A great 1915 photo from the William M McCarthy collection at the California State Archives. Titled, “Summit of the Sierras," it shows two sets of railroad tracks, which indicates this is not Donner Summit, as all the tracks there were covered. Is this the Yuba Pass area?

The fun in these old photographs is often in zooming in to see the detail. They are hard to see otherwise, but once we look more closely we can see a couple of buildings set up against the snow sheds. Must have been for workers on the railroad to enter and leave without actually going outside into the snow. Just to the left of the buildings, I have marked what appears to be an automobile subway under the tracks and snow sheds. This subway is just like the one at Donner Summit, so perhaps this will help us to identify this location. Zoomable photo here.

“McCarthy Album 07, Photograph 266,” California State Archives Exhibits, accessed September 29, 2019, http://exhibits.sos.ca.gov/items/show/9290.