You're killin' me by not naming names here. Sadly, there some "umbrella" shortline groups who would be just as happy selling for scrap--or making money storing cars. Then, there are the guys who would love to have the business. I agree to a great extent about the Class 1's being receptive. It is said that they are mainly interested in unit trains (which they actually are), or at least carload business that doesn't require a long-distance roadswitcher to get to you. In our office, we deal with marketing-types from both the BNSF and the UP. Surprisingly, these guys call us with engineering/design leads all the time for people building a facility that deals in single-carload business--even ones that will require a new mainline turnout (BIG $$$). As long as the shipper sounds viable to them, they are very willing to take on the additional business.

The Class 1's smell recession. They want to keep moving cars. I guess if the shortlines smell recession, they visualize sidings and spurs (heck, even mainlines) full of lease-fleet cars paying storage fees--while they can move fewer cars around and make the same (or more) money.