The Storm of 1952
A Capsule History
The snow began to fall on Thursday evening, January 10th. Cleanup crews were brought out at around midnight and stayed on duty throughout the days that followed.
January 12
Our story begins on Saturday the 12th, when Train 101, the westbound City of San Francisco, left Norden with a cab-forward helper at the point. At milepost 182, between Troy and Cisco, a huge snow slide cascaded down the mountain slope, burying the train’s engines and disabling the big 4-8-8-2 (Part 1). Shortly thereafter, the passenger cars were hauled back to the shed complex at Norden (Part 2). Next, a pair of back-to-back cab-forwards was dispatched to remove the train’s diesel locomotives. On the return trip, the rear steamer jumped the tracks near Troy taking all three diesel units with it (Part 3).
January 13
The weather on the next day was just as bad if not worse. Nevertheless, Train 101 of the 12th, with a new set of diesels, was able to get through the storm and make it to Roseville. Later that Sunday morning, Train 101 of the 13th left Norden heading west on the eastbound track, which remained open. The train crossed over to the westbound side at Crystal Lake. At Yuba Pass, the train encountered deep snow from an earlier slide and eventually became mired in it, stalling just west of Tunnel 35 (Part 4).
At the time Train 101 got into trouble, a rotary snow plow being pushed by a Mallet was working the eastbound track near Crystal Lake. It reversed direction and used the crossovers at Shed 10 to get to the stranded passenger train. Upon arriving at the scene, the rotary’s air pump broke, locking up its brakes. Trapped between the rotary and Train 101, the Mallet uncoupled from the rotary then coupled to the rear of the train. It was unable to move the train, but it was at least able to supply steam to keep the passenger cars warm (Part 5).
Several other attempts were made to free the train that day, but all of them failed.
January 14
Early in the morning of Monday the 14th, a Mallet with rotary snow plows ahead and behind left Norden. Shortly after it exited Tunnel 35 alongside Train 101, a snow slide tumbled down from Smart Ridge, burying the entire train set (Part 6).
Another rotary crew had been working on the westbound track between Emigrant Gap and Yuba Pass. Once the snow was cleared, a set of four diesels was to have gone up to Yuba Pass for the rescue. That never happened. Instead, another snow slide came down from Smart Ridge. This one was behind the cab-forward’s tender, effectively trapping the rotary in front of Train 101 (Part 7). Later that morning another snow slide hit the equipment assembled near Tunnel 35, overturning a rotary and killing one man.
January 16
It wasn’t until the morning of Wednesday, January 16th, that a break in the weather allowed highway crews to finally clear the way on U.S. 40 to just below the Yuba Pass site. By that evening all of the trapped passengers had been safely extricated.
January 19
The following Saturday, January 19th, a wrecker crane was moved from Roseville to Yuba Pass (Part 8). The overturned rotary, which had fallen onto the westbound track, was lifted aside. Then the crane was placed in front of Train 101 where it successfully freed the three diesels (Part 9). The passenger cars soon followed.
Another snow storm hit the area on January 22nd, and it wasn’t until the 27th that Donner Pass was finally open to traffic in both directions.
References
If you are interested in further reading on this subject, we recommend the following two titles:
Church, Robert J. Snowbound Streamliner, Rescuing the 1952 City of San Francisco. Signature Press, 2000.
Signor, John R. Donner Pass, Southern Pacific’s Sierra Crossing. Golden West Books, 1985.
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