Chicago Union Station, 1943. Jack Delano for the War Department.Double-click on image for larger view.

Blanchard Presentations of Interest
Please feel free to download these and use as you see fit within your organization.

Short Line Finance Basics, AAR Treasury and Finance Div, Naples, FL, 11/6/2007

Railroading for the Individual Investor, Transportation Research Forum, NYC, 11/1/2007

Understanding Your Connecting Class Is -- what they do and why and how your short line fits, ASLRRA Eastern Region Meeting, Burlington VT, 9/25/2007

The Value-Added Short Line, Midwest Assn of Rail Shippers, Chicago, 1/11/2006

Book Review Page. Every so often I get review copies of new releases. Here are four that I recommend highly: Tom Murray's Southern Railway, Joe Welch's story of Baltimore & Ohio's Capitol Limited and National Limited, Southern Pacific Railroad and North American Railroad Bridges, both by Brian Solomon. Less successful is The New York Central Railroad by Solomon -- text good, photos uneven. But then, Steve McEvoy's technical treatise on an 1896 New Haven RR tower that was only recently retired is entertaining and useful. Go here for my reviews.

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.

The Blanchard Company helps shortline railroad operators and investors, railroad shippers, and third party logistics providers improve returns by literally following the money. Learn how Blanchard's more than 20 years experience as a shortline operator, marketer, and financial consultant can save you boxcars of money and still make your customers smile. Write or call (215) 985-1110 today for details.

See also Blanchard Curriculum Vitae for more background and project work.

Who We Are and What we Do

Hot tickets: Norfolk Southern-Pan Am Rail Joint Venture PPT addresses critical matters of contribution and control. Click here for direct link.

Publications

Week in Review. All the railroad news you need most, delivered to your inbox.

Subscribe.Week in Review is a three-plus page Letter published 50 weeks a year. The focus is on the merchandise carload business, generally everything but coal, automotove and intermodal. Indidivual subs are $125, corporate subs are $500. If you don't see the new prices at the subscription page reload the page on your browser. Note too Pay Pal now accepts the American Express Card.

Railway Age. The journal of record since 1856. Blanchard has covered the shortline and regional railroad beat since 1991.

TRAINS. Blanchard's debut was the June 2006 feature article, "Keeping Shortlines out of the Woods." His cover article "You Can't Stop a Good Short Line" appeared in the June 2007 TRAINS. He has just finished writing the June 2008 cover article on the short lines of Pennsylvania.

Starting in March 2007 Blanchard began a series of quarterly articles on on current shortline opportunities, challenges and successes. Look for reprints here shortly.

Consulting

Want to buy a railroad? There's more to it than running the numbers. Go kick the ties, talk to the crews, look at year-to-year changes in the customer list back five years. Ride the train and run an FRA ops test and see how well they do.

During my tenure as a Shortline GM it was imperative that we understood entire supply chains and why we were not seeing whatever was coming and going by truck. I would get on the loco and ride with the crew and ask questions about each customer. More than once we found that merely by changing the time we switched the customer -- or by making the switch time more consistent -- we could gain share.

Run the numbers then call us to check the ops and commercial sides.

Want to buy several railroads? Check this thesis on page 2, "Speaking of multiples."

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

Page updated 5/23/2008