Many years ago when there were some hearings on the UP lines to Tekoa and others, I went to a couple of the meetings and a rep from BN commented that the quickest way to clear a room in eastern Washington and north Idaho was to ask some shippers to sign on the dotted line to ship. I found that his comments were pretty accurate---I can't tell you how many times I chased the UP locals and heard on the scanner as the cars were being spotted that the elevator operator doesn't want the cars, they got a barge and the cars were ordered just in case they couldn't get a barge. Is it any wonder the railroads quit sending cars their way. The shippers are gonna be hurting if the dams ever come out---and the sinister side of me kinda hopes they do.