A few clarifications:

>Please keep in mind that the last years of Espee were heavily influenced and controlled by the new DRGW or Denver boys. Some of their beliefs were -We don't need a lot of rotaries, flangers and spreaders. They can be replaced with sets of ballast regulators.

The SP had been running flangers/spreaders in preference for decades before being purchased by the D&RGW.

>Also, Rocky Mountain snow is the same as Sierra Nevada snow. Snow is snow.

I see you've never heard of "Sierra Cement".

>In Dec 1992, someone decided that that the #2 track was not needed between Truckee and Reno when it stormed/snowed. It was neither plowed nor traversed when my parents travelled on a very tardy Amtrak #5 from Salt Lake.

This was during the Moyers era on the SP.

> Back to the original question. DRGW was not as fond with SS (spring switches) and they also replaced the "V" or flop over switches too. Train could run through yard switches at low speed and they were considered rubber and would change without causing damage.

SP "got rid" of their V swtiches in the 1980s.