You and a bunch of other folks, I'm sure. I did a quick-and-dirty look-up of SteamLocomotive.com, and find to my aggravation that he lists two L&N "Big Emma" tenders under the numbers of the locos that dragged them about................

So you want a "Big Emma", huh?

I'm pretty close to KRM.......give me enough paint for #2716 and tell me which roadnumber you want...........

This is hilarious to me. It seemed like BNSF painted every locomotive with a slightly different paint job, now they finally appeared to have things standardized, now there will be a totally new paint scheme.
As for them being steam-friendly, remember the whole deal with Anschutz and SP at one point? People were saying all kinds of wacky rumors then, even that he was going to do a NS-style steam program with SP # 4294?

This would've been unimaginable 10 years ago; its been a cardinal rule of railroad finance that the capital requirements dictate public ownership. I wonder if, as a wholly owned sub of Berkshire-Hathaway, BNSF will be relieved of the more onerous requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley. That has been the reason serveral public companies "went dark".

By the way, don't buy that imagineering of Buffett as the bespeckled, avuncular public-minded, slightly eccentric investor. He didn't amass that fortune without a single-minded focus and determination.

Of late, big railroads have been trying offload those annoying right-of-way ownership costs with a concerted effort to effect a bailout (so called ppp's or "public-private partnerships").

Expect Warren to come to Washington and state capitals seeking ppp money, soon. Given the rising anger over bailouts, it won't be long before the public figures out they are are bailouts.

I find it pretty cool that since I have a few "B" shares that I know own a tiny slice of BNSF.

From what I read, this is about a large bet on continued use of coal and the transportation thereof. Buffet does own parts of utilities which depend on coal.

Sez who? Berkshire Hathaway has a long, well-established reputation for buying companies and then leaving them the hell alone. "If it ain't broken, don't fix it." Although marketing and public image are critical components of a company's overall value, the paint scheme should be somewhere around #45 of BNSF's long-term priorities, as long as there's really no need to market themselves to the public (debatable, as anyone seeing/hearing NS and CSX TV/Radio/PBS ads/sponsorship in the Northeast can attest).

I know a financial planner who got out of the "racket" at the top and is now a professional entertainer. He always praised BH and said anyone with the resources to buy in would be smart to do so. Basically, it's an expensive mutual fund, the way it's operated; you're buying a share of Buffet's brain cells. And you had better believe he's training his successors as we type. We were both shocked that Buffet would make such a huge "bet" by taking such a big share--that's totally not Buffet's style--but it prompted major chin-stroking and back-and-forth dialogue yesterday. Ultimate conclusion: He's betting long-term and knows something we don't.

If you've read the Buffet biography The Snowball you will recognize Sandy's description to just about dead on.

Buffet undoubtedly will not make a change at BNSF unless management really messes up; and then only reluctantly because of his personality.

The acquisition of BNSF by Berkshire Hathaway with bring about some profound changes at the both the holding company and the railroad. No longer will the railroad have to meet the expectations of Wall Street and institutional investors. It will still have to make money; but, percentages and the like will not count. If money needs to be spent for capital purposes it will be able to do so. Being owned by BH relieves managers from having to worry about finding the money or how much to to pay out in dividends. It's going to be a whole different railroad.