Railroad stock recommendations?

[aagha]

I was watching a PBS documentary on railroad baron Jay Gould last night and started looking at railroad stocks, which seem to be performing great--no surprise Buffet has invested in Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad.

Any suggestions for well-performing railroad stocks with a healthy dividend?

[EricL]

I own UNP and NSC and consider CSX a decent one as well. They all yield around 2%.

I would consider them all fairly to slightly over-valued but over the long run all have shown great growth.

UNP is my favorite because of its strength in the central and western U.S. and service to Mexico for trade but it is probably the most expensive at current prices.

[earthtodan]

I'm waiting patiently for UNP to drop below $180. There aren't many companies with wider moats than these.

[Roadmap2Retire]

Just posted a Sector Overview of the railroad stocks. Hopefully this will provide some perspective of the competitive advantages of one company over another.

Sector Overview - Railroads

I am long Canadian National (CNR.TO)(CNI).

Related: It was reported this morning that Bill Gates' Cascade Investments has upped its stake in CN to $8.8B -- almost 14% of the portfolio. CN is the second largest holding in Cascade Investments after Berkshire Hathaway. Detials here.

[Roadmap2Retire]

I started a new series of articles highlighting sector challenges. First round: railroads

Sector Challenges - Railroads

Note that this does not mean that railroads are bad investments. I remain Long CNI and will be buying more on further weakness.
I am merely highlighting the challenges that the sector faces.

[Roadmap2Retire]

FYI, here is an image with all the railroads and their 2014 revenue mix by segment.

Images are taken from each company's annual reports - so you have some in raw numbers, and some in %. Maybe once the 2015 numbers are out, I can make a better more consistent image.