Non-turbo'd Geeps were notorious for setting fires on UP's Mica Hill southeast of Spokane. Originally part of MILW's secondary main through Spokane, it later became a UP property for more direct access to Plummer (lumber mill and interchange with STMA) and connection to the Wallace Branch. Although the Wallace Branch in its pure form is now long gone, the line up Mica Hill is still called the Wallace Sub. For many years, the hills and trees on the upper part of the 1.7 percent compensated grade displayed telltale signs of recent fire damage. There's an elongated horseshoe/S-curve in the area where Highway 27 passes over the UP just north of Mica. The Plummer Turn is typically down to a crawl here, I estimate more as a precaution against rocking or stringlining of empties. But once the head end clears the horseshoe, they throttle up, and that's the precise area where the landscape used to be blackened in years past. And it's not always exhaust that's to blame. There's ample potential for dry wheel slip when you have a couple of Geeps, turbo'd or not, lugging loaded hoppers through summer wheat fields.