Union Pacific running donner pass wrong: YA or NAY?

[cameronjames]

Ok so from the central pacific merger - to the - Union Pacific merger southern pacific only shut it down a few times during winter(only famous time was 1952 when a passenger train got stuck in ice and they spent 3 days(correct me please) digging her out) and since the formal merger of southern pacific lines was in the 1880s and the merger with Union Pacific was in 1996 they did pretty damn amazing if you ask me and D&RGW had much experience with heavy snow and mountainous passes since also the 1880s but even though Sherman hill has some good 2% grades there is no landslides, sheer cliff walls, and 4 foot deep at minimum snowfalls even with all of espees old equipment they don't have the romance or the history or experience that espee had for over 110 years and from what I've seen over the interwebs Union Pacific is doing a really bad job at keeping it open(considering they have closed it more times in -- oh no damn brain farts can't do the math -- then espee did in over 100+ years) so in winter does Union Pacific match up to its old rival now Patton? or do they close it more times then I close a call of duty fanboys rage comment?

 

[nicky9499]

Sorry, so your point is...?

 

[cascaderailroad]

That sure was a run on sentence

 

[flyboy559]

They try to keep it open and they usually succeed at it. A couple years ago they need to bring out the rotary snow plows but there was a heavy snowfall all around the state that winter.

 

[Eboy87]

Yeah, punctuation is your friend.

I don't think you can compare modern times to the "good 'ol days" where the trains ran no matter the cost. Management is too concerned about safety to let a train run over a dangerous pass in unsafe conditions; it might cost money and injuries, both of which harm the railroad. If that if the City of San Francisco were running through there today, it would have been cancelled by that blizzard as well. So I don't think it's fair to compare UP and SP's practices when it comes down to it.

Just a stab in the dark.

 

[opus722]

As long as the crew doesn't need to eat each other then it was a good trip over Donner Pass.

 

[haddock56]

I guess they do an ok job with how they run things, but it'd be interesting to see what'd happen if some of the old Rio Grande and Southern Pacific engineers and dispatchers had seen how they operate today. Feel free to speculate on that possibility.

 

[nicky9499]

As long as the crew doesn't need to eat each other then it was a good trip over Donner Pass.

I had a good laugh.

 

[flyboy559]

As long as the crew doesn't need to eat each other then it was a good trip over Donner Pass.

That pretty much made my day reading that.

 

[deadpoolmx55]

As long as the crew doesn't need to eat each other then it was a good trip over Donner Pass.

HAH! I see what you did there

 

[cascaderailroad]

Twas a very sad thing that happened to the Donner Party ... survival, forced cannibalizum has happened several throughout history, nothing to make humor of.

 

[deadpoolmx55]

Twas a very sad thing that happened to the Donner Party ... survival, forced cannibalizum has happened several throughout history, nothing to make humor of.

too soon?....

 

[H222]

Does cannibalism ever occur in Antarctica?

 

[opus722]

Did Shackleton's expedition resort to cannibalism? My apologies to any Donner Party survivors reading this.

 

[rgcx]

So how many times has UP closed it from 9-11-96 to today 7-1-13?

Did you know the Denver boys also closed Donner from 1988 to 1995? (And they were the ones that yanked up some strategic track too)

And we won't discuss the winters of 1982 or 1938 or 1889.

 

[nicky9499]

Did Shackleton's expedition resort to cannibalism? My apologies to any Donner Party survivors reading this.

You won't find them around here anytime soon, don't worry. (Hint: it's been over 150 years)

 

[Eboy87]

too soon?....

Surely that can't be off the menu by now...

 

[opus722]

I was trying to be facetious with that apology since I wasn't even sure if the original comment was serious. Anyways, on a more serious note, can you really compare present management to the past? A good deal of track was abandoned there and weather patterns change from year to year. I know UP bought up everything out west just about, but I don't think they've staged a hostile takeover of mother nature yet.

 

[cameronjames]

Im just saying that I think Union Pacific doesn't have the experience in heavy snowfall, steep grade conditions that cotton belt, southern pacific, and Denver and rio grande western did plus they just don't have the romantic history with mountains like southern pacific on the donner pass or Mojave. Or D&RGW in the Rockies in Colorado. Sorry to y'all's Union Pacific fanboys who are all bout safety and "MADERN DAI SCIENCE" well I say $$$$ the ditch lights and bring back the classification lights. So all safety and personal preferences aside I ask again IS UNION PACIFIC RUNNING DONNER PASS RIGHT?!?!? As in 1970's-1980's safety rules not modern day.

 

[cameronjames]

Oops I thought we were talking about SOUTHERN PACIFIC not UNION PACIFIC 1988-1996 were the worst years of Southern Pacific in my eyes