So now UP is going after Guitar Man for monetary damages for his company's failure to maintain the tracks in the leased Elk Grove Village operation (this is the one you fly over when approaching O'Hare airport from the west). Will UP get paid? Hell no, but here is yet another operation IPH will lose when the settlement with UP is breach of contract, eviction, and a new operator.

FWIW, IPH is not the only shortline company to pull this stunt. Many do it; it's just a matter of whether the leasing Class 1 calls them on it. The best one I've seen so far is a holding company who stopped making their lease payments to the owning Class 1 because they were doing rail and tie work. They figured the money they were having to sink into routine maintenance justified not paying the rent, because, I mean, when have you ever heard of having to keep up a rail line once you get into the business?!?

I'm thinking that CEO and Guitar Man may have been roomies in college, and hit the same bong.