Disaster Awaits

It's 14F on a winter morning in Truckee. The entire winter had seen the Sierras being hammered with more snow than usual. On the railroad, snow banks were clipping cars and so the rotaries were sent out to take care of the job. After plowing east the previous day, the crew starts again long before sunrise. With a spreader set in front, the snow fighters slowly made their way to the summit. By sunrise, it was time for the show to begin, but the show would be cut short after the lead rotary suffered a failure and could no longer plow. Since its rebuild in 2017, the 222 was plagued with problems, and this failure would cause the rotary to be overhauled. The hope was to get the unit to be able to plow snow without breaking, something it hadn't been able to do. Since the overhaul, it has worked a lot better, and even went on to plow later in the season.

 

In the photo, the rotary set is just entering the mainline as it passes the Truckee station. Not far behind the camera the spreaders were waiting. The windchill was anything but pleasant, but for a rotary it was worth sitting in the elements.

Done