Rail is on a roll, and not just in North Platte. Thanks to leaps in technology, the rising price of diesel and improved delivery speeds, more and more freight traffic has moved from roads to rails, where trains can move one ton of goods about 500 miles on a single gallon of fuel. Since 2009 Union Pacific’s weekly carloadings have increased from 133,000 to 180,000, helping the company achieve record earnings every quarter since the beginning of 2010. Since 2009 its stock price has surged 350% while competitors like Kansas City Southern and Canadian Pacific have seen shares more than double, all of which makes Warren Buffett’s $34 billion purchase of the rival Burlington Northern four years ago look like the great train robbery: FORBES estimates BNSF is worth about $65 billion today.