Hot off the wire. This evening a special Union Pacific train will be pulling into Omaha. On board the train will be Iriqi Railroad Officials. Why are they coming? To learn how to properly run a railroad. The railroads in Iraq are beat up and looted and these guys want to learn how to clean their railroads up and how to keep them in good operating order. I think that it is a good idea. They need to get some working transportation in that place fast. What does everyone else think? Good idea or bad idea?
They went to the wrong railroad![:0]If they really wanted to know how to run a railroad right, they should have gone to Fort Worth and talked to the BNSF people!!!
Well,
Think of it this way.
They come over here, look at how we do things, then take the concepts and information back with them.
They also take back the name of the contractors and suppliers, and the names of the professionals needed to make it all work.
Labor they got, lots and lots.
Its the knowledge to put that labor to work they lack.
Someone has to teach them how to run a SD70!!
Doubt mudchicken and other would turn down the amount of money they would offer for a years worth of their time.
I would be happy to go teach them to flat yard switch, at a few thousand a week!
And, because the American taxpayer is more than likley going to be the ones footing the bill for all of it, the money ends up coming back home!
Sweet!
Ask any Aramco employee, its tough, but it pays!
Ed
A little bit of prophesy here, and you guys can hold me to it.
Got out the old crystal ball, and threw a few knuckle bones around, and came up with this.
In twenty years, you will have…
Union Pacific,
and,
whoever manages to survive.
UP is dead serious about running the biggest, strongest and most profitable railroad in the world, period.
So far, with the exception of the hard-headedness in Houston a few years ago, they make very shrewd, calculated, very profitable business decisions.
You might not like them, but you gotta admit, they run one hell of a big railroad, and run it well.
Ed
It appears that the motive power currently in Iraq is largely Chinese. A standard Chinese class DF4B, number DEM 2747, worked one of their ceremonial reopening trains recently. They even have French built locomotives with ALCO engines, and (if they survived) some MLW built units.
It would be good to see the faces of the senior guys in Omaha when they work out what they’ll have to work with!
Iraqi Union Pacifc…“Building Iraq”… What Next…IBNSF, INS, ICSX and IKCS? Wonder how the officials will like the SD70Ms / AC4400CW / C45AC’s with a Huge American Flag…wonder if they will also go for a paint scheme similar to Union Pacifics, only with a huge Iraqi Flag.