Between 1981 and 1995 few people within Burlington Northern Railroad believed in a prosperous future for the Intermodal business. This three volume work provides a chronological and fact-based historical account that puts the story of BN’s Intermodal business into perspective. It articulates the backdrop of major economic, competitive and transportation industry regulatory transitions as well as a continuous string of internal BN Railroad challenges that BN’s Intermodal Business Unit (IBU) confronted. This incredible story is told, with the help of many former fellow former co-workers and industry associates, by someone who lived it.It tells how the selfless people of BN’s IBU were able to, Against All Odds, overcome multiple attempts to neutralize, or essentially kill, the Intermodal business between 1981 and 1995. Their collective efforts transformed it from being an “illegitimate step-child” of a railroad that couldn’t decide what it wanted to be to a business that, Against all Odds, drove significant gains in BN shareholder value. Their efforts helped to ultimately drive BN’s extraordinarily successful 1995 merger with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway and help make Intermodal transportation the foundation piece it has become for the U.S. railroad industry and the global supply chain.Volume I of Against All Odds reviews the roots of the Intermodal business among Burlington Northern (BN) Railroad predecessors of as well as the regulatory and competitive struggles of the United States Railroad Industry. It summarizes the struggles encountered following the 1970 merger that created Burlington Northern and the “all-in” bet Louis Menk and Bob Downing placed on the future of BN’s coal business out of the Powder River Basin (PRB).That bet, and the huge capital investments it entailed, increased internal strains within the company related to its future as a railroad and resources business. It led to the selection of the resources-oriented Richard Bressler to succeed Menk and to the formation of the BNI Holding Company structure. A by-product of the creation of the Holding Company structure was the creation of five strategic business units within BN Railroad, including the Intermodal Business Unit (IBU), in 1981. BN Railroad negotiated those challenges in a way that resulted in a total financial turnaround.The turnaround did not come without pain. Volume I describes the struggles BN Railroad, and the new IBU, encountered between 1981 through 1988. They included challenges related to life under four different railroad CEOs and three IBU leaders. It also describes pressures that reverberated throughout the company including BN’s loss of its PRB coal monopoly and the ultimate separation of Burlington Northern Railroad and Burlington Resources with the oppressive financial burden the separation terms imposed on BN Railroad. They both significantly impacted BN’s Intermodal business.The story of BN’s Intermodal Business is inseparable from the broader BN Holding Company and BN Railroad context. Within that context, Volume I includes information related to the formation of the IBU leadership team under the leadership of Bill Greenwood, the formation and pursuit of the three initial intermodal strategies and a series of innovations facilitated by the leadership of Darius Gaskins that focused on improved customer service and financial performance. Some of the innovations such as Hub Centers led by motor carrier experienced managers, the use of new technology equipment in dedicated intermodal trains, BN’s Common-User Double Stack trains, Expediter trains to open new Intermodal markets and improve labor relations, expansion of the BN Intermodal network through rail and highway satellites were successful. Some such as Dallas Smith trailers, RoadRailer initiatives, Winona Bridge Railroad and BN Worldwide were unsuccessful. Read more