Nov. 8--Just when we're struggling to make sense of stock market's daily palpitations, the Oracle of Omaha comes along with a $26.3 billion offer for the shares of Burlington Northern Santa Fe [ticker: BNI] he doesn't already own and provides some insight to defog the befuddled brains of average investors.

The cash and stock deal, which prices the Fort Worth, Texas-based railroad at $34 billion or $100 per share, is being made through Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway [BRK.A, BRK.B]. The Omaha, Neb., holding company, whose portfolio includes other railroads, insurers and utilities, already owns nearly 23 percent of Burlington's shares.

Let's get one thing straight: Putting his genius aside for a moment, Mr. Buffett is not your average investor. He's more like Goldman Sachs or a private equity firm. With billions at Berkshire's disposal, Mr. Buffett has opportunities not available to the average investor, such as the General Electric preferred shares he purchased last year that pay a 10 percent dividend.

"That's what people don't understand," says Jeff Mindlin of the Pittsburgh-based Mindlin Fund.

That said, there's plenty to be learned from what Mr. Buffett calls "an all-in wager on the economic future of the United States." There's more to that story than rail traffic picking up as the economy recovers.

As Mr. Buffett said in a CNBC interview, Burlington Northern used on average one gallon of diesel to move one ton of freight 470 miles last year. That kind of efficiency will give it and other railroads an edge over their trucking and air freight competitors as the price of gasoline rises.

"What's going to be the most cost-effective play going forward? It's going to be the railroads. That's his play here," said Brian Bruce, a professor at Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business.

He calls the transaction "a classic Warren Buffett investment" in that it reflects Mr. Buffett's strategy of purchasing companies with "economic moats" around them. For Burlington Northern, one of the moats was its ability to maintain pricing power through the downturn, something that also appeals to Jason Pride, research director for Haverford Investments.

"We're right along side of him with this," he said.

The Philadelphia investment firm doesn't own Burlington Northern shares but does have a position in Union Pacific [UNP] -- a railroad Berkshire also has invested in -- based on the same underlying themes Mr. Buffett believes in, Mr. Pride says.

"He's a very long-term investor and his statement that this is an all-in investment in America is extremely true when it comes to railroads," Mr.