The Original (former Western Pacific) California Zephyr route?

[railpost]

I was wondering if the former Western Pacific routing of the Original California Zephyr is still intact and if it could be used or in fact is ever used for California Zephyr reroutes.

We know that over the last few weeks the California Zephyr routing was cut short to Reno because of some work being done in the SIerra Nevada mountains however it had occured to me if the original (Feather River) routing could be used to get the train into the Bay area. If I'm correct isn't a portion of the original Western Pacific routing used between Salt Lake City and Winnemucca Nevada? So would it be possible to reroute the CZ west of Winnemucca on the former Western Pacific?

What is the former Western Pacific line being used for currently? Extra freight traffic? I know that it now belongs to the Union Pacific but I can't help but wonder if the scenic Feather River portion of the route is still being used or if it even can be used?

 

[rickycourtney]

During the closure of the Donner Pass route Union Pacific detoured its freight trains through the Feather River canyon.

From what I understand Union Pacific offered to detour 5/6... but Amtrak declined because heavy freight congestion likely meant very long delays.

Amtrak has used the route as a detour before... in fact earlier this month (June 14th) the Coast Starlight was forced to detour through the Feather River canyon beacuse of a derailment near Dunsmuir.

I'll leave the questions about the route's normal freight usage to those more wise on the subject.

 

[Ispolkom]

All I can add to rickycourtney's excellent post is that all the freight trains we saw in the Feather River Canyon detour on June 14 had BNSF locomotives, which made me think that they were probably freight trains running through from the BNSF Inside Gateway. Of course, it could just be luck of the draw that I didn't see any UP locomotives that morning.

 

[railiner]

One other possible reason for not using the Feather River route.....the original WP CZ did not serve Reno...its mainline from California goes thru Reno Junction, north of Reno, and does not join the current route until reaching Winnemucca. There is a 33 mile branch line from Reno Junction down to Reno, that was freight only. I am not sure what shape that line is in, as far as using it to reach Reno from the west.

Depending on how much traffic is going to or from Reno, and/or bussing from Reno Junction to Reno, could possibly sway Amtrak's choice.....

 

[DET63]

Given that a bus trip from Reno to Sacramento will be quicker than a train over the Donner--and certainly much faster than one via Feather River--it probably makes more economic sense for Amtrak to simply truncate a train at Reno and bus people the rest of the way, especially when connections to other trains might otherwise be affected.

 

[zephyr17]

The the former WP Reno Branch is basically out of service. It was stuffed with stored cars last time I saw it. Even if it was open, it is very slow.

To take the former WP, the Winnemucca stop would be bypassed as well, since Weso, the junction and start of the Weso-Alazon (Winnemucca-Wells) "paired track" is east of the station.

As to the original question, UP's former WP line through Feather River Canyon is alive and well and remains a through route. The Coast Starlight detoured through Feather RIver to Keddie, then up the Inside Gateway not too ago due to a derailment near Dunsmuir

 

[chakk]

The CZ also ran a few years on the original SP line between Wells (Alazon) and Ogden for a week or so while track maintenance was underway on the normal route through Wendover. I was on one of these runs (but slept most of the way between Alazon and Salt Lake via Ogden) -- I seem to recall that the route was just as fast, if not faster, than the regular route.