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G&W buys Rail Management's RRs
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[quote]QUOTE: <i>Originally posted by Junctionfan</i> <br /><br />Genesee&Wyoming, Rail America et al are the key to giving the class 1s some competition. The way things are shaping up, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if my Great Lakes and Atlantic idea(a number of shortlines=class 1) doesn't start to become a reality in some way. <br />[/quote] <br /> <br />Andrew - <br /> <br />You still have much to learn about how railroads operate as a business. For a number of reasons what you propose is quite unlikely to happen on more than an occasional basis. First, the economics of a move drops off exponentially as more railroads are added into the route. Also, there are significant problems of added interchange time as more interchanges are needed to hand cars from one of the railroads in the route to the next. This adds significant costs to the car hire and handling expenses. Remember, each time a car is interchanged it is handled at least twice, once by each railroad. Also, there is a question of car supply. Usually Class 1s provide many of the cars loaded on short lines. In an all short line move, one of the short lines would have to make a sizeable investment in rail cars as the Class 1s won't provide cars unless they are getting freight revenues. And the list goes on... <br /> <br />It is nowhere near as easy as drawing it on a map... <br /> <br />This is another one of those times as a RRer where one has to just shrug his shoulders as most folks, even railfans who ostensibly study the industry, don't get into the important details. Remember, the "Devil is in the details" is a phrase that fits well in RRing. There are 1001 ways to lose your a** in this business... <br /> <br />LC
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