By bagging all three of the freight companies - Transrail, Loadhaul and Mainline - he will successfully create a second national network. "It's all determined by management and politics." Management he plans to fix himself, and politics has changed sharply over the past 15 years.Even a victory by Tony Blair in the next election does not worry him "We'd live fine with Labour," he says. "I've talked to Labourites and find myself in agreement with what they want. His US, Canadian and New Zealand lines are all operating at a profit, and his move into the UK, as buyer of Rail Express Systems (RES) and preferred bidder for the three freight firms being sold by British Rail, could be his biggest coup yet. "There's nothing wrong with steel wheel on steel rail," he says when asked about the moribund reputation of the rail sector.

Burkhardt has avoided the public vilification that befell his predecessors, but like them he has been a wildly successful entrepreneur. THE MOST feared and hated men in America's Wild West were not the gunslingers who held up stagecoaches, rustled cattle and fought dramatic duels on the dusty main streets of one-horse towns. They were the railroad barons who towed prosperity to remote locations behind their locomotives, then creamed off the best of it to fill their bank accounts. Today, as the first privatised trains roll out, Britain is getting its own railroad - or railway - baron, Wisconsin Central Transportation's Ed Burkhardt. There will rejoicing in some corners of the City if he fails - and much copycatting if he succeeds..

Allen's poaching spree has put more than a few noses out of joint in the more traditional London firms. We're going for a mainstream area." He expects to offer all kinds of legal services to the banks, from mainstream lending to project finance and derivatives.The firm officially opens for business on 1 March. But already, Allen says, he has had assurances from Citibank, Chase Manhattan, Bankers Trust, Merrill Lynch and Swiss Bank Corporation that they intend to use the fledgling firm.Unlike other professional services, where corporate clients tend to stick with one or two advisers, banks seeking legal advice spread their largess much wider.Over the course of a year, a big bank will use as many as 20 law firms, putting the bulk of work with a preferred four or five. The junior partner may start on just $300,000 (pounds 199,500), but the stars can make $2m a year if they bring in the business.Weil Gotshal is investing up to pounds 5m in the new London operation and is prepared to wait three years before expecting a profit.

Other US firms such as White & Case, Sidley & Austin, and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy have already established modest operations in London "This is the next stage," says Allen "We're not going for a niche. The "lockstep" system of earnings gives continuous pay rises to partners, regardless of individual performance.By contrast, Weil Gotshal operates American-style rewards, which are purely merit-based. In a typical blue-chip London firm, partners begin on between pounds 120,000 and pounds 160,000 rising to between pounds 300,000 and pounds 500,000. "We're at a fairly advanced stage with another dozen," says Allen.New recruits have been attracted by the entrepreneurial style of Weil Gotshal, plus the chance to make more money. They have found it very hard to accept."So far, 15 lawyers have been persuaded to desert secure jobs with the big London firms for the comparative insecurity of Weil Gotshal's fifth- floor offices at London Wall. "At partner level, it's virtually unique for Linklaters to lose someone of Nia's calibre It just doesn't happen.