All aboard.

This week Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway acquired Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad.

So?

For many of the readers of Snap Shot, a train is a mode of transportation they only see along a highway, overpass, or in rural areas. For me, that's not the case. In our town, we have trains moving through our downtown all day long. At one point, and I am not sure this is a daily figure, we had more than 125 trains traveling through each day. Most are freight trains, but we have our share of commuter trains that take us into nearby suburbs or all the way to the city. If you travel to work by car each day, a commuter train may not be part of your world, but it sure is convenient.

The railroad system purchased by Berkshire Hathaway is part of our train system. They run both commuter and freight trains; I sincerely doubt Warren Buffet will ever be collecting tickets or be a conductor for a day, but you can be sure it will be the subject of Snap Shot if and when he does.

If you have ever taken a commuter train it's a very easy way to get from point A to point B in a fairly quick period of time. If there is a delay, such as an accident or stopped train due to engine failure, it's not. Thankfully this does not happen too often---the longest delay was due to a bank robbery happening in a nearby town. (I was able to get off the train and went over to the town and you guessed it...took pictures of the SWAT team!)

I take the train in daily, sometimes I take different trains because they run fairly consistently all day long (remember 125 trains a day---see above) and I might have missed my regular train. Because many of the same people do the same thing everyday, you have what are called "train friends." They sit in the same seats everyday---don't even think of taking their seats as you will get a look---and each morning they talk about what happened from the time they left their train friends the night before and each evening they discuss what happened in their day.

I have train friends on about 3 different trains; keep in mind if you miss one train, there will be different people who you see on the next train. It's like having friends you only see on the train. What's odd is when you see these people off the train in the city, shopping, or outside the world you know them---the train. Just last weekend, during the Halloween parade, I saw a family who commutes everyday with two of their 3 children. (As the children get older, they go to school and you rarely, if ever, see them except when they are trick or treating for example.) When I saw the family, I of course took pictures---I also introduced my family to their family.

Last night I saw the Mom get off of the train with her two daughters and said, "I have your pictures." Turns out I was in a different car---guess I broke the train friend rules.

The picture above is a pretty good indication of life in our town---trains come, trains go, you wait. Sometimes there will be 2, 3 or even 4 trains that go by in different directions---but we know of a trick should this happen and we really need to get across the tracks. There is an underpass that avoids the trains---I learned about this early.

If you have a chance to take a passenger train, try it---you just never know who you will meet on board. Could be Warren Buffet!

Thanks for stopping by.