How Railroads are set up?

[kathiva]

Hi
I just wanted to know how railroads are set up, as shipping charges to the US are quite expensive, and I think I even heard that you cannot ship to the US from Canada anymore, so I wanted to know more about railroads to see if it could be an option to send chinchillas to the US, sometimes I've gotten some people interested in some chinchillas, and I wanted to know more about it to look at a different method for shipping.

thanks