[Eric in the Ozarks]

Union Tank Car makes the big black railroad tank cars you see being pulled around the countryside in RR trains. Ethanol, asphalt, chemicals and other products that cannot flow through a pipeline are delivered by tank car. Buffet also owns a nice piece of the BN railroad which delivers the tank cars at nearly triple the rate of five years ago. The cost of one car with internal coils is more than $100,000.

[Felis_irritable]

Union Tank Car makes the big black railroad tank cars you see being pulled around the countryside in RR trains.

Smart-aleck dept.: They make the ones marked "UTLX." I used to work for a UT subcontractor many years ago. General American (GATX) and American Car & Foundry (ACFX), two other railcar manufacturers, were nearby. We made parts for them too. After all these years, I still look for their marks when I get stopped by a train.

[Qout]

Union Tank Car is a real prize. How do you get ethanol from the cornfields of Iowa to New York? Put it in a railroad tank car. Union Tank will be able to sell the cars as fast as they can build them for the next ten years.

The Pritzkers’ subprime lending business, Superior Bank FSB, went belly up in 2001. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that the family has more losses this year due to the state of subprime lending. Warren has some cash to cover the losses while he cherry-picks the industrial businesses.