SAN FRANCISCO — This time, the river was lucky, according to an editorial written by Tom Stienstra and published in the San Francisco Chronicle.
A freight train derailed in the Sacramento River canyon last week and three railcars went tumbling wheels-up into the water. This was reminiscent of the worst inland toxic spill in California history, when a similar derailment spilled 13,000 gallons of poison into the same river, killing all aquatic life for 40 miles from Dunsmuir (Siskiyou County) to Shasta Lake.
This time, however, instead of poison, it was lumber and newsprint that went plummeting into the water. It looked like enough wood floating downstream to build a house.
Union Pacific said that eight cars on a freight train derailed, three landing in the river.
This derailment occurred near the canyon town of Gibson. That is only 15 miles south of the landmark derailment and spill by a Southern Pacific train in June of 1991. Union Pacific, which purchased Southern Pacific, said it is conducting an investigation to determine the cause of the derailment.
Insiders on the scene believe that Union Pacific can largely solve the problem of derailments here by using cement ties to keep the rails in place. That is because a rail problem called “sun kinks” is prevalent in the spring and fall in the Shasta foothills.
A sun kink occurs when the rail expands during a hot afternoon, then shrinks and cracks in the cold night that follows. This is most common in the fall when temperature swings can range 40 to 50 degrees in a 24-hour period. It can cause the rail to bow out on curves, and is why Union Pacific tries to monitor rail temperatures almost continuously.
In bureaucratic gobbledygook, “sun kinks” are called “thermal misalignments” by Union Pacific.
After Union Pacific purchased Southern Pacific, it installed cement ties at significant cost in much of the area near Dunsmuir and Cantara Loop, the site of the toxic spill of 1991. The railroad also constructed a spill-proof bridge at Cantara Loop.
There’s some personal coincidence in this story. When the recent derailment occurred, I was driving down the canyon, heading from Mount Shasta to the Bay Area, and reported the accident to Chronicle editors. In the landmark spill in June of 1991, almost the same thing happened when I was returning from a trip to the Trinity Alps, and reported the story by phone to San Francisco.