Now, your line about truckers "stealing business" from trains got me to thinking, and it brings me back to conspiracy theories (which were mentioned by Tom earlier) of the auto industry killing competing industries:
One of the reasons that trucking has stolen business from trains is the current model of low inventory factories, made possible by "just in time delivery". Trains are great at moving large volumes cheaply. But they can't compete with trucks when a factory says, "we want a certain number of widgets (but not too many) delivered between 2 and 3pm on Tuesday". In essence, the truck becomes the warehouse. Warehousing and storage costs are kept down, and more factory space can be devoted to actual manufacturing.
IIRC, this low inventory "just in time delivery" model was developed or at least championed by the auto manufacturers. But, who makes trucks? Could it be the auto manufacturers? Yeah, I know, GM makes locomotives (gee, they never made steam locomotives though - hmmmm! <g>), but does Ford or Chrysler (sorry, Daimler-Chrylser)?
It's all starting to make sense now...
cheers, frank
"The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true." -J. Robert Oppenheimer
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]<snip>
So that's why steam died in the US. Every railroad needed to keep costs down to compete with truckers, who were stealing the business.
Regards, Bob S.
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