Snow Strands Nearly 400 Train Passengers in California Mountains (Donner Pass)

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Fox News

Amtrak officials say that nearly 400 people are trapped inside two passenger trains that have been stuck all afternoon in the snowy Northern California mountains.

An Amtrak spokeswoman says the trains were stranded near Donner Pass around 2 p.m. today after a large snow plow being used to clear the tracks fell through a walkway and blocked the trains' path.

No injuries have been reported and both trains have heating and lights.

The spokeswoman says Amtrak is trying to summon buses to nearby towns to evacuate passengers, but have had little luck because many of the vehicles are in Arizona for the Super Bowl.

Officials said at 7 p.m. that they expect it may take another hour or two to clear the tracks and that more snow that has fallen since the accident.



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,327773,00.html

[Thor_MN]

1. This could turn out very bad...

400 people trapped on trains with nothing to do near Donner Pass?

Imagine if the rescue parties get there and discover that they had been eating each other...

[Cleita]

33. There is a Donner picnic ground there.

Make me staaap!!! I couldn't help it. There really is a picnic ground. I couldn't believe my eyes that it was named the Donner picnic ground when I saw it.

To be serious, getting stuck in the pass during a snow storm is a regular thing there. I'm sure they will get rescue crews there soon enough. The residents of Truckee and surrounding towns are used to it. It's not so usual for a train mostly cars and trucks, but it seems that the people on the train would have at least a few ammenities until they are rescued.

[Raster]

39. Talk about bad taste!

:spank:

[Enrique]

43. I've heard it tastes like chicken

:shrug:

[hobbit709]

51. More like pork

Called long pig.

[pretzel4gore]

58. an expert!!

yikes!

[dflprincess]

77. I've seen that

my friends and I passed it on a road trip many years ago. Naturally, we had to stop and take some tacky, tacky pictures.

[liberaltrucker]

2. Modern-day Donner Party?

Nah, just a minor inconvenience.

[Webster Green]

3. Snowed in at Donner Pass?

Creepy!:scared:

[originalpckelly]

4. "Calling Donner Party of 400, 399, 398, 397..."

If you get it, I'll see you in hell.

[liberaltrucker]

6. Welcome to Hell, sir.

:evilgrin:

[originalpckelly]

11. It just donned on me that this could be a sick joke.

In that case, someone please call a doctor.

[liberaltrucker]

13. Source is Faux Noise

So ya never know.

:shrug:

[originalpckelly]

22. FN is the original sick joke.

:puke:

[Raster]

8. Got it!

:evilgrin:

[originalpckelly]

9. Is it getting toasty in here?

Or is someone cooking donner?

[Raster]

14. LOL!!!

[originalpckelly]

16. Yep, I'm definitely going to hell.

Their at Hellcon 4 down there preparing for my arrival. Just think of the second Death Star before Emperor Palpatine arrived.

[Raster]

68. You are in VERY good company, friend. Very good company.

[aquart]

19. Eh. We rescued a cat we named Donner Party of One.

Don't even try to imagine why.

[here_is_to_hope]

24. *eeeuuwww*..I had Manx cats...

that I inherited with a college rental, a real legacy these friggin' cats, been at the house for years and years...inbreeding and all fucked up, each litter worse than the previous...little paws were all you would find...yuck...Total cannibals...:scared: :scared: :scared: :hide:

[Gormy Cuss]

30. "Calling Donner, Party of Eight..."

See ya there

[MADem]

53. !!!!! !!!!!!!

:rofl:

[melody]

75. They have a McDonalds on every corner there now ... not that that is a big improvement

And I believe we saw one of those Holiday Inn Expresses, too. lol

[Raster]

5. Uh-oh!!! Did they say Donner Pass? This does not bode well for the vegetarians.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Party

The Donner Party was a group of California-bound American settlers caught up in the "westering fever" of the 1840s. After becoming snowbound in the Sierra Nevada in the winter of 1846–1847, some of the emigrants resorted to cannibalism.

[originalpckelly]

7. Hey, what they did with their marijuana is their own business...

it's the eating of other people that bothered me.

[Raster]

10. I wonder if we can get two more twisted individuals to help put this on the Primary Follies Page....

I mean, The Greatest Page

[liberaltrucker]

12. I'm in

K&R

[originalpckelly]

15. "Honey, John made a Donner Pass at me!"

"Quit treating me like a piece of meat you sicko!"

[Richard D]

17. Call me twisted . . .

. . . but the first thing I thought of was BBQ.

[originalpckelly]

21. I thought of this episode of Reno 911 that was on recently.

It had that other weird guy from Napoleon Dynamite in it as a human consumer.

[aquart]

18. It had to be the Donner Pass.

[CC]

20. Didn't this happen in the 50's too?

Note to self, no traveling through Donner Pass in the winter. Not by train at least.



1952 http://cprr.org/Museum/Stranded_Streamliner_1952/index.html

[A HERETIC I AM]

44. Interesting pic from that article

That kind of thing would ruin your day.

[Vogon_Glory]

65. The pic in your post is from the 1952 City of San Francisco stranding n/t.

[A HERETIC I AM]

76. Ummmm yeah...I got that

I was responding to the post above mine which noted the article about the 1952 incident, hence the title of my post

"Interesting pic from that article"

I am enough of a railbuff, albeit a rather casual one, to notice the Locomotive in that picture is 1950's vintage and nothing like any power unit used by Amtrack today.

[superconnected]

23. I hope they have enough to eat.

[motocicleta]

25. Ok, it's a funny fricking thread

but I just spewed on my keyboard. Dry wit always slays me. I heard your post in the comic Wright's voice, David or Robert or Steven or whatevah the heck his name is.

[Desertrose]

27. Some of them will.

oops.

:evilgrin:

[Kool Kitty]

36. I'm sure they do.

Didn't the report say that there are 400 people on those trains? :P :9

[Historic NY]

26. Humm hope they have enough food (bodies) on board.

[MilesColtrane]

28. I'm shocked to see so many here making light of the horrible decision of those...

...poor victims in an unimaginable life or death situation.

Thank god the British understand that such things are not to be played for cheap laughs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFDgSKbapzY

[dipsydoodle]

40. the British understand .......

that's why we've got Donner Kebabs. :rofl:

[awoke_in_2003]

45. Thanks. Havent seen that episode in ages. nt

[Hekate]

29. My first thought was they could pass the time telling ghost stories, but you all beat me to it!

:spray:

Hekate

[originalpckelly]

31. Or they could just pass the thyme.

"Parsley, sage, Rosemary, and thyme."

[Hekate]

32. Salt, please. Mmmmm, tender.

I trust they will be out of there soon.

Hekate

[Oldtimeralso]

34. Don't tick off the cook in the dining car

You might get the cold shoulder.

[originalpckelly]

63. Ba dum bum!

:rofl:

[piesRsquare]

35. You people are sick!

And I absolutely love it! :rofl:

[psychopomp]

37. Wendy: Hey! Wasn't it around here that the Donner Party got snowbound?

Wendy: Hey! Wasn't it around here that the Donner Party got snowbound?
Jack: I think that was farther west in the Sierras.
Wendy: Oh.
Danny: What was the Donner Party?
Jack: They were a party of settlers in covered-wagon times. They got snowbound one winter in the mountains. They had to resort to cannibalism in order to stay alive.
Danny: You mean they ate each other up?
Jack: They had to, in order to survive.
Wendy: Jack...
Danny: Don't worry, Mom. I know all about cannibalism. I saw it on TV.
Jack: See, it's OK. He saw it on the television.

[psychopomp]

49. Yuh let me down, DU

I thought somebody would surely get my "Shining" reference.:shrug:

[Raster]

38. We have ate--I mean, eight--recommends. That's purty twisted.

Dontcha just LOVE IT!

[radfringe]

41. well with 400 passengers

they won't run out of food for awhile..

[Solly Mack]

42. Tonight's Menu: Döner Kebabs

I'd wager the folks on the train are making the same jokes...I know I would be

[ChairmanAgnostic]

46. big deal. 400 people?

because of storms, China has 200,000 stranded.
in one location.

[TheMadMonk]

74. We laugh at this one in order to anesthetise ourselves to a crisis...

...we personally can do little to alleviate. It's a macabre and ghoulish coping mechanism. Not arguing if it's morally right or wrong, just pointing out that it's there.

[Ian David]

47. It's a national story. There are better sources than Fox Noise. n/t

[kedrys]

48. nom nom nom nom nom

Sorry, too much lolcats. :P

[Botany]

50. I wonder if anybody has "passed" one of the passengers yet?

:rofl:

Has anybody seen Julie? Yes, she is in the dining car.

[rayofreason]

52. Donner pass?

I hope no one gets hungry.

"What's for dinner?"
"Meatloaf!"

For you Rocky Horror fans.

[juno jones]

54. The Donner party was from Springfield Il,

There are pictures of it leaving town right in front of the building I later worked in. I learned about this while living there and I have to say, it made me look at my fellow employees in a new light. It wouldn't have surprised me if they ate each other, there was enough back-biting there as it was.

Years later, going thru the pass, I would always warn people,"I'm from Springfield, if we get stranded here, you're SOL."

[Hatalles]

55. I could have been caught in that snow today.

I'm in the middle of a cross-country road trip from Mass to the Bay Area, and was initially planning on the northern route. A few days before I left, I changed plans and decided to head south for I-40. I'm just west of Flagstaff, AZ now.

Phew.

[TheCowsCameHome]

56. How often do they update the menu?

[Vogon_Glory]

57. Quick, What Year Is It?

When I read the headline on DU, my first impulse was to check my calendar and make sure that it was still February 2008, and that Team Shrub hadn't succeeded in turning time back to 1952 like many Repugs want to do. That was the year that the City of San Francisco, a Southern Pacific Railroad passenger train, was also stranded near Donner Pass.

Shrub did better than the Truman administration. Only ONE passenger train was stranded in 1952.

PS Nobody ate each other in the 1952 stranding.

[AngryAmish]

59. Is human flesh vegan?

[onehandle]

60. Them's good eatin.' nt

[TZ]

61. I nominate this thread for the most tasteless one ever...

In that I don't even WANNA imagine what it tastes like!:scared:

[ekwhite]

64. Tastes like chicken

:evilgrin:

[rug]

62. i hope that asshole from Dinner Impossible doesn't show up.

[Raster]

67. Oh. My. Gawd! This puts a whole new light on the Food Network.

The next Food Network star is a cannibal. SNL are you reading this?

[fshrink]

66. Time to read Rabbit Boss by Thomas Sanchez.

[quip]

69. Hmmm, wasn't that pass named after Jeffrey?

:shrug:

I prefer to eat Johnson.

[Raster]

70. And this is Juuulia Child...

...Bon Appetite!

[ThoughtCriminal]

71. I was watching this video about the 1952 "City of SF"

A couple of days ago. It too 4 days to rescue them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG59X7bMDpA

[Oldtimeralso]

72. Are any railroaders on the DU willing to give them a hand?

It might cost you an arm and leg!

[yoyossarian]

73. I hear Dick Cheney's heading up there...

with condiments... wonder what that's about?




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