Boom times for railroads servicing ND oil fields

There have been a lot of business winners in North Dakota's Oil Patch as new industries spring up to serve the fast-growing areas.

But there have been old-school industry winners, too. Among them: the railroads, which are enjoying lucrative business hauling in sand for hydraulic fracturing operations and then hauling oil out, American Public Media's Marketplace reports. There is not yet a pipeline to carry the oil.

The oil boom reversed a decades-long decline in the region's railroads, the Star Tribune recently reported.

North Dakota oil production has spurred U.S. production to 14-year highs, it was reported last week.