Approximately 10 times a day, giant load trains pass along a narrow track section along the Sacramento River at the northern end of California, where locomotive engineers are tense regularly with stress.
“Every time, it is almost the lady” of a train that hits a person, said Ryan Snow, president of the State of California, of the Brotherhood of Engineers of Locomotives and Trainmen. “Multiple nearby failures, every race. My nightmare is that a family that is not paying attention is beaten.”
This particular section of the track, which goes north from the city of Dunsmir, is a renegade route for hikers from one of the most charming natural places in northern California, Mossbrae Falls. Fed from glaciers on Mount Shasta, water is poured from the lava tubes and by the moss -covered cliffs, forming a green and ethereal waterfall in a quiet and shaded hole.
It seems magical. Is Also inaccessible – Unless visitors transfer more than one mile on the tracks or walk across the river. Accidents have happened. Two people have been beaten by trains in recent years (although both survived). In May, a woman from southern California drowned after trying to reach the cataracts through the river. But tourists are still arriving. Drawn by Instagram and Tiktok, a growing number of people has visited cataracts: almost 30,000 according to a city study, most of them crossing the train tracks.
For years, outdoor enthusiasts in Lunsmuir and their surroundings have pushed Union Pacific Railroad, who owns the tracks, to work with the city to create a safe, accessible and legal path. But the effort has been persecuted for delays.
This week, the Train Workers Union decided to enter the fray, issuing a press release that denounced the slow progress and asked Union Pacific to make more to make the dream of a long time ago of a path a long time ago.
“Every month that passes without a real construction timeline, the lives are at risk,” Snow said in a statement. The statement also accused Union Pacific from “slowly walking” the project, saying that railroad officials have requested meetings after meeting, but has never produced a commitment to the right of passage or a clear construction schedule.
Many engineers, Snow said, are frustrated and feel that the delay “unfairly endangers both railway and public staff.”
In a statement, Union Pacific said that the railroad had “approved the concept of a path in Mossbrae Falls years ago, and we have been working with the city of Dunsmuir and the Mount Shasta Trail association to find solutions that address everyone's security concerns.”
At the beginning of this summer, the officials of the city of Dunsmuir celebrated a “summit” with officials from Union Pacific to travel the cataracts and talk about the connection of proposed paths.
City officials said that the summit, which included representatives of the offices of local elected officials, as well as the rail and Denver rail officials, marked “a new milestone in the slow but stable process.” A press release from the city said that “Key Union Pacific officials had the opportunity to see cataracts for the first time, recognizing the importance of building public access to this beautiful natural resource.”
But some defenders of the paths have long said they were not convinced that the dream is closer. John Harch, a retired surgeon with him Mount Shasta Trail Assn. And he has been working with others for years in public access, he said he still did not see evidence of concrete progress.
“Here we sat, as before, while people risk their lives to see falls,” he wrote in an email.
Snow said he hopes that the public can press the holidays to advance concrete.
“We have been lucky that we have not had any death caused by an intruder strike,” he said. “The worst thing an engineer can do is hit someone. It's stressful.”
Meanwhile, he said, the route is only becoming more popular. “It is in hiking and internet magazines everywhere. It is attracting more and more people.”
He added: “I can't blame them. It's beautiful.”
