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Jay: Rotaries are used on Donner in heavy-snow years. In the last 30 years, this averages about once ever fou-six years. The first line of defense (other than the plow pilot of a locomotive), is the flanger, which picks the snow and ice out from between the track and pushes it away from the field sides of the rails a few feet. Second line of defense is the spreader, which has extendable wings. Usually the practice is to run one down the inside track, depositing the snow on the outside track, followed shortly by a second on the outside track, depositing the snow over the side of the hill. As you point out, you can't run a train down a track on which you've just dumped three extra feet of packed heavy snow! In really heavy snows that the spreaders can't handle, then the rotaries are used. The key in all snow fighting is to have some place to put the snow. A spreader is only good up to about 8 feet of depth, and can only pu***he snow about 15-20 feet away from the center line. If the snow keeps falling, you eventually run out of places for the spreader to pu***he snow, and have to use a rotary. The alternative to the rotary is the dozer; the Alaska Railroad, the other heavy-snow operator, through the Kenai Mountains between Portage and Seward, uses Caterpillar D7s. This works for them because their traffic is so thin.
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