US Rail Journeys – Across the Sierra Nevada to the Donner Pass

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Series 1 Episode 15

Across the Sierra Nevada to the Donner Pass continues my journey westwards on the California Zephyr. I left you at the end of the last episode as we started the climb across the Sierra Nevada. Today we continue the climb, through spectacular scenery, to the Donner Pass.

Building the route required complex engineering because there were so many challenges. The train’s first stop in California is at Truckee, a town of around 16,000 people.

The train goes round many very tight curves as it climbs the Sierra Nevada towards Donner Lake and the Donner pass. Donner Lake and the Donner Pass are spectacular.

This episode ends with us high up in the Sierra Nevada. There is a very long drop to the river valley below.

I’ll tell you about the last part of the journey to the Bay Area in the final episode of US Rail Journeys in two weeks time.

Click on a ‘thumbnail’ to open the gallery for the journey from Across the Sierra Nevada to the Donner Pass.

My thanks go to the passengers and crew on our journey from Chicago to the Bay Area, aboard the California Zephyr, for their tolerance of the man waving the microphone. It truly is a magnificent journey.

Full definition copies of the photographs taken by MrT are available on Flickr. In addition a selection are on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

The music Steam Railway is used under licence from AKM Music.

This podcast is also available through iTunes (Apple podcasts), Spotify and Stitcher as well as this website.

© The MrT Podcast Studio 2017 to 2019

Author: Tim D

In the early 1970s Mr Timothy & his Phonograph was a popular mobile disco around Leeds University and Tim was known as MrT. Tim also spent 9 years broadcasting a weekly programme on Hospital Radio in Wakefield. He worked for more than 40 years for large industrial organisations and spent his last 15 years in global commercial management roles. Following retirement he started making podcasts in 2017.