A freight train had a close call near Dunsmuir when more than a dozen cars derailed along the Cantara Loop last Sunday night.
The incident happened at about 10:30 p.m. on March 1 west of Interstate 5, said Union Pacific Railroad spokesperson Jill Micek.
The derailment happened outside of Dunsmuir city limits, according to the city. Union Pacific Railroad contacted city officials at 5 a.m. Monday to let them know about the incident earlier that night. Nothing spilled out of the cars, at least some of which were carrying grain.
Luckily no one was hurt in this incident, and “…the train derailment didn’t obstruct any roadways or block railway crossings,” Siskiyou County Sheriff’s spokesperson Sage Milestone said. The county “is monitoring the incident and is in contact with Union Pacific Railroad to render assistance as needed.”
Micek confirmed that nothing spilled when the train cars strayed from the track. “Cleanup is underway,” she said Tuesday, March 3, “and the cause is under investigation.”
This week’s is the latest in at least four incidents at the same Siskiyou County spot on the tracks about five miles northwest of downtown Dunsmuir.
Cantara Loop’s hairpin turn near Dunsmuir site of at least 4 derailed trains
The derailment is the latest incident at the Cantara Loop, the site of two other derailments over the past five years and a 35-year-old disaster that poisoned the Sacramento River from Dunsmuir to Lake Shasta.
On July 14, 1991, freight cars on a Southern Pacific Railroad train overturned along the Cantara Loop, dumping more than 19,000 gallons of metam sodium into the Sacramento River. The herbicide flowed south for 20 or more miles into Lake Shasta.
The spill made Dunsmuir residents ill, killed more than a million fish, tens of thousands of amphibians and crayfish, millions of aquatic invertebrates including insects and mollusks, and hundreds of thousands of willow, alder and cottonwood trees. It took 12 years to rehabilitate the Sacramento River, according to a report from the Cantara Trustee Council, formed to address restoration and public education.
Another derailment happened on Aug. 27, 2021, when 18 Union Pacific Railroad train cars overturned. The Siskiyou County Office of Emergency Services reported the cars were intact and there were no injuries.
At least two lumber cars toppled over during a third derailment on Nov. 15, 2022 — 15 months after the 2021 incident, the county’s Emergency Support Services spokesperson Ally Kutzer said in 2022.
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The Cantara Loop is a steep climb for trains navigating through the mountains, said Mount Shasta resident Tom Ferrel who witnessed the 2022 derailment.
“The train goes up the canyon and doubles back on the bridge over the Sacramento River.” The back part of a long freight train is still on the track coming up out of the canyon when the front of the train is crossing the bridge, putting the train at a tight angle, Ferrel said.
Jessica Skropanic is a features reporter for the Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. She covers science, arts, social issues and news stories. Follow her on Twitter @RS_JSkropanic and on Facebook. Join Jessica on Record Searchlight Facebook groups Get Out! Nor Cal , Today in Shasta County and Shaping Redding’s Future. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today. Thank you.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Close call at Cantara Loop in Dunsmuir after train cars derail
Reporting by Jessica Skropanic, Redding Record Searchlight / Redding Record Searchlight
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