Please don't apologize, the sarcasm is unavoidable

The antics of the UP legal department continue to be absolutely breathtaking. You would think they would have learned to be more subdued after their forced retreat on the trademark issue over artistic representations and photgraphs.

But then, everybody knows that pointing the finger at your customers will always win friends and influence people (oops- more sarcasm). Of course, UP was only reacting defensively to a customer's breach of contract lawsuit against the UP. The utility wants its money back for non-performance - which indeed did sharply increase the risk of power plant shutdowns and blackouts.

UP could have picked a better defense. Imagine the utility's comeback that the coal dust actually represents product shipped but never delivered - lost along the way, adding that to the damages! Or that UP caused the dust themselves by moving the cars into the wind, or even making the wind themselves by running trains through still air. It could get even sillier.

Of course, the fact is that the Powder River trackage was fouled by many years of coal dust accumulation, which caused a series of track failures and derailments. Can this be blamed on anything except failure to maintain the plant - another weak point in UP's position. They would be better off just settling out of court as best they can; then get on with learning how to properly manage a business. The public certainly would be better off!

If you keep cutting corners, putting off maintainance of your capital assets, they soon fail; causing you to fail your customers, and then rippling that failure through the whole economy. We were lucky that widespread power outages didn't occur, such they did in California not long ago (also triggered by failure to build and maintain capital equipment).

Failure to maintain track in a timely manner on the overland route has also caused thousands of hours of delays to Amtrak, (and more importantly) to UP trains themselves, enormous dog catch costs, and repeated blockages of the mainline by dead of the law trains in the last few years. Of course, thousands of other freight customers so affected might just follow the utilities example and file their own lawsuits. It could get very sticky for the UP if the utility prevails. But railfan/professional or not, I have no sympathy. Clean up the act - or get out; and let someone more competent clean it up! Before it kills the ecomony!

Of course, if the perennial failure of certain railroads wasn't so serious for the national economy, we would have very good comedy here. In the meantime, the more silliness the better - at least while the fun lasts.

OPB