These fives units were mid-train DPUs on a westbound loaded oil train. The crew followed the train (in a van) to Colton, where the DPUs were de-linked from the oil train and the crew got aboard the five units and cut them out of the oil train. They were getting ready to return to Helper when they discovered PTC was not working on the lead unit, UP 8377. They called UP's "PTC Help Desk" to see if they could get an exemption to return to Helper without PTC enabled.
Unfortunately, the lady working the PTC help desk did not understand that these units were cut out here at Colton, about 20 miles west of Helper. The help desk said that they needed to swap units with one that had PTC operationally. As the crew explained (and as you can see in this shot) the other four units are facing west and could not be used as a leader. The crew went back and forth with the help desk for nearly an hour! At one point, the crew lost their patience and said "we've been running trains out here for 150 years...why can't we just get a PTC exemption to run 20 miles east". Finally, after speaking with supervisors, the PTC help desk granted them an exception to return to helper without PTC enabled.
