Flint mi

[Typhoon]

As for stocks, while you have pointed out the high profile examples of some things on Wall Street gone wrong, truth be told that is the exception rather than the rule. Stock prices are still a very good way to judge a company's heath.

I hope you don't seriously believe this. Because if you do, you are going to lose a lot of money.
Wall street has never had the interest of the investor as its foremost concern, its first priority is getting as much from you as possible legally and then more illegally if they think they can get away with it.
Just think of it this way. Where does the money come from that they pay themselves their huge salaries and bonuses from??? When you find the answer you will then become less trusting.

Tell that to my Sharebuilder account, which has made me plenty of money since I opened it last March. Come to think about it my 401K is doing pretty good this year as well. It is a pretty sad outlook you have there, not sure what else to say.

[Typhoon]

I would be very leery of judging performance by the stock performance. Often in the recent past we have seen that stock performance is more often the result of public relations and advertising. Think Bank and Insurance stocks in 2008, tech stocks in 2000, Enron, Madoff et al.

I read the same article , Don, and it appeared to me that CSX took the short range approach of "screw the worker, save the books " , whereas the NS took the longer range approach of using the time to retrain and upgrade emplyee skills and improve the railroad plant. As the article said at the end, time will tell who managed the slowdown the best. My money will be on NS, history does repeat itself, often many times over.

http://www.railwayage.com/in-this-issue ... trong.html

CSX spent far more on capital spending than the NS did in 2009..... Many experts have said that the NS was too slow in reacting to our economic situtaion, that they didn't cut fast/deep enough. I think that management underestimated the economic situation and that was the cause, not some noble "don't screw the worker" campaign was why the NS had fewer lay offs than CSX, CN, CP, UP or the BNSF.

As for stocks, while you have pointed out the high profile examples of some things on Wall Street gone wrong, truth be told that is the exception rather than the rule. Stock prices are still a very good way to judge a company's heath.

Apparently you have not read the same article that Don and I read. I don't know who the many experts are that you quote but on pg 15, Trains Nov issue, 2nd column 2nd paragraph, CEo Moorman is quoted as saying that he and Manion made the conscious decision not to lay off and to train when others were laying off but eventually they had to lly off. It was calculated business decision on their part and not a noble cause of not screwing the worker.

As for using stock prices to judge the health of a company , basically one is following the latest greatest stock of the week as decided by analist. Also known as the herd mentality . There are a lot of better ways to judge stocks, ask any do it yourself contrarian investor.

Don't read Trains, let my subscription run out along time ago. Trains is a good read if you want to know how much better Don Phillips thinks trains are in Europe than they are here, but that is about it. If I had been accused of misreading the economy, I would try to put a spin on it as well. There were many things written on the NS in the late spring about how they had not reacted fast enough to the economy.

As for stock prices, if you are investing on the price over the last week, you deserve to lose money. One must look at the price, along with other things, over several years to get a good judge on a company.

[hobojim]

Ok typhoon, I won't belabor the point, just go ahead and believe all the things wall street says and you will eventually see my point of being skeptical.
More adequately put by the late president Reagan when asked about trusting the Russians, he said to trust but verify. Hopefully you will verify info, I am old enough to question pretty much everything . Good luck

[PAT.C]

---I LIKE BEER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!---

[hobojim]

Me too

As a current song says, "God is Great, Beer is Good and People are Crazy"

[CN_Okemos]

Me 3 Beer rocks

[conrailmike]

[GTWTD3]

[quote="Typhoon]

Don't read Trains, let my subscription run out along time ago. Trains is a good read if you want to know how much better Don Phillips thinks trains are in Europe than they are here, but that is about it. If I had been accused of misreading the economy, I would try to put a spin on it as well. There were many things written on the NS in the late spring about how they had not reacted fast enough to the economy.

As for stock prices, if you are investing on the price over the last week, you deserve to lose money. One must look at the price, along with other things, over several years to at a good judge on a company.[/quote][/quote][/quote]

Because DOn Phillips wrote a couple articles on Europe that makes Trains a bad magazine? What a short sighted comment. Trains has done wonders in the past year or two under Wrinn, basically returning to what Trains was in the 80s and early 90s. In depth articles on a specific railroad line, how things happen and why. With the addition of Fred Frailey as a columnist, the magazine has become indispensable for those wanting to learn about the industry.

As for NS, your not reading what Mooreman has said. The company took the position of not laying off a lot of people in order to be better prepared for the rebound. Phillips accurately points out that was what caused the UP meltdown. Also, NS did react when it needed to. Engines were put to storage, Buckeye Yard was closed, traffic was consolidated.

[Typhoon]

There's an articvle in Trains Mag how CSX has done one of the better jobs weathering the economic problems. When you see customers switching from rail to truck cause CSX has reduced service it makes me wonder if the operating statsitic and average trains spped is really a good way to measure railroad performance.

I happened to check out stock last week as I was looking into transportation stocks and CN actually seemed to have the best stock performance all year.

I would be very leery of judging performance by the stock performance. Often in the recent past we have seen that stock performance is more often the result of public relations and advertising. Think Bank and Insurance stocks in 2008, tech stocks in 2000, Enron, Madoff et al.

I read the same article , Don, and it appeared to me that CSX took the short range approach of "screw the worker, save the books " , whereas the NS took the longer range approach of using the time to retrain and upgrade emplyee skills and improve the railroad plant. As the article said at the end, time will tell who managed the slowdown the best. My money will be on NS, history does repeat itself, often many times over.

Can I have some of that money you would have lost if you put it on the NS in this case, Hobo? Maybe if NS took more of a "screw the worker" approach, they wouldn't be short on crews...

“The harsh winter led to a slowdown in service in the East, and utilities then pushed CSX to add trains and crews to its network,” reports the publication.
“CSX is now seeing the benefits of those resources, running more consistently, shippers said, but NS has said it could take 60-90 days before it has its crew issues resolved,” reports Argus. “In the meantime, the railroad is adding more locomotives to minimize crew problems.
“NS is mainly short conductors but also needs engineers, a shipper said, reports Argus. “They’re really struggling.”
The publication said, “Both CSX and NS saw their average coal train speeds plummet in January and February, but CSX velocities improved in March while NS struggled through the spring and then fell lower in May. In August, CSX trains are running 2mph faster than NS trains compared with a year ago when both railroads were at parity.


(The preceding article was published by Argus Coal Daily.)


Nice 10 month thread bump!

[penn central]

Well there is bit of good news Clean Harbors on maple road in Burton is shipping contaminated Sludge in containers and assorted caustic and contaminated liquids in tank cars by rail again they built a new switch out of Atwood yard into the facility. I was at there facility yesterday and talked to the supervisor. By the way this is on CSX, When i was there they had two tank cars spotted in there for loading.

[Norm]

---I LIKE BEER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!---

It makes Pat a "jolly good fellow". Probably makes him a bit mellow too.

Sorry Pat. You left the door wide open and I couldn't resist. The devil made me do it.

[Norm]

Well there is bit of good news Clean Harbors on maple road in Burton is shipping contaminated Sludge in containers and assorted caustic and contaminated liquids in tank cars by rail again

One can only hope those containers and tank cars are never used for food again. Where's the smiley for sick?

[redside20]

More news from the Flint truck plant
http://www.mlive.com/auto/index.ssf/201 ... up_to.html

[conrailmike]

More news from the Flint truck plant
http://www.mlive.com/auto/index.ssf/201 ... up_to.html

Yeah, old news. They're supposed to start up third shift again but with truck sales down I'll believe it when I see it. Heck, our sales have dropped on the CUVs enough that we've had two Saturdays canceled this month already. We had quite a few people leave LDT and head to Flint, they're supposed to be taking more and they'll be the people that are still laid off.

[penn central]

While where on the topic of Flint it is good to report that Lockhart chemical has started receiving tank car loads of sulfinate again for the first time in two years they are on CSX south of Carpenter road. On the extreme north end of the old belt. They share space with Industrial additives LLC. They said it would be two to four cars a month it isn't much but it's better then nothing.