trainman wrote:Actually, a good friend gave me a box full of TRAINS magazine. The December 2006 has a two page map about the Donner Pass Showsheds. Very cool map. So I Googled DP showsheds, and actually got some pictures, and video of trains emerging from tunnels and sheds. That's another reason that area looks interesting to me.
Well I'll be danged, I think Trains magazine is what the star of that film was reading in his train station.
Here is my ride track on a topo, and I marked the various snow sheds and Donner Pass. I didn't try to ride to a snow shed, but now you've got me curious: I'll have to see if I can next season. Hopefully they don't have the access roads gated off. Where I took the wrong turn and rode along the tracks is under the word "TUNNEL" in my waypoint.
trainman wrote:Just stay out of those tunnels and sheds with trains around. The score would be the same as that dope trying to run over the couch.
Uh, well, back when I was young and stupid... I kind of learned that lesson the hard way. Being a train guy, you may have heard of our Cuesta Grade which is down by San Luis Obispo where I went to college. There is a big long tunnel going through the top of that thing. It is a big grade on either side, and they have to put on extra engines to pull the trains up and through the tunnel.
So one day a few of us country boys are sitting around in the freshman dorm, with nothing to do, so we decide to hike on up there and take a look at the tunnel. Didn't seem to be any trains around, so into the tunnel we go. I was leading for some reason.
We get almost to the halfway point of the tunnel, and I see what looks like a flashlight beam moving around at the far end. I hear this faint rumble sound, but figured it was just the traffic down on Hwy 101. We keep going.
Then the flashlight beam gets brighter, the rumble gets louder, and it hits me: there is a TRAIN coming up from the other side! I turn and yell "TRAIN! RUN!" at the guys behind me. They turn and start running, and I turn and start running, and we were all running as fast as our feet could carry us.
I can now hear the multi-engine train bearing down on us. The 3 guys in the lead make it out of the tunnel. I see Brian (ahead of me) turn his head back, a look of terror comes on his face, and he dives, fully prone, for the edge of the tunnel. He splashes down in the water/gunk down there. Not wanting to even turn my head, I just do what Brian did: I dive, splash down, take a deep breath, and shove my face down into the water. Trying to get as low as possible.
The sounds were freaky. I hear the engines come by, sounds like they are now braking the train (must have spotted us) but worse yet... I hear metallic pieces of train (cargo straps?) scraping against the tunnel walls. I'm thinking that the end will be nasty. One of those scraping things will first castrate me, then kill me, and I'm just hoping it all happens fast.
This goes on for minutes, seems like hours. Finally the end of the train goes by, and Brian and I dash out of the diesel-exhaust-filled tunnel. Our friends are standing there with the widest eyes I've ever seen. They were sure we were dead until that moment. A guy is standing on the caboose deck yelling at us (train still moving) and we all just bolted. We must have ran double-time all the way back down to our dorm.
Brian went on to fly helicopters for the USMC and still says that day was the scariest day of his life. I agree. So no more active train tunnels for me. Nope, not ever.