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To: MythMan who wrote (391436)	8/1/2009 9:25:15 AM
From: Giordano Bruno	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

O needs to tune into CNBC reuters.com

To: MythMan who wrote (391436)	8/1/2009 10:30:36 AM
From: Terry Maloney	Respond to of 436258

Some scary numbers there, that's for sure. But I guess as long as we keep whistling past the graveyard, we'll be ok, 1930 being a myth and all. <g>

To: MythMan who wrote (391436)	8/1/2009 10:14:59 PM
From: ScatterShot	4 Recommendations Respond to of 436258

A good friend un the railroad business wrote me this in response to a query about the article: pragcap.com RAIL FREIGHT CONTINUES TO DECLINE His reply: I'm no expert but after 29 years with the road through two or three recessions and subsequent recoveries my experience is that the railroads are leading indicators of where the economy in general heads. Note that this leading indicator has been leading for almost a year; our traffic has been dropping since at least July of 2008 if not earlier. With all the manufacturing commodities carried by the roads (lumber, taconite for steel, etc.) and all the intermodal boxes that were coming at us from the Far East, we can tell from orders and subsequent shipping levels when things down the economic chain will start picking up. I'm not seeing that yet but remain hopeful that it will happen (past performance is no guarantee of future returns). The other indicator I am currently seeing is the number of locomotives that have been currently pulled out of service that are stored at the UP's Fort Worth yard (there's been about 50 to 100 at any given time in the yard for a year) and at the BNSF's Saginaw yard (these just showed up a few weeks ago - there's about 50 right now). Until this recession, this was unheard of; this power was in constant use and maintenance on both roads to keep up with volumes until this recession hit. So, short of being insider information, that seems to be what's going on right now.