Taking pictures of Railroads and How They Work has always been a passion. See a sampling of recent and older outings here.

Resources Page is your go-to place for solutions to your most challenging opportunities for improved results. All of the management tools offered here are FREE and all have evolved over the years through practical applications in the field.

Use them to score interchange compliance with your ISA, measure your shortline's operating and financial performance against your peers, determine whether the economic benefits of higher track speeds outweigh the expense, learn how to use market-based pricing to increase market reach for your customers, find the right value for any railroad you wish to buy, sell, or lease, and so on.

Benchmarks Spreadsheet. Shortlines, Class Is, Bankers, Backers and Buyers can now measure the commercial, operating and financial strengths and weaknesses of any shortline. Read this introductory page and then click the box in the upper right corner.

Other Writing

Roy Blanchard is a Railway Age Contributing Editor and for 15 years wrote a semimonthly column on industry best practices and continues to write occasional feature articles. For recent work, see the Railway Age website. Older material is archived here.

Starting in 2006 Mr. Blanchard became a regular feature article contributor to Trains Magazine with articles on everything from All About Short Lines to the CSX-UP Fresh Express perishables train. Much of his work is literally from the ground up, logging untold miles in freight train locomotive cabs. A sampling of past features is available here.

Who We Are and What we Do

Roy Blanchard is the Principal at The Blanchard Company since October 1989. He provides general management, marketing, and strategic planning support for short line railroads. His portfolios of projects include not only strategic planning assistance for short lines but also assisting rail transportation users in commercial and technical matters from rate negotiation and sidetrack construction to demurrage management and supply chain support. Mr. Blanchard publishes The Railroad Week in Review, an electronic compendium of railroad industry news analysis and comment.

Mr. Blanchard enjoys long-standing relationships with the senior management teams of all the North American Class I railroads. With a behind-the-scenes understanding of Class I commercial, operating, and financial goals he has been particularly effective in creating strategic partnerships between his clients and their Class I connections.

Laura Blanchard provides webssite maintenance and general publishing support to the railway activities and maintains a practice in nonprofit association management. [details here]

Week in Review is a three-plus page newsletter in PDF format e-mailed to readers fifty weeks a year. The focus is how to make money in the shortline side of the merchandise carload business, generally everything but coal, automotove and intermodal. Indidivual subs are $150, corporate subs are $550. Click on the subscription page to start receiving Week in Review today.

Rule 99 in Effect. NYC Putnam Div, Briarcliff Manor, NY. Summer, 1955. Photo by Roy Blanchard (c) 2007