The Union Pacific Railroad doesn't miss a trick, does it?

[dknelson]

Talk about an operation that is really on top of things.

Not only are they prompt in sending a bill to a young girl they maimed (see Newswire) for the damage SHE caused to their equipment in the course of becoming maimed, but they have teams of lawyers who -- in the exact manner of low-level Mafiosi roaming the diners and truck stops of upper New Jersey -- demand a piece of the action of the entire model railroad industry, an industry that probably clears enough profit in a year to maybe buy or at least rent one prototype flatcar. I notice for example that a newly released brass Texas & Pacific 2-10-4 is officially licensed by the UP! As if they have any interest in running the real one! Could any member of the Board of DIrectors of the UP correctly find the location of the T&P on a map?

Meanwhile their trains sit in sidings and they divert traffic they fought for to the trucks because they don''t have the crews or the power to run them. Where is the power? Oh .... in the paint shop being "rebranded" from the original CNW or SP paint scheme .... Where are the crews? Oh they were furloughed to create the "profit" from their various mergers and acquisitions.

But their steam program is extremely well run. The older they pretend to be, the better, it seems.

Shades of ancient Rome. The city is burning but the violin music is exquisite, Mr. Nero.

Dave Nelson

[bnsfkline]

SELL UP TO THE RAILFANS! We will operate it like a REAL railroad

[edblysard]

Funny, but the posting at the begining of this thread seemd to indicate that UP expected the young lady or her family to pay said bill, yet the newswire story clearly quoats the UP spokesman as saying it was a mistake, and that UP had already decided not to bill for damages.

By the way, most railroads do bill for just such things, after all, they drove out in front of our train, right?

Understand, I have sympathy for the young lady, and no desire to start a crossing safety war here, but if your going to damn a company, then damn them for doing something horriblely wrong, not for screwing up and then publicly admitting they made a mistake.

If you are going to paraphrase a story, include all the salient parts, editing by ommision can lead to people not having all the facts, therefore drawing a incorrect conclusion.

As for UP excersieing its licenseing agreement, just as a experiment, I took a look last week, when shoping for some detail parts.

Athern GP38, in Chessie paint verses same exact model in UP paint.
Price difference?
$0.00
Thats right, none.

Same thing on a boxcar, and a caboose, different road names verses UP, same price.

The licenseing fee UP charges is, most likely, a one time deal, and a small fee at that.

The model makers buy the right to apply UP's logo and name to their products, pay the fee up front, and spread the "cost" into the total overhead of production.
This fee isnt broken down to a per model charge, and added to the price of the final product, its added as a lump into production cost, you, the consumer, never see the difference because it is absorbed into the overall cost of doing business.

If the model maker wants to, they could charge a higher price for that one product, but why would they?

The idea is to sell models, regardless of whos logo is on it, so why pay for the right to use a logo, then over price the final product to the point it will not sell compared to other products of the exact same make?

GM charges for the use of their logo, on model cars.

In fact, just about every company charges a product makers to use their logo, even NASA has a trademark office, you have to ask, and pay, if you want to put the offical NASA logo on your model rocket or shuttle.

Lets say that you decided to make a limited run of boxcars, with the Model Railroader Logo on the side.

You produce your model, do a quick cut and paste from this website, and run a few thousand Model Railroader Logo decals off your computer.

You stick 'em on your boxcar models, ship the models to several model stores nation wide, sit back and wait for the money to roll in.

Exactlly how long do you think it would take the legal department at Kalmbach to send you a nice, certified letter asking you to either pay the small fee required to use their registered trademark on your models, or remove the models from circulation, and cease infringing on their(Kalmbach's) trademark?

Not long, I bet ya...

As for the cost of a model going up, it would appear that the model makers have decided that using UP's logo and paying the licenseing fee is just a part of doing business, just like buying plastic or brass.

They must sell enough models with the UP logo to have offset the cost, they seem to be producing just as many models with the UP logo as before, and one would assume they are selling said models, or they would have stopped producing them.

I personally, havent noticed any difference in the shelf price, and doubt I will.

If you want to be mad at Uncle Pete, cool by me, but you might save some of the anger for just about every other company in the world, because they too, charge to use their trademark.

They always have, you just didnt know about it, or no one reported about it till now, either way, its a part of doing business, and has been done this way since the trademark office opened eons ago.

Unihead Ed@


@ Unihead is a registered trademark of the Uni-Corp, world leader in dumb single things.
Any use of the Unihead logo, the word Unihead, or any form therein, for other than educational purpose, is strictly forbidden.
US patent pending.

[jchnhtfd]

I went back and looked this one up, and UP management did indicate -- way back at the beginning -- that because of various circumstances they weren't going to bill it. That's fine, that's their choice. As Ed said, normally the guy or gal who had the car on the tracks is billed -- but it's the railroad's choice.

The fact that they then proceeded to screw up (I can't think of a kinder word; I can think of worse...) and sent the bill anyway suggests that internal communications in the company aren't what they might be; I can think of lots of reasons for that, most of them inexcusable.

Bottom line? Uncle Pete does seem to have some problems these days...

[rrnut282]

UP doesn't have the market cornered in mismanagement. It is endemic throughout railroading. The adversarial relationship between departments of the same company is simply astounding when viewed from the outside. I'm willing to bet the reason that bill got sent out is dept. Q feels like dept. P doesn't know jack.... and disreguards their recommendation to not bill for a car stalled on the tracks. To deptQ, is doesn't matter that the car was not driven into the side of a train, because all they look at is the cost billed to their dept. I watch this day in and day out. The construction dept. builds a nice roadbed with a smooth access drive alongside. Then here comes the signal dept and plows up the drive running cables and plant signals in the middle of the drive rndering it useless. Then the maintainence dept has to come out and fix everything for the third time. All it would have taken is two phone calls for each to know what the other was planning to do and plan accordingly (work together instead of against each other) and it could have been done once right the first time.

A friend said it best, " the railroad makes money in spite of itself!"

[oltmannd]

The licencing of the logo is so UP doesn't lose control of it. If you let people do whatever they want with your logo long enough, you slowly lose the rights to it. Similarly, if you allow too many variations of it, you also lose control. Most companies usually work this on the back end, that is if someone uses your logo unauthorized in a way you don't approve, you have to go haul them into court. UP just choses to have control on the front end. They're not into licencing their logo for the bucks.

UP is certainly not the most progressive RR around, and they've "managed" themselves into an operational mess (again), but this one they have right.

[Anonymous]

UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD............SUCKS!

[pmsteamman]

I think oltmannd has it right. Awhile back a rapper made a video of a person throwing beer cans out of the window of a UP loco with the shield and name in full view. UP did get the video taken off the air but this is what started the whole thing.

[edblysard]

Dude,
Whats the deal?

Did UP like, run over your dog or something?
Ed

QUOTE: Originally posted by mrlove

UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD............SUCKS!

[csxns]

Union Pacific is the best second to CSX .

[tree68]

I've already weighed in on the licensing discussion (in previous threads), and didn't read the bill stuff, so won't comment on that.

I could swear, though, that I saw an ad in one of the model RR mags that had a higher price for the UP version of whatever they were selling. Blame UP? Heck no. Sounds like a model supplier using the hype to make a little extra money....

[swknox]

Yea tree68 I think it was the UP diesel that had the American Flag logo painted on it and the CSX diesel was like 10 or 20 bucks cheaper and the same exact model. IT was in MR about 2-4 month ago, either Lifelike or Kato not sure now.

[edblysard]

Think Tree has part of it, its a supply and demand thing.

Went looking for a model of the locomotives we use here where I work, the MK1500Ds, nice road switcher.

Only one I found was a brass import, distributed by Overland.

Called 'em for a price and availability....

After hanging up the phone, it still didnt quite sink in.

They wanted more for a brass HO model than what I paid for my first new car in 1975.

In fact, I can still buy a fairly nice used car for that, and have enough left over to go to the movies.

Ed

[Modelcar]

....Yes, Ed...their products are really high bucks....That business is located right here in Muncie. They are rail fans too.

[mudchicken]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dknelson

Talk about an operation that is really on top of things.

Not only are they prompt in sending a bill to a young girl they maimed (see Newswire) for the damage SHE caused to their equipment in the course of becoming maimed, but they have teams of lawyers who..

DKN:

Faulty analysis, there is much more in play with the Castle Rock story than was reported. A lamentable blunder by a mid-level clerk/beancounter has the local media making UP look like the bad guy (sells papers) - Trains Newswire just passed on the gleaned local (one-sided) news release and story. UPRR sending out the bill is fact along with the management apology. Unfortunately, the local media has been slow to report "the rest of the story"...UPRR has shown an absolutely amazing amount of restraint with this incident that they will never be commended for. Keeping track of expenses and associated costs from this incident is more than warranted (clerk just should have not pushed the "generate billing" key)...wish I could comment on this more publicly , but right now I can't..... Really hope the truth eventually comes out and the real bad actors get their 15 minutes of shame.

[banghead][banghead][banghead]

ps - If you take eveything at face value, go jump! (don't think you would)

[JoeKoh]

QUOTE: Originally posted by edblysard

Dude,
Whats the deal?

Did UP like, run over your dog or something?
Ed

QUOTE: Originally posted by mrlove

UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD............SUCKS!

Gentlemen
any train is a good train to photograph.I hear people call NS nazi southern. Dont understand why but oh well.
stay safe
Joe

[cpbloom]

Might it be because UP merged/absorbed someone's favorite RR out of existence, (hint: Southern Pacific fans)? Or, might it be because NS colors are just black and white? I'm not pointing a finger at anyone here, but I go to a lot of other railroad forums and it always seems that these are the main "reasons". Any train (unless derailed) IS a good train to photograph!

[edblysard]

Makes sense to me...
Either that, or he's short a dog or two...
Ed

[UPTRAIN]

I bet *** Davison can tell where the T&P is since it was a subsiderary of his former employer, Missouri Pacific.

[dehusman]

And he was Superintendent at Ft Worth.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by bnsfkline

SELL UP TO THE RAILFANS! We will operate it like a REAL railroad

That's the way to think! The we can split it up into the A&S, C&NW, MKT, T&P, D&RGW, WP, SP, MoPac, and label the remains of the "old" UP system the Omaha & Pacific, or just give it to BNSF.[;)]

Oh, and we can tell KCS to sell it's Gateway Western trackage and take the Joliet-St. Louis UP main, then buy back the Joliet-Chicago section from the CN, and remake the CHICAGO & ALTON. Now that would make it worthwhile!

[moelarrycurly4]

Try charging admission to let your friends watch a movie you rented. Try selling a bootleg copy of said video. As has been stated here before you can't use some one elses intellectual property without paying a license fee.( or you have permission). Waner Bros. and Fox shut down several "personal fan websites" that used "borrowed images" without permission. I

[Anonymous]

UP has a right to protect their copyright. no one complains when every other big business does it, why to you all whine and cry when UP does it? and the surcharge is very small. like 1.50 on a 100 dollar locomotive. the manufacturers are doing a great job ripping off the modelers by charging more. (especially Athearn)


and that woman was responsible for the accident, she should have to pay for the damages. i have ZERO sympathy for people that get hit by a train.