The guy that owns this one owns a whole bunch of little shortlines. I met him one day when he needed a tamper moved. Seemed like a real regular guy. He drove up to meet me with an old GMC 10 wheel dump wearing work clothes. When we got done loading it he was just as greasy as I was. It was a 45 year old tamper with a 2-71 Detroit on it so it was a little dirty and oily. Who knows though, I know a few guys like that who probably have more money than God

The future is already here, all of the rails are running 24/7 and most are at max capacity, there will never be a time when all your freight moves by rail because there is just too much freight to be moved. Yes its cheaper and most times faster but lets face it, trucks are here to stay regaurdless of how efficient trains are

It may be cheaper in some respects on a ton per mile cost basis, but it is not faster. Once a load reaches the railyard, it has to be loaded on a railcar, and then the train has to be made up and sent out for the haul. We pick up a lot of work when things go wrong with the railroad and the cars get delayed. It typically takes 4-5 days for a loaded car to go from Ft Wayne In to Iowa City IA, and when the train doesn't appear on time they call us. From the time they seal the hatch on the trailer until I start unloading is around 6-6.5 hours.

And it is only cheaper if you have direct rail access to your delivery point and can handle the railcars. Many plants don't have rail access, and require a truck to finish the work. I do some hauls that are less than three miles, but that's the only way to get the product from the railcar to the delivery point.

I work with the railroads a lot and they are a good partner with us, but they have their limits and that's what we take advantage of.

I dont know why it would take so long to get a rail car from IN. to IA, thats only what, 400 miles? A typical train leaving Portland or Seattle to Chicago only takes 3 or 4 days and more often than not once its in the yard its a matter of only hours before the whole train is unloaded. This is why alot of companies are using the rail (J.B., Schnider, etc..) is because it is faster and cheaper.

A typical day for a rail load (speaking west coast here) is maybe drive 1, 2, 300 miles get load bring it back to the rail, load cars and send it on its way that night. Anyway, trains have their place and pull a ton of freight but trucks will never go away

The reason it takes the amount of time that it does is that the train picks up the loaded car in the Ft Wayne area one night and hauls it to the railyard near Ft Wayne, where it waits until they have enough cars and freight lined up to send it on it's way. It then goes to the big makeup yard near Monticello In, where other incoming westbound cars are brought in and enough cars added until you have atrain made up that can be dispatched to the iowa area. It leaves, and may stop at one of the Chicago area yards before being switched and added to again before making the trip to Iowa. Once there, the cars have to be broken down into smaller runs that a shuttle engine can take out on the tracks at night and deliver, at the same time that it is picking up and shuttling outbound cars to begin the proces in the other direction.

A load may go from Chicago to Los Angeles relatively direct, but from other than extremely high traffic locations, there is a time delay that factors into rail freight movement.

Rail transport's strong suit is that they can move massive amounts of freight on a relatively low cost per mile basis. It's achilles heel is that it is not so great at quick point to point service. When you see Hunt or Schneider making use of the rails, they are moving the boxes to places where they can make a straight connection, but a lot of freight doesn't work that way.

10-4 cant argue with that

So what you guys are saying is Warren Buffet has made his first really bad move? Well, I think I'll keep my money on Warren. The railroads are gonna take more and more of a chunk beginning in...say....2009.

The dumpers and cement trucks will still be solo. This is because they don't idle overnight filling the air with exhaust while their drivers get their beauty sleep.

Trucks are easy targets, as are the drivers of those trucks. The coming green wave will be looking for easy targets when it starts rolling. It'll need quick successes, and cracking down on the trucking industry is where it'll have the biggest, quickest successes of all.

Warren is betting a lot of (somebody else's) money on it. And considering the guy is the second richest wig in the USA, third in the world, I predict you'll see a lot more freight moving via rails real soon. Enjoy the "good ol' days", gentlemen.

__________________
--Paved Dudley--

Yeah I drive a Swift truck
And that means one thing
It means she's slow
It's a typical company truck
It's just all show and no go

I'm gettin' passed by Yella
And even Overnite
I'm gettin' passed by ever' body in sight
46 days on the road
And I'm not gettin' home tonight

No, my hometown's nowhere in sight
And if you think I'm pissed off
You're right
46 days on the road
And I'm not gettin' home tonight


Love pissing off those trucking company insiders.

I dont think it has anything to do with how rich or smart Warren is, nobody can argue that, its just that the rails are at max capacity now and they would be hard pressed to get more freight and cars on their tracks, the big rail push was in the mid 90's and unless someone builds more track, between now and 2009 like you say......then how is that gonna happen? There is just so much line available to put freight on rail cars

Actually, from talking to some of the workers in the yard, they could increase traffic to some extent. The biggest problem that the railroads have is labor. They simply don;t have enough bodies to do all the jobs they need to do. Everyone tends to just think of the engineers, but there are a lot of ground based workers hooking up the cars and doing the maintenance on the tracks and equipment. Those are the guys that the railroad has problems with. Not as many people come in as they need. If you live in an area with a railyard, it's a pretty good place to work, and the pay is right up there at the top.

If i lived near a raliyard, there is a good chance that I would be working in one. Unortunately, most of them are located in towns, and I am a bit of a country boy.

That's true. There are labor shortages at the marshalling yards. But Warren has put a ton of other people's money into the rails. There will be a way found to make sure railroads turn a profit. They'll find the labor. They'll find the cars. They'll find everything. You better believe they will.

They will slowly start next year and in 2009, then increase in speed into the "two thousand teens". By 2015, perhaps half of all freight will be moved by the railroads.

The fun part is trying to figure out how they're gonna do it. As you guys say, there are some definite bottlenecks ahead. But if we can make educated decisions, we may be able to make some good money riding Warren's coat tails. Get your pencils out and start figuring out where to put some investment mulla, guys.

Warren's latest effort won't be allowed to fail. It's too politically dangerous for him to fail. Besides...he's a member of the elites. He knows exactly what's going down in the next ten years. It will be fun watching this unfold when you already know it's coming. Time to get a plan and call an investment banker.

__________________
--Paved Dudley--

Yeah I drive a Swift truck
And that means one thing
It means she's slow
It's a typical company truck
It's just all show and no go

I'm gettin' passed by Yella
And even Overnite
I'm gettin' passed by ever' body in sight
46 days on the road
And I'm not gettin' home tonight

No, my hometown's nowhere in sight
And if you think I'm pissed off
You're right
46 days on the road
And I'm not gettin' home tonight


Love pissing off those trucking company insiders.