Looking bad for coal

[Charlie B]

Well,coal will be needed for steel mills and coke plants but,for how much longer is anybody's guess.

Charlie,How time flies! I thought it was in the past 2 years.. Its been 10 years and they closed Buckeye Yard around 8 years ago. The pains of a aging mind. :o

Larry, tell me about it. I just retired the first of the year and it has suddenly been 6 years ago. When I look back at the pictures I have taken (family, trains, dogs) I wonder where the time has gone. Even if I try to bore myself the time still flies.

We just had a major coke plant announce they were closing. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/9650422-74/shenango-employees-coke">http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/9650 ... oyees-coke</a><!-- m -->
The steel industry is hurting too, but to be truthful it isn't only foreign steel hurting them but the use of other materials such as carbon fibers and plastics that are stronger and weigh less. Another thing, the steel plant we serviced would only ship scrap by rail. One of their major customers that even had their own fleet of trucks wanted their product shipped to them by rail. It would have given us more than 30 carloads a month more business (we were doing 16 to 20 cars a month) but the mill refused to load railcars because they would be responsible for securing the loads.
Another thing hurting the railroads IMHO is the low fuel prices. Trucking companies appear to be quicker to adjust prices where the railroad was fast to raise but slow to lower, kind of like gas stations.
Charlie