One of the Joint Lines 'rescue motors", BNSF 9026, sits idle in the spur track of Spruce with a pair of bad order coal cars coupled behind it. Normally, a lone BNSF locomotive waits in the spur track incase a southbound train stalls climbing 1.4% grade of Palmer Lake. The two extra cars were set-out a couple of days before. These two cars were the last cars on a 124 car loaded coal train. Those cars were reported to have bad order defect and needed to be set-out in Denver. Unfortunately, the outbound crew was not informed and Denver sent the train south. Once enroute, the crew was notify of the set-out. The only location possible for the set-out was Spruce. The crew had to secure their train, unlink the lead locomotives from the DP locomotives, and run the train from the DP motors. Once they uncouple the bad ordered cars, they grabbed the rescue motor from the spur track and brought the cars off the main track. This resulted in a back-up on the hill that lasted into the next day.
