Crayuft said: "I'm not sure including UP would be a wise move. Transloading due to the difference in gauge is probably uneconomic."
Those Auburn boys may be good engineers but they just don't think expansively enough. Here's what we do. We hit the UP with VOLUME. I mean we tie 'em up worse than they were down in Texas a couple years ago. Next, we tell 'em they got a choice to make. Who they gonna go with? Us or those inflexible 4 foot 8 and a half guys out east (NS and CSX)? In other words, we force them to re-gauge.
This, in turn, opens up the opportunity for interchange at Antonito. The down side, of course, is that this puts the nail in the coffin for any dreams of restoring third rail to Alamosa. But life is full of irony. Maybe UP would be willing to keep a section of standard gauge as a heritage thing.
BTW, I liked your idea about the jelly. But wouldn't that be tonnage?
Sarducci