Railroads and Weather

Book excerpt: MUCH OF MY WEATHER and climate research over the past 50 years has focused on how atmospheric conditions impact the environment, the ec- omy, and human activities/health. These studies have led to several scientific papers and two books, one about the great floods of 1993 and the other about El Niño, 1997/98. Coupled with this scientific career orientation was a li- long interest in railroads. This avocation led me to write six books and numerous articles about many facets of railroads. The coupling of these two central intellectual interests led to the preparation of this book. Prior to the 1980 deregulation of the industry, there were many more railroads in operation. This text focuses on weather impacts and railroad adjustments since the 1940s. It covers decades when the challenges of weather and climate were faced by a larger number of companies, and this is well emphasized in the wide variety of photographs, which show trains belonging to companies that have now been absorbed or otherwise relegated to the halls of history. Most of the photographs were taken by me and two of my sons, David and Marc. Several friends supplied other photographs. This book has been made possible by several persons and institutions.