-ChrisWest Chicago, ILChristopher May Fine Art Photography"In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration." ~Ansel Adams
QUOTE: Originally posted by CopCarSS Please don't. I'm having a hard enough time stomaching the US Rail environment as it is right now. Especially with the Canadian Borg (CN) gobbling up everything interesting. Having another Canadian Railroad get into the game, and taking over some more railroads I enjoy railfanning might be more than I can take.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Brought to you by the letters C.P.R. as well as D&H!
K1a - all the way
QUOTE: CN is & always will be a Canadian Railway as per Federal Canadian Law which is why the BNSF/CN merger was to be headquartered in Montreal. Gordon
QUOTE: Originally posted by nanaimo73 CopCarSS-Don't worry, I believe Coors is going to be running the new company. Gabe-The DME planned on building the new line and upgrading the rest of the system gradually. Almost every City or Town is now asking for bypasses and the cost of the project is spiraling out of control. Even if DME magically gets this incredible amount of cash, they will still be an east-west RR. KCS can not buy DME when they can't even afford to do the Rosenberg-Victoria project.
QUOTE: Originally posted by nanaimo73 Gabe, a merger where DME shareholders exchange their DME stock for new KCS stock would work for KCS. I do not know how it would effect existing KCS stock. I don't think a majority of DME shareholders would approve. I don't see any benefit to DME in merging with KCS.DME is set up to send traffic east. www.dmerail.com KCS could have bought just the line to Chicago from CP when I&MRL was formed or when I&MRL was sold. I think all they care about now is getting traffic through south Texas.The August 2003 Trains has a good article about this.
QUOTE: Originally posted by nanaimo73 Now, since it's not going to happen, I would rather hear everyone's views on which paint scheme this imaginary railroad would use, and what would it be called ?
QUOTE: Originally posted by MP173 can anyone address the pricing of Powder River Coal? It is my understanding that in the early years, it was extremely lucrative to BN and CNW/UP. That high rate of return was no doubt necessary to build up the infrastructure. My impression is that PRC is not what it used to be. A comment here, a comment there gives me that impression. Add a third routing and suddenly not only will UP and BNSF rates fall, but also the return for DME will fall. $2billion of debt is a lot to service on low rated coal. ed At least for the first several years, PRB coal was NOT a big moneymaker for (then) BN because of the massive capital investment required for track, locomotives and cars. There was a TRAINS article about 7 to 10 years (IIRC) after BN started hauling PRB coal which said that overall BN at that time had not made any money on the stuff. There was an article within the past five years that said rates were about to go up for a number of utilities because the initial contracts were about to expire; the original deal was for the utilities to buy the cars (because BN couldn't afford them) and in return the utilities got a very low freight rate.
QUOTE: Originally posted by Murphy Siding Future Model: I wouldn't doubt that Midwest power entities would welcome the thought of the third railroad shipping from the PRB. It's unclear if any of them have actually backed this project. ( As in "put your money where your mouth is"). But, please explain how having 3 railroad choices is going to be any more competitive than 2 ? Also. isn't the DM&E, with 2 billion dollars in new debt going to have a harder time "being competitive" than 2 existing lines with a lot lower overhead costs?
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