In his latest piece for Forbes.com, Validea CEO John Reese takes a look at some of the top stocks in the transportation sector.

With the economy on the upswing, Reese says that “many companies that transport goods via rail, road or sea have seen nice jumps in business this year, and investors have noticed. The Nasdaq Transportation Index is up nearly 13% year-to-date, well outpacing the broader market. The Transportation portfolio I track on my Validea Professional web site has fared even better by picking the most fundamentally sound transportation stocks–it’s up more than 23% this year.”

“If the economy continues to prove that it can stand on its own two feet as the Federal Reserve phases out its market-supporting quantitative easing plan–so far, so good on that front–investors should continue to warm to transportation stocks,” he adds. “Indeed, their strong recent performance has only made up a bit of the gap between the transports and the broader market. Since the start of 2009, the Nasdaq transports are up 77.3%, lagging far behind the S&P 500′s 121.7% gain. The fact that they’ve lagged over the past five-plus years has helped keep transportation stocks’ valuations quite reasonable.”

Reese looks at some transportation stocks that his Guru Strategies, which are inspired by some of history’s most successful investors, are high on right now. Among them: American Railcar Industries.