Western Railroad Discussion > Is UP again having problems at Hinkle Oregon?

I've heard recently that UP has again, on and off, been switching the METHK trains at their little Spokane WA yard.  For trains to access this yard when they come down from the north, they have to make a reverse (back up) move off the BNSF, over many busy city streets into their yard; then continue to block the crossings while they double or triple their train into and out of the small yard.  When UP first went on their PSR binge, Hinkle's hump was one of the first victims and this was the normal dumbass operations plan.  Over the past few years, even though UP was still doing the dumbass flat switching over the Hinkle hump, they haven't done the Spokane switching thing for awhile.

Seems odd that with business and traffic getting soft, why Hinkle is again having problems?

OK. I'm confused? Exactly what problem is Hinkle experiencing?
Thanks for any insight.
Gonut

I know one thing, UP should not be backing up trains!

Out 

callum_out Wrote:
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> I know one thing, UP should not be backing up
> trains!
>
> Out 

Agree!
Speaking for just this back up move there were several derailments over the course of the time they did this.
It's amazing how thunderous and loud it is when several autoracks get forced off the tracks.
I was about 2 blocks away when that happened.
Thank you Wyeth for the heads up!

It blows my mind that UP shut down the Hinkle hump operaton.  They need to admit they blew it, and reopen it, and fully use it again.

Gonut1 Wrote:
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> OK. I'm confused? Exactly what problem is Hinkle
> experiencing?
> Thanks for any insight.
> Gonut

You too I see oh well.

Gonut1 Wrote:
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> OK. I'm confused? Exactly what problem is Hinkle
> experiencing?
> Thanks for any insight.
> Gonut

When UP went on their PSR binge, they quite "humping" cars over the hump at Hinkle; instead, they would shove a train over the hump, then shove, pull, or "kick" cars into the bowl tracks.  When compared to how a "hump yard" should be used (as god intended), this flat switching method is very time consuming and unproductive.  As a result, UP drastically reduced the amount of cars that they could potentially classify at Hinkle (for some reason, they think this saves money - but it is more of a symbol statement thing).  To compensate for the reduced switching capacity there, UP moved a bunch of the switching to other yards (Portland, Nampa ID, Pocatello ID, and Spokane WA (as I mentioned above)).

My question is that for some reason, UP has gone back to using the little yard at Spokane a number of times over the past few weeks, I'm assuming, to relieve congestion at Hinkle. With business getting soft (lumber is down and that is a big commodity out of the PNW for carload traffic), it seems odd that UP would be having congestion problems now (as opposed to say, last summer).

I asked this question to inquire if others might know more of what is happening?

“Flat switching” cars in a hump is so illogical that Mr. Spock would have a meltdown. But to the cult of Harrison (PBUH) Newspeak is also the new diction. Living in PSR Bizzaro World is tiring. Seven years to go, if I can make it…

Regards

Posted from iPhone

They won't admit to their mistakes, at least not publicly. I've worked for this outfit for almost 30 years, both on the ground and in their management. Their arrogance knows no bounds.

coach Wrote:
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> It blows my mind that UP shut down the Hinkle hump
> operaton.  They need to admit they blew it, and
> reopen it, and fully use it again.

That was Vena's idea, while he was with UP, before being shown the door.  I don't think UP's BOD wants him back even though the hedge funds are pushing for it.  He upset too many apple carts while at UP.

Allen

Drknow Wrote:
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> “Flat switching” cars in a hump is so
> illogical that Mr. Spock would have a meltdown.
> But to the cult of Harrison (PBUH) Newspeak is
> also the new diction. Living in PSR Bizzaro World
> is tiring. Seven years to go, if I can make it…
>
> Regards
>
> Posted from iPhone

Nobody in upper management has any stones.  The hedge funds are trying to run the show, indirectly.  Anything to keep the stock price up.

Allen

bradleymckay Wrote:
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> coach Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > It blows my mind that UP shut down the Hinkle
> hump
> > operaton.  They need to admit they blew it,
> and
> > reopen it, and fully use it again.
>
> That was Vena's idea, while he was with UP, before
> being shown the door.  I don't think UP's BOD
> wants him back even though the hedge funds are
> pushing for it.  He upset too many apple carts
> while at UP.
>
> Allen

Hinkle's hump was shut down before the Vena storm made it's arrival at UP - it was a genuine stUPid idea from the start.

Hump yards are costly to maintain. With that said, trust me when I say flat switching is time consuming and a pain in the.......

Posted from Android

ns1000 Wrote:
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> Hump yards are costly to maintain. With that said,
> trust me when I say flat switching is time
> consuming and a pain in the.......

People say this, but they never back it up.

What is the annual maintenance cost of the scales, the retarders, the hump control computers, and the power turnouts?  I really doubt it is that much, and saving it wouldn't juice your stock price.

The savings from closing hump yards was much more from simply not performing unnecessary classifications and delaying cars en-route for a yarding. It finally dawned on people that if you pre-blocked more cars at origin to more places, you could hump cars less along the way because they would travel further before needing to be more finely classified.

Imagine a yard like Abrams Yard near my home (and I am not saying what I am about to describe is what NS actually does).  It used to block outbound Allentown and Conway cars only, and the cars would all be humped at those two yards.  It is not particularly much more difficult to also block, say, Elkhart, Binghamton, and Chatanooga cars, and doing so eliminates a lot of work at Allentown and some at Conway.  The Allentown block, which used to include all short distance cars plus everything moving north or south now loses most of the north or south traffic, which instead moves directly via block swapping.  Conway also simplifies a bit because now there is a long distance block forwarded to Elkhart via block swapping.  The flat switching at Abrams is not particularly more complicated.  Inbound locals are broken up into 5 different tracks instead of 2.  They were getting switched anyway, the total amount of switching does not increase by 150% though, because many cars inbound on the locals to the yards are all headed in the same direction because of the limited number of customers and logistic routes being handled, so the total number of switching moves perhaps increases by 50% to create these additional blocks.