How did the floods of 1993 affect the railroads?

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

In the topic "Why the 90s ruled, one of the reasons listed was the floods of '93. So, how did the '93 floods affect the railroads?

Willy

2

Cost a lot of money and A ton of bizzare deture routes

DOGGY

3

Take a look at the October '93 issue of Trains, there is a huge article/report on the floods. Good Read
-justin

4

The lines along the Mississippi River (parallel) were largely closed for weeks. Also lines crossing the upper Mississippi (Minnesota, Iowa, MO) had many closures as well. Lots of track in Iowa was under water.

5

The C&NW Chicago to Omaha had lots of detoure trains a guy who worked for C&NW told they too k eveyone vacation due to so many trains. One Enginner told me that he was out of work for 5 weeks while the AT&SF was flooded and Another guy told me he got the last SP train out of West Quincy then they had him go down to Bloomingon

DOGGY

6

The floods of 1993 affected the railroads as alot of them had to cross bridges and some had yards that were in low areas and near the rivers and small streams which were affected by run-off from other areas.Look at the Mississippi River and the railroads that are near it. Justin is right…order or find the October 1993 issue.I’m sure your library may have the issue or I could make you a copy of it and send it to you at no charge.I also have other rail magazines that did cover the flood of 1993, and they are CTC BOARD,PACIFIC RAIL NEWS and some books that I have as well,also talk about the flood.I hope this helps.If you would like to have a copy of the article…please contact me off-line at my e-mail address...andrewfiltz@yahoo.com
Thanks,
Andrew

7

Thanks everyone! I will check the library for the issue. I know that they do have some issues of TRAINS stored away in the magazine section. I’ll check and I hope they have the particular issue that you recommended.

Willy

8

Willy2:

It goes beyond just detours…Crisis like these test a railroad’s organizational mettle. How many of those railroads dealt with adversity in 1993, they couldn’t do now after mergers and streamlining. Railroads are a lot less self sufficient now. People in crisis pull together and do some amazing things.

ATSF never found some of the track and ballast cars from Niota, Illinois…Ma Nature was really on a tear that year…