Western Railroad Discussion > Ooops.......Precision Scheduled derailment in Pocatello

https://www.idahostatejournal.com/news/local/two-locomotives-several-rail-cars-derail-at-union-pacific-yard/article_ebe8bd50-1fcc-5ca5-aca8-20a4622eeb74.html?fbclid=IwAR37LZjr1pubmoq6UKxsqI-HItBXA0Nrv63NkpPtNwba3IK9ISw317A6MAg

The news article was uninformed at best, but a big "oops" did happen in Pocatello.  RCO job had overridden pullback protection pucks to run around train for switching.  Then the crew went down in the vehicle to protect the shove east to perform switching moves.  The locomotives were all the way down by the clearence cone, beyond the last puck, so that no pullback protection was reestablished.  The switch foreman, who was WAY down in the rail forgot which direction the engine was facing and when the direction was selected.........let's just say it wasn't the correct direction.  They ran the red block onto the yard lead and ran over the powered derail, piling up cars, knocking out two different main lines as well as the yard lead.  They ALSO knocked down a power pole, cutting out power to the whole yard.  It was a fiasco.  With Pocatello RCO jobs flat switching most of Hinkle's cars now (with the hump shut down), could this be partially caused by PSR?  Who knows.  It sure made a mess though.

Promotion to Superintendent in the works.

Sounds like a good old fashioned "wasn't thinking" mistake to me.   Such a mistake can impact PSR but I wouldn't say it was caused by PSR.