Looking forward to the day after Christmas to begin V2.
Glad you liked it.
Ed
Hello Forum. I am the author and wanted to thank all of you for your interest in the work. I wasn't aware this forum existed until Ed tipped me off.
There were a couple of questions posed that I am happy to answer. The "Against All Odds" title refers to the fact that BN's Intermodal business was essentially an "illegitimate child" within the company who wanted to primarily focus investments on coal after the original 1970 BN merger, then investments in oil and gas after the holding company was formed in 1981, and then mostly for coal and grain within the rail business after that until the BNSF merger in 1995. It was kind of like trying to pull teeth from a hen to get money for Intermodal. Given how important/essential Intermodal is to the business today, it is hard to fathom that it was the runt of the litter within BN. Most of the greatest impediments were internal which make it even more of an "Against All Odds" story. I think those who read it will agree when they become aware of the facts.
References to "before it is too late" refer to the fact that we are rapidly losing institutional memory for a business from the 1970s-1990s. I wrote the book as a tribute to my former team members who essentially made a miracle happen given all of the obstacles that were overcome. One of the most prominent team mates was Bill Greenwood who was the original IBU leader. He dearly wanted the story written and convinced me to do it with an offer of any support he could provide. I found a treasure trove of documents in his attic which he graciously donated to the Barriger National Railroad Library. Resources such as those plus the documents my former Santa Fe contemporary Don McInnes donated to the Barriger were a blessing. Couple that material with the memories I was able to document from Bill (I spent countless hours talking with him which seemed to invigorate him when he was having really bad days health-wise), Darius Gaskins, Rob Krebs, Don McInnes, and scores of other former co-workers and former business associates and there was enough material to record a remarkable history for posterity. I think it is a relatively unique business history work given its depth and breadth, point of view, and the number of citations (2,300+) to back up what is stated which hopefully gives it credibility.
I was fortunately able to complete it before Bill died and I will never forget how full of joy he was when he held and paged through the volumes. It was a real race to get it done in time because Bill's health was failing fast. That is a reason the editing and indexing are not as good as I would have liked, especially in Volume III. Bill passed away in September so it was a worthwhile tradeoff.
Thank you again. I would be happy to attempt to answer questions forum members may have.
MSC Hello Forum. I am the author and wanted to thank all of you for your interest in the work. I wasn't aware this forum existed until Ed tipped me off.
Welcome to the forum Mark! An thank you again for publishing the story of BN's IBU. It's especially helpful for a millennial like myself who only read about BN in Trains Mag as a child, and saw BN for a few years of its remaining existence. Brimingham AL, of all places... On road trips down to Mississippi, and Louisiana, to visit family.
Do you plan on writing any more publications about BN?
Hi SD60MAC. After what I went through to write what felt like a "War and Peace" version of BN and BN Intermodal history, I vowed it would be one and done. The more I have thought about how much of the rich "inside perspective" history of the railroad industry is undocumented, and how those memories are quickly being lost forever, I have reconsidered. I am working with Trains Magazine, the UP Historical Society and perhaps another entity on articles related to some of my Amtrak experiences. I have also been asked by former BN colleagues to try to document the story of the phenomenal turnaround of BN's grain business that I had some first-hand experience with so I have started work on that.
BTW, Birmingham was a big part of BN's Intermodal history. Our hub manager there, motor carrier veteran Earle Cochran, was really the one who created the model that made our vison of highway satellites a reality in order to extend our geographic reach. A few of us renagade railroaders had the vision but we didn't know how to make it a reality. Earle made it happen on a relatively large scale, as is mentioned in the book.
One thing among many I did not mention in the book was that BN looked hard at selling or shortlining lines east of Memphis (including Brimingham). One of the obstacles was an old Frisco bond that had restrictive indentures like the old JP Morgan inspired NP bonds I wrote about in the book that held back BN's ability to exploit its land/resource riches.
MSC, all three voulumes were great.
I worked in intermodal market development and pricing for the ICG. Some situations you encountered seemed quite familiar. Later I worked for RoadRailer. Your writing about BN trying to find a place to use RoadRailers was interesting. I'd say RoadRailers were a solution looking for a problem to solve.
To me, the most salient problem you focus on is the inability of a railroad to accuratly determine the cost of moving a load of freight. I believe that inability, combined with the insistance of alocating fixed cost, is a major factor in limiting rail market development. One time I was going through some "Costing" and I came across a line for "Fixed costs per gross ton mile." I just sat there and stared at the words. It just confirmed my knowledge that my railroad was a zombie.
Your Texas service issues would make a good case study in MBA schools.
I'm glad you are going to write some more. Would you please consider making your books available as ebooks.
Hi Greyhounds. Thanks for your comments. I agree with you all around. Related to RoadRailers, I think it would have been intriguing if BNSF had been successful in merging with NS which, as I mentioned in the book, was part of our BN Intermodal vision post the ATSF combination and which Rob Krebs then attempted. That would have opened that "black hole" of 300-500 miles on either side of the Mississippi (and former IC) to single line service (with a unified income statement and balance sheet and fewer "zero sum game" challenges) and therefore a lot of 700-900 mile Triple Crown hauls between decent markets that motor carriers still dominate. Those are tough markets for double stack in that you typically need more line-haul miles to spread higher terminal costs over to be attractive profit-wise. Given your experiences, you are probably in a better position to judge than me.
Your comments about railroad per-shipment costing are spot-on. BN's Expediters were initiated for several reasons I laid out in the book but especially to fill excess capacity. They contributed to fixed cost coverage in a situation where there was excess capacity. On the other hand, BN was tied up in excess pricing litigation with McCarty Farms and, as that case went through the process, rulings went both ways until the Court finally said (an incredible 18 years after litigation started) BN's pricing practices were legal. It ultimately was really a case about how overhead/fixed costs were allocated. BN's coal case litigations had a similar underlying dilemma at their core. As I mentioned in the book, appeal decisions flip-flopped as the cases progressed through the process so even the regulators/courts struggled with the issue. You pointed out another classic case of faulty overhead cost allocation logic related to the Texas Intermodal market withdrawal. Those who ultimately judged and controlled BN's locomotives simply did not understand managerial economics in a high fixed cost/high shared fixed asset environment. Being stuck in a financial accounting mindset really harmed customers, employees and shareholders. I think these are great lessons that a lot can be learned from.
Thanks for the e-book comment. I toyed with an e-format for Against All Odds but I was concerned that so many charts and tables made a hard copy format better as it is easier to page back and forth (including to and from appendices in different volumes) when one wants to compare stuff. I never originally intended for the work to be more than 1,100 pages.
Thanks again!
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