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   / Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong #17,872  
What happens when you ignore the many signs and flashing lights on a tiny bridge.
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   / Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong #17,874  
You're right, the proper name for that detour is Mormon Immigrant Trail.

I thought I remembered that when the bulldozers met in the middle they said they were above so many layers of ice and snow that they were 12 ft above the pavement. But that seems so incredible that I didn't mention it above. Do you remember what was in the news at the time?

More Sierra storms trivia - when I was a little kid I remember the passenger train from the east, the City of San Francisco, disappeared in 1952. It was 3 days before rescuers reached it. A tiny avalanche had blocked its forward motion and it was snowed in so badly that it couldn't back up. Finally the storm let up and US-40 got plowed so that the passengers could walk out to the highway. To a little kid the breathless news updates seemed like the sinking of the Titantic or something!


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I've read about that. I have a book from the early 1960's that details the history of Donner Pass from from pre-white man to 1963 or 1964. There are pictures of the Donner Summit/US40 bridge and various plows/blowers in 16-25' of snow.

It's interesting to note that in '52 "I-80" thru California was US40; it was a 2-lane, and was twistier than current I80. From what my parents told me, imagine 2-lane US50 from Pollock Pines to Meyers. Although I80 covers most of old US40, it also realigned many curves and grades.
 
   / Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong #17,875  
I've read about that. I have a book from the early 1960's that details the history of Donner Pass from from pre-white man to 1963 or 1964. There are pictures of the Donner Summit/US40 bridge and various plows/blowers in 16-25' of snow.

It's interesting to note that in '52 "I-80" thru California was US40; it was a 2-lane, and was twistier than current I80. From what my parents told me, imagine 2-lane US50 from Pollock Pines to Meyers. Although I80 covers most of old US40, it also realigned many curves and grades.
 
   / Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong #17,877  
or a motorcycle helmet & snowmobile suit.
 
   / Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong #17,878  
I've read about that. I have a book from the early 1960's that details the history of Donner Pass from from pre-white man to 1963 or 1964. There are pictures of the Donner Summit/US40 bridge and various plows/blowers in 16-25' of snow.

It's interesting to note that in '52 "I-80" thru California was US40; it was a 2-lane, and was twistier than current I80. From what my parents told me, imagine 2-lane US50 from Pollock Pines to Meyers.
Exactly! Imagine the 2-lane stretches of present US50 to Tahoe without the modern passing lanes, as it was in the 1950's. US40 from Roseville, over Donner Pass, on to Reno, was identical to US50 in design, grades, limited line-of-sight.
Some pix from the Donner Summit Historical Society:

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That region was my 'back yard' when I was a kid. Family week at Camp Sacramento, a week at the Boy Scout camp at the far end of Echo Lake, relatives with a cabin and speedboat on Donner Lake. As a teen I worked at Donner Lake Trading Post one summer,
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and daily hitched rides to go up and watch the heavy equipment where the new I80 route was being blasted out of the granite mountain. You can't imagine the screeching of a crawler pulling a scraper on freshly blasted granite, leveling a haul path and moving material downhill to make a fill.

A couple of years later I was up and down US40 weekly, working with a survey crew in Squaw Valley and laying out the pioneer road into what would become Alpine Meadows. As I recall the US40 grade from Donner Lake up to the summit needed to be climbed mostly in second gear and definitely needed a lower gear to descend safely. Real slow if you were behind a truck, either direction. This is what those plows kept open to serve the 1960 Squaw Valley Winter Olympics.

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   / Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong #17,879  
It's interesting to note that in '52 "I-80" thru California was US40; it was a 2-lane, and was twistier than current I80. From what my parents told me, imagine 2-lane US50 from Pollock Pines to Meyers. Although I80 covers most of old US40, it also realigned many curves and grades.
Except there were no Interstate Highways before 1956-57. The bill was signed by "Ike" in 1956. I can remember it taking three full days to get from Texas to Ohio. 4-lane roads were as rare as frog hair. My parents, 2-brothers, one baby sister and I traveled in a 1957 Plymouth station wagon to get to my grandparents. We camped in State Parks mostly. It was hard for any driver to spend more than 8 hours behind a wheel on the roads back then.

I've made that trip many times in the 70s, 80s and 90s. My best time was 24 hours flat. That included stops for food and gas.
 
   / Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong #17,880  
View attachment 786320

omg
he attached the tow strap to the spoke of the wheel
and it may've been an AWD car too, that wheel turned (the opposite direction from the wrap force too)
Fastest way to get him moved without breaking anything, if the driver didn't listen when told not to put it in gear, that's their problem...

I'm inclined to think that is a disgruntled employee.
I think I heard somewhere that it was a stolen truck/trailer, but can't find confirmation now.

Aaron Z
 

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