First off, welcome to the forum Paul.
I don't know what the snow accumulation is now but there is a cold & windy storm moving in from the northwest this weekend and the snow level is expected to be down to 4000' down here in San Diego. I know that because I will be traveling from San Diego to Modoc, co. tommarrow and have been monitoring the weather channel.
As for traffic, From the time of the SP-UP untill the Reno trench was completed (about 18 months ago) they were limited to 14 (I think) trains a day. Because Reno made such a big deal over the added downtown congestion they basicly agreed to hold traffic at pre merger levels till the trench was complete.
The Donner route traffic levels really dropped from what they were back in the days of multiple perishable blocks. And after the WP-UP-MoPac merger in 83 (?) changed the long time established traffic patterns on the Overland (SP-UP vs. WP-DRGW) and UP aquired the WP as there own route to northern California and SP was left to partner with the inferior route (DRGW), both time and traffic volume wise, the SP traffic over Donner really dropped. Sometimes less then ten trains a day crossed Donner, while the SP favored the Sunset route for the long haul on a already congested mostly single track Intermodal route. While the majority of the Northern Cal traffic across Nevada took the former WP Feather river route. Traffic on the SP's Overland route over Donner was light enough that Under Ed Moyers tenure some 100+ miles of doubletrack were removed around Lovelock and 20 or so miles of track over Donner summit (the original track over the summit) to add more second main to the congested Sunset route.
So Reno saw the merger traffic increase projections and screamed bloody murder. They should consider themselves lucky that there congested downtown made it that long with the drop in traffic on that route.
Now that the trench is complete there should be no more restrictions on dailey train count through Reno. I think idealy the UP would like to run all the heavy bulk traffic over the 1% grades of the lower Beckworth pass, and the time sensitive intermodal over Donner, unfortuneatly I don't think the domestic containers can go over Donner (stacked) due to clearance problems.
I would guestimate 14-17 trains a day these days, But when I went through there two months ago it was dead because UP managed to run out of power to move any trains.
By the way there is a Caltrans webcam that covers both tracks at Floriston. It is the best railcam I have seen as far as frame rate & resolution. But dialups need not bother, It is WAY faster then your connect and will not work.
Here is the link:
Floriston (Donner)
If the direct link doesn't work here is the directory, goto I-80 @ Floriston.
Caltrans (California hwys)
S
