Snowstorm closes UP Donner Pass route, strands California Zephyr
TRUCKEE, Calif. – Shades of a half century ago! A massive snowstorm that hit northern California, Oregon, and on Nevada New Year’s Day closed Union Pacific’s Overland Route through northern California’s Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada after Amtrak train 5, the California Zephyr, bound from Chicago, Ill. to Emeryville, Calif., derailed the third car from the front about 27 miles west of Truckee during blizzard conditions at about 1:20 p.m. The car, coach 34088, was believed to have derailed due to snow and ice buildup around the lead truck. Truckee is 32 miles west of Reno, Nev., and 103 miles east of Sacramento, Calif.
The train, with 2 locomotives and 12 cars, was stuck for over 14 hours. There were no injuries among the 300 passengers and 15 crewmembers. Until rescue operations began, the train was never without electrical power, lights, food or water. The incident occurred at Milepost 179.5 at the approach to Snowshed 10 at Crystal Lake, at the end of double track on the west slope of Donner while the Zephyr was going slow, awaiting an eastbound flanger that was clearing snow. Historians will recall that the 1952 snowslide that hit Southern Pacific’s streamliner “City of San Francisco” going across Donner on January 13, 1952, occurred nearby, at Milepost 177.
While the westbound Amtrak train was derailed, eastbound California Zephyr counterpart train 6 was held at Emigrant Gap, Calif., at Milepost 170.7 before being released to run at reduced speed past the derailment.
After a UP flanger cleared an estimated four feet of snow from around the stuck train No. 5, UP freight helper locomotives coupled onto the Zephyr’s rear and pulled nine cars about 12 miles back to Norden, at which time the train had no electricity or heat, owing to the Amtrak locomotives, which provide HEP (head-end power) for those auxiliary services, remaining at the derailment site on the front of the train.
After the UP engines ran around the Zephyr’s cars at Norden, they then pulled them west to Shed 10 where the Amtrak engines and baggage car were waiting. Once reassembled, minus the derailed coach and dormitory car 39008 which had to be left behind when crews couldn’t uncouple it from the coach, train 5 departed Shed 10 for Emeryville at 3:34 a.m. on January 2. The two cars left behind were later handled by a derrick and work train stationed at Roseville, Calif., only to have the coach derail again a few minutes later. The second rerailing occurred at 1:15 p.m., and both cars were taken by the work train to Roseville.
The Donner Pass line was closed until Friday afternoon for snow removal, forcing more than half of UP’s freight trains to detour on its Feather River Canyon line to the north, the former Western Pacific. Five freight trains, three westbounds and two eastbounds, were held on both sides of the Donner line until it reopened.