Year: 2013

Title	Donner Combo: “Battle for Donner Pass” and “Across Donner Summit”
Producer	Pentrex
Format	DVD
Playing Time	3 hrs 17 min
Purchased From	RailfanDepot.com
Date Purchased	11/25/2009
Price Paid	$24.99

       I decided to review this particular DVD this month partly because it is available through February 28th at Trainvideodepot.com for $9.95 plus $2.98 for shipping via First Class Mail.  If you add other videos to bring your total order up to $20.00 or more there will be no shipping charge.  There are other Pentrex titles also on sale, some as low as $9.95 like this one, so it is a great time to buy some good RR videos.

Just the Battle for Donner Pass video alone is worth much more than the selling price but you also get Across Donner Summit for a total of 3 hrs. and 17 min. of entertainment.  As you can see above, I paid $24.99 for this combo DVD and consider that to be a bargain for all the entertainment provided by those two videos.

Battle for Donner Pass was shot in 1993, which was before the Southern Pacific – Union Pacific merger, so we see locomotives in SP colors and snow removal equipment with SP badging.

In Battle for Donner Pass we are given a very clear picture of what it takes to keep the tracks open and the trains moving over Donner Pass which is at 7000 feet in elevation, where snow accumulation is measured in feet and not inches.  Fierce winds can pile the snow to tremendous depths and avalanches can bury the right of way.

We see jordan spreaders and even rotary snow plows being used to clear the tracks.  In most scenes heavy snow is coming down as the work goes on.  The winter scenery is spectacular and the action shots put you “right there.”  We witness  a derailment of the rear truck on a jordan spreader and the front truck of the locomotive pushing it.  We then watch as these pieces of equipment are re-railed.

Another battle that we probably would not have thought about is the battle to keep the tunnels free of ice.  Ground water drips from the ceilings of these tunnels and seeps in through the tunnel walls.  This causes huge stalactites of ice that hang from the ceilings and gigantic pillars of ice on the tunnel walls.  Also, ice builds up on the tunnel floors and if not cleared would eventually cover the rails.  We witness the employment of ice-clearing techniques that make use of prima cord for the tunnel floors and shotguns for blasting the stalactites on the ceiling.

Across Donner Summit, although lacking the drama of Battle for Donner Pass, is also a very good video and provides two hours of entertaining and informative viewing.

You simply cannot go wrong by making this purchase!  You had better act before the supply runs out!