Kansas City Southern
Florida East Coast Railway.............. grew up with the mainline running behind our house in South Florida.
Mark
CSX.
NS.Reason.Heritage. good folks. Next fave, CSX.
It's got to be Norfolk Southern, Heritage engines and a Steam program.
JohnB
Attachments
SOO Line. Summers watching the ferry Chief Wawatam getting loaded, & the last I saw of a few different types of Alcos being actually used, was all SOO. Makes it hard to forget.
Kansas City Southern is starting to grow on me, which is not a good thing because they happen to use diesels I like with a striking paint scheme.
If I can ever afford to have another road name KCS will be it. I also really like the color scheme and I live in the KC area. And I like their diesels as well. I live near two sets of BNSF tracks, though. Don't see many KCS around here. Gotta drive into KC to see those. I worked in their main offices in downtown KC, MO in the late '80s, but as an outside contractor just working on the building. Nothing RR related. I believe they may have moved to another building since then.
Anyway, good choice!
I've seen them running through Houston, which interesting considering how far south Houston is compared to other parts of Texas.
None of them, really. All of my favorite railroads went out of business decades ago.
Matt:
KCS regularly operates through Houston on trackage rights between Beaumont and Rosenberg, TX. At Rosenberg, they connect with their line that runs south to Corpus Christi and then west to Laredo. At Laredo, they connect with their Kansas City Southern de Mexico subsidiary.
Curt
DB-Deutsche Bahn. When I work in Germany,I always buy a 40 Euro weekend pass for unlimited rail travel and ride trains all over Germany till I'm silly.
In the US,gotta love the UP for the steam program.
Matt:
KCS regularly operates through Houston on trackage rights between Beaumont and Rosenberg, TX. At Rosenberg, they connect with their line that runs south to Corpus Christi and then west to Laredo. At Laredo, they connect with their Kansas City Southern de Mexico subsidiary.
Curt
Thanks for the info. You answered Matt much better than I could have. I think they also go to New Orleans and a couple more Gulf cities to the East of there. Not sure which ones? Being a home town railroad I should really know more about them than I do. We have lived near a couple sets of BNSF tracks (former SF & Frisco) for many years. Those are what we see all the time. KCS is seldom seen in our area. The Santa Fe was very big here as well.
Michael Haverty of KCS (former CEO and may still be on their board?) has done a lot to help railroading here in KC. After the Union Station was renovated in 1999 it was having trouble making ends meet a few years later. Somewhere in the mid 2000's or so he helped get things going there and it is now turned around and the future is looking much brighter for it. It had it's 100th birthday last year.
RTR:
Mike Haverty is one of the few professional acquaintances I have from my 36 year transportation career whom I truly admire. From his overture to JB Hunt that really started a groundswell of trucking companies to use intermodal to his roll of the dice when he purchased the Nuevo Laredo to Mexico City mainline of the former NdeM in Mexico, Mike has demonstrated an uncanny ability to see the future ahead of his competition and move swiftly to capture the moment. Of course, Mike will be the first to tell you luck also factored into his success over the years.
In either case, I believe his legacy in railroad history is secure along with the likes of John Barriger, Commodore Vanderbilt, Edgar Thompson and Edward Harriman.
Curt
Yes, I think he is also highly thought of here in KC. I have read nothing but good things about him here, what little I have read anyway.
KCS My mother in law used to live outside Heavner OK and I would spend time at the yard watching them refuel before heading over Rich Mt. I would also see them going thru Mena AR. with 5 or 6 diesels roaring and a smoking.
I'd have to go with the BNSF, but not for very romantic reasons. My employer manages the fleets of every Class 1 railroad, as well as many smaller roads, and it all started with the merger of Burlington Northern and Santa Fe. We had supplied vehicles and equipment for the BN for many years, but we did not manage them until their merger with the SF forced us into a head to head competition with a much larger fleet company. We won. Successfully handling all of the needs of that fleet gave our reputation a huge boost with utility fleets, and now we are the big dogs. So, I can't help but have a soft spot for the BNSF. Besides, I dig the colors.