Berkshire Hathaway har gradvis over de siste årene kjøpt seg opp togselskapet Burlington Northern Santa Fe, før de i 2009 valgte å kjøpe hele selskapet.

BNSF lokomotiver ved Argentine Yard i Kansas City

44 milliarder dollar betalte Berkshire for de resterende 77,4 prosent av aksjene i det som er [...]]]> Satser mest på tog

Berkshire Hathaway har gradvis over de siste årene kjøpt seg opp togselskapet Burlington Northern Santa Fe, før de i 2009 valgte å kjøpe hele selskapet.

BNSF lokomotiver ved Argentine Yard i Kansas City

44 milliarder dollar betalte Berkshire for de resterende 77,4 prosent av aksjene i det som er USAs nest største togselskap. Dette inkluderte 10 milliarder dollar i gjeld.

“Dette er et «all-in» veddemål på den økonomiske utviklingen i USA. Jeg elsker denne typen veddemål“, sa investoren den gang.

Les mer på E24

Et Intermodaltog fra BNSF på vei ned Edelstein Hill i Illinois

NY Times skriver dette om handelen i november 2009:

For $50 or so, you can buy a Thomas the Tank Engine train set and feel as powerful as Sir Topham Hatt, the somewhat wooden overseer of the mythical North Western Railway Company. Or, if you are the investor Warren E. Buffett, you can purchase the complete set of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation, for $26 billion or so.

Comes with 40,000 employees, 6,700 locomotives, and access to hundreds of thousands of freight cars. Some assembly required.

Although Mr. Buffett’s plans are rooted in the cool calculation of good returns on an investment, his throwaway line taps into the romantic distinction of his latest acquisition. He is not buying just anything. He is buying trains — and thus the rapt attention of the societal subset known as railfans. A quarter-million strong, by their estimates, they are deeply knowledgeable, a little prickly about being dismissed as nerds, and so enthusiastic that Mr. Buffett’s following of devoted investors will seem disengaged by comparison.

You’re a railfan if you have waited in the chill of early morning to watch a freight train pass through Horseshoe Curve in Altoona, Pa. You’re a railfan if you live for a serendipitous “meet” — when, with camera in hand, you witness the point at which trains traveling in opposite directions pass each other.

Railfans ved Horseshoe Curve i Pennsylvania

Another thing. What is so nerdy about a hobby that encourages you to travel this country — to see trains passing through Altoona, or climbing the swirl of California’s Tehachapi Loop, or rumbling along the Wyoming flatness of a nowhere place called Bill?

Navnet Lawmen kommer av at medlemmene i bandet visstnok er eller har vært ansatt i politistyrken til Norfolk Southern

The Heartland Corridor er i hovedsak den gamle hovedlinja til Norfolk & Western som går fra Norfolk gjennom Appalachiafjellene og statene Virginia [...]]]> Norfolk Southern feirer åpningen av the Heartland Corridor med sang og musikk…

Navnet Lawmen kommer av at medlemmene i bandet visstnok er eller har vært ansatt i politistyrken til Norfolk Southern

The Heartland Corridor er i hovedsak den gamle hovedlinja til Norfolk & Western som går fra Norfolk gjennom Appalachiafjellene og statene Virginia og West Virginia med forbindelser til Chicago. Utfordringen har vært at de mange tunellene på strekningen ikke har hatt nok høyde for at de kan sende dobbelstackcontainere gjennom slik at disse har måttet ta en stor omvei enten via Harrisburg og Horseshoe Curve i Pennsylvania eller via Knoxville, Tennessee.

Her har de så enten senket skinnegangen, tatt bort mer av taket eller gjort om dobbeltsporete tuneller til enkeltspor fordi det er større høyde i midten. Ombygginga startet i 2007 og de har gjort endringer i 28 tuneller, mens trafikken med massevis av kull og andre tog har gått som normalt, men med fastsatte tidsrom hver dag hvor det ikke var tog på linja.

Her er en video som forklarer hvor the Heartland Corridor befinner seg og hva de har gjort.

Hele ruta åpner for trafikk med dobbelstackere fra 9. september 2010

Slik starter en flott artikkel [...]]]> “Stuart and Mary Beth Lodge sit back in their chairs on an outdoor viewing platform and wait for the show to begin. Suddenly, they hear the blast of a horn, followed by the roar of diesel locomotives. A mile-long freight train races by 70 feet in front of them.”

Slik starter en flott artikkel i Wall Street Journal om disse “underlige” menneskene som drar på trainspotting vacations. Artikkelen tar først og fremst for seg den såkalte “railfan plattformen” i Folkston, Georgia som byen Folkston har satt opp for å tiltrekke seg flere togfans i håp om at de legger igjen noen kroner til lokale overnattingssteder og butikker. “Now, Folkston is figuring out how to profit from that passion. Officials are turning what many local residents here have considered a major annoyance — the gritty, noisy railroad tracks through the center of town — into a tourist attraction.  Thousands of train lovers now flock to the platform each year to watch the 70 CSX freight and Amtrak passenger trains that come through town every 24 hours.”

En plattform for togtitting i Folkston, Georgia

Artikkelforfatteren har tydeligvis vært en aktiv en togfan selv og skriver: “”In my late teens and 20s I’d go to country areas with busy freight tracks, sometimes camping with friends near tracks in northeast Pennsylvania. There was the quiet and solitude, then the amazing rush of energy and noise when a huge train broke the silence. Then the silence returned, and the anticipation built up for the next rush.”

Det er hyggelig å se at en slik artikkel er publisert i en stor og anerkjent avis som WSJ, men er det litt merkelig at den ikke har fått noen kommentarer overhode?

Han nevner to andre slike plattformer i nærheten i byene Jesup og  Manchester som begge ligger i Georgia og tilsammen kalles dette “ Iron Triangle tour of Georgia”

Til slutt nevnes ni andre steder over hele USA som er fine steder å se tog på.
Altoona, PA – Horseshoe Curve i umiddelbar nærhet
Rochelle, IL – enda et sted med en dedikert plattform med fasiliteter bygget for å kunne oppholde seg der noen timer
Essex, MT – Et berømt hotell ligger rett ved sporet – Izaak Walton Inn med Glacier National Park som det store trekkplasteret
Princeton Junction, NJ – Ligger langs “the Northeast Corridor” med Amtrak og lokaltog fra NJ Transit susende forbi hele dagen
Winslow, AZ – Her ligger La Posada som er et berømt hotell/restaurant
Tehachapi, CA – Tehachapi Loop er et flott skue med mye trafikk
North Platte, NE – Her ligger Bailey Yard som påstås å være verdens største skiftetomt. Union Pacific kjører mellom 100 og 150 godstog i døgnet på denne linja
Hinsdale, IL – Ligger vest for Chicago langs det såkalte “racetrack” som er tre spor med masse lokaltog og godstog fra BNSF og flere Amtrak tog. Det er flere stasjoner langs denne linja som er fine
Deshler, OH – Her er det en park som er en trygg plass å observere tog fra

Let’s start with some DON’Ts.

1) A train is really, really big. Can we all accept that? Not even your Ram/F350/Hummer is a match for a locomotive. You say you have a Cummins diesel? Caterpillar? Detroit? Oooooooh. Well I have an EMD 567 on [...]]]> A few pointers from your friendly neighborhood locomotive engineer

Let’s start with some DON’Ts.

1) A train is really, really big. Can we all accept that? Not even your Ram/F350/Hummer is a match for a locomotive. You say you have a Cummins diesel? Caterpillar? Detroit? Oooooooh. Well I have an EMD 567 on a bad day, and even its pathetic eighteen-hundred horsepower will pound you and your gleaming pickup into the fourth dimension, so please, stay behind the white line!

2) I hate blocking crossings. Seriously, I feel like a complete jerk when I stop a train in the middle of the road and leave two dozen motorists to ponder their lattes and ask what the heck I’m doing. The truth is, sometimes it has to be done, so don’t honk at me, flip me off, or scream at me from the window of your Dodge Caravan as you’re shooting a U. Instead, be patient and try to believe that there’s a point to what I’m doing. It’s called switching, and my conductor is depending on me to work slowly and not run him over. If you don’t believe me, Wiki that.

3) Don’t climb on the equipment. I hate to sound like your mother, but you’re saving me a lot of paperwork and horrifying flashbacks by staying off the equipment. To you it might look like an abandoned train or a free ride, but when that train starts to move with you on it, there’s a fucking good chance you won’t be able to hold on. As long as you’re on Wikipedia, punch in “slack action” and see what comes up. Also, the romance of riding freight trains is total BS. They’re really dark, really cold, really windy, and hobos are SCARY.

4) Don’t put stuff on the tracks. It’s dangerous to me and my conductor, and it’s ten times more dangerous for you and everyone else on the ground. If you’re wondering “can a train go over a rock?” the answer is YES. There’s only one problem. You probably haven’t wondered where the million shards of rock are going to go at four times the speed of sound, have you?

5) Stop whining about the horn. Countless accidents have been avoided because drivers missed the flashing lights but heard the horn. You’d have to blast Miley Cyrus and Lil’ Bow Wow pretty loud to drown out a five-chime, and often that’s the only thing that saves people. Still, that’s no reason to keep your stereo at eighty decibels as you’re rolling through a crossing at sixty without looking both ways.

6) By and large, railroad cops are major douche bags, so when you’re trespassing on railroad property, keep your head out of your butt. These guys didn’t make it into the real police force. Also, walking on bridges and in tunnels is extremely dangerous. Ask yourself: If a train comes, where will I go? Trains are much wider than the rails they run on, so don’t be fooled.

Now for some of the DO’S.

1) If you see a large object (like a garbage can or an F350) that’s about to get love-tapped by a hotshot freight train, get in the clear. If its about to fly at a railroad crossing, run to the side of the street that the train is coming from. That way you’ll be behind the point of impact and you won’t have to worry about catching that beautiful pickup and its over-confident driver square on your shoulders. If you run away from the train you’re just putting yourself in the line of fire, and the death toll could very possibly be two.

2) If the gates stay down and the lights stay flashing, stay where you are. I guaran-fucking-tee there’s another train coming, and speeding onto the tracks the moment the first train clears is a lot like celebrating a touchdown too early. WHAM.

3) When you’re waiting for a train to pass, it’s a good idea to stay back thirty or forty feet. Trains are operated by professionals, but often they’re loaded by total clowns. I’ve heard some real nasty stories about payloads falling off flatcars and crushing people in their vehicles, or doors sliding off boxcars and ripping through everything in their path. It’s rare, but it happens!

4) Always report problems or suspicious activity. If you see a photographer with a radio scanner and a big-ol’ notebook, ignore him. We know that guy. But if there’s a dude in street clothes working a crowbar through a signal box, hit us up and tell us what the deal is. Railroad crossings usually have signs with emergency numbers, or you can call the non-emergency number for your local fuzz. If an accident has already occurred or a life is at risk, call 911 instead. Pretty sure they have our number.

5) Last but not least, when you’re inconvenienced by a train, remember that we’re pulling for you! Trains are a great way to conserve fuel, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and keep American jobs alive and green. Rail technology is the best solution to our energy crisis, and as the rail network grows in the years to come, it’s important for everyone to stay safe. Look, listen, LIVE.