Warren Buffett’s breathtaking offer for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, the nation’s largest by revenue, sent writers scurrying to the history books for comparable coups in the era of swaggering rail tycoons a century or more ago.

Many mentioned Cornelius Vanderbilt and his sons. But there’s a better comparison: Edward H. Harriman, a Wall Street banker who in 1897 joined a group that bought the Union Pacific, then in bankruptcy, for the bargain price of $110 million. He soon became chairman of the executive committee and remained in charge until his death.

The UP was staggered by the 1893 depression. Harriman saw before most people that the country was recovering.

Harriman calculated that investing to create an efficient railroad with the most modern equipment would pay handsomely. Long before his death in 1909 he was proved right.

Buffett too is betting on the future, and his railroad is in excellent shape. He said his bid (at a 31 percent premium) for the 78 percent of the stock he doesn’t already own was an “all-in wager on the economic future of the United States. I love these bets.”

Wall Street has known for years that major railroads - there are only six - have been running at increasing efficiency, a fact disguised by a drop in traffic in the current recession. A gallon of fuel can push a ton of freight more than 200 times as far on rails as on concrete. The only question is whether Buffett paid too much, and he’s a famous judge of bargains.