Matthew

Pat Fahey · **Posted:** Thu Apr 02, 2020 8:31 am

Great Shots and very interesting, Pat

mfmalk · **Joined:** Wed Feb 17, 2010 8:39 am **Posts:** 121

Thank you Pat.
Matthew

jrevans · **Posted:** Thu Apr 02, 2020 10:25 am

Excellent images! As well are the others on your website. Great photography.

nedsn3 · **Posted:** Thu Apr 02, 2020 12:03 pm

Nice pictures. I'm assuming that you had a snowmobile and weren't walking? Those are amazing structures, the expense to relocate the line must have been huge.
Ned

John Risley · **Joined:** Tue Aug 24, 2004 10:34 pm **Posts:** 966

Thank you for posting and sharing these. Forgot how pretty that part of CA is. In the winter when Donner was closed we would take {trucks} through Feather River Canyon to get over the hill. That Donner was a long hill by the way, when it was open. Many years since west coast days for me. Regards, John.

mfmalk · **Joined:** Wed Feb 17, 2010 8:39 am **Posts:** 121

Ned,
Walked the entire time, with a warm pair of North Face winter boots.
Matthew