Bankrupt Railroads

According to this Lionel has filed for bankruptcy protection as a result of a $40 million award from a jury for "misappropriating designs" from Mike's Train House (I blame lawyers). Seeing shiny new Lionel trains under the Christmas tree was once highly desired, at least by male members of my generation. The name "Mike's Train House" may conjure up an image of a neighborhood hobby shop, but according to their website MTH, Inc. employs around 80 people. A strange internecine feud.

In related news, P.J. O'Rourke (a very funny man) writes in the December Atlantic that according to the Heritage Foundation "light-rail costs four times as much as automobiles per passenger-mile. But voters like trains." True - can there be anything as romantic as travel across long distances in a train with a restaurant car, a sleeper car, and a viewing car? I'm not so sure about the romance involved in commuting to work in one, but if it gets some of those cars off I-5 in Seattle, I guess I'm for it.