Western Railroad Discussion > Another Derailment at UP's East Spokane Yard

UP had another derailment in the East Spokane Yard Friday night or Saturday morning. By the time I got down to the yard in the afternoon the loaded centerbeams had been rerailed and were being checked out. The switch job had been pulled back under the I-90 overpass and tied down. Meanwhile a lengthy METSK was shoving back from Napa St to the East Spokane Yard. Bet that conductor was just loving to be able to ride the CP DPU loco instead of hanging on the side of the hopper in the falling snow shoving over icy crossings with irate drivers tell him he is number 1 in their book!

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

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I've read the history behind these needed "'shove" movements, and I can't believe UP does this.  Crazy way to run a railroad.

Thanks for the coverage Ted.

BB

coach Wrote:
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> I've read the history behind these needed "'shove"
> movements, and I can't believe UP does this.
>  Crazy way to run a railroad.

So there really is no need to shove like that?  Am not up on lots of things, Ted, why is this a bad thing? Just wondering,  thanks. Boyd in Chiloquin where its real cold and dark still.

BAB Wrote:
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> coach Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I've read the history behind these needed
> "'shove"
> > movements, and I can't believe UP does this.
> >  Crazy way to run a railroad.
>
> So there really is no need to shove like that? 
> Am not up on lots of things, Ted, why is this a
> bad thing? Just wondering,  thanks. Boyd in
> Chiloquin where its real cold and dark still.

There are many, many crossings that they have to go over that either have cross bucks signs or just flashers with NO gates, meaning that the traffic can cut accross the crossing, being close to be in an accident with the train..


SP8100

BAB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> coach Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I've read the history behind these needed
> "'shove"
> > movements, and I can't believe UP does this.
> >  Crazy way to run a railroad.
>
> So there really is no need to shove like that? 
> Am not up on lots of things, Ted, why is this a
> bad thing? Just wondering,  thanks. Boyd in
> Chiloquin where its real cold and dark still.

It's a really stupid operating plan.  For decades, UP used a perfectly good hump yard at Hinkle Oregon to efficiently switch this traffic.  Now they use a tiny, industrial sized yard in Spokane to do it (where these trains have to double and triple over because of short tracks), where they block crossing all the time and really piss motorists off.  In this case, the motorist have a right to be pissed off as this is a highly congested area.  For decades, UP has only used this yard for local switching (it's actually on a branch line!), something that doesn't cause all these lengthy problems.  UP should be forced to install grade seperations at each end of the yard since this has been a voluntary operating decision that THEY made.