The RoadRailer with detachable rail bogies was developed and built just up the road from Logansport, where you filmed, in Lafayette, IN. Wabash National trailers built them in the 80's 90's and early 2000's. I was the Director of Product Development during most of this time. The version mostly used over the last 30 years was the Mark V, which was what you observed. Besides the detachable rail bogies, they were built with .180" aluminum plate walls with .188" outside posts for a total wall thickness of only 3/8". The trailers were connected by a tongue at the front of a trailer going into a receiver in the rear of the next trailer. A removable handle was then used to engage a large vertical pin. With this connection there was no lash between trailers, unlike normal rail car connections. Because of this when the locomotive started to move, every trailer in the consist would start to move at the same time, resulting in less force than the accumulative slack in regular rail cars would cause as each cars slack was taken up. So when we tested RoadRailers in compression and tension it was only to 400,000 lbs instead of 1,000,000 lbs with a regular rail car. I could go on but I won't. Thanks for posting the video.
@@JawTooth this system is a no brainer advantage.. DPUs, one is front, one in back equal out coupler loads. And one in middle for super duper sized train of Triple Crown. All works good. Lighter weight per pound shipped, lower fuel usage, easy peasy to take trailers to the road direct. Unfortunately, Ice men Neanderthals running transportation, and rail lines have fought Triple Crown for decades. Using predatory tactics and legal wrangling. Where is Buttojudge TransPortation cabinet chief from Elkhart help Triple Crown out? Love your videos!
Right but a loaded truck trailer weighs about 30 tons, compared to up to 130 tons for a loaded railcar. So pulling 129 truck trailers is about the same as pulling 30 railcars.
I was amazed that the road railer only had one engine, I counted 130 trailers. It was amazing how fast they took off from Peru, they must have been empty. Peru has a permanent circus and circus building. Ringling Bothers Barnum & Bailey circus used to winter in Peru with all their circus animals. Peru used to have a very large Norfolk & Western switching yard which has an underpass for cars on the Main Street called Broadway. The town also had a C & O (now CSX) switching yard at the south end of the town!!! Before the tracks were removed the Erie Lackawana Railroad ran north south through town headed north towards Chicago. It was a rail fans dream town back in the day!!! Awesome Video Jaw Tooth!!!
For 6 or 7 years in the late 90's and early 2000's I was on a dedicated run into GM Wilmingtons Assembly plant. Automakers don't have warehouses with parts storage, everything is "just in time" freight. Sometimes the parts coming off my trailer were being added to vehicles on the assembly line within a couple hours. We had quite a few runs into Wilmington and GM decided to save a couple bucks by awarding some of these runs to Triple Crown. If I remember correctly NS would drag the roadrailers to the Rutherford yard near Harrisburg, PA and then TC owner operators would bring them on down to Wilmington. I don't think that lasted 2 months because of late deliveries shutting down the assembly line, which gets very costly. I used to enjoy watching them load new vehicles into the rail cars, it was easy to figure out which drivers were just starting out because the old hands just hammered down up that ramp.
My father, a 91 Korean vet told me he remembers them testing those trailers with rails at the Pueblo depo, Pueblo, Co. He had a hustler who helped place them on the tracks. Just found you, Nephews an engineer in Colorado. Thanks for making my fathers Day with your videos.
Good Morning Everyone. That Triple Crown was for the most part so quiet and smooth. Not many flat spots, a few but not many. She caught up to speed fairly quickly as well. Great video as always Sir. Cheers from Ontario Canada 🇨🇦
Hey dude. I've been watching your channel for some time now and I've gotta say you are number 1 when it comes to American diesel train uploads 👍. You've got many fans over here in the UK so keep 'em coming buddy. Paul. ❤
So glad i am ; to see this . I had seen these train cars in passing a time or two , and thought I was seeing things . Thirty years later now I know , thank you.
About 20 years ago when I was a Plant Switcher for Buick City in Flint Michigan, we'd have to put those Triple Crown trailers in Dock 20 full of tires for the new Buicks, Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles. Back then, the trailers often had a single rail axle and it took forever for the air to build up so they'd lift up so we deliver them to the plant. Sometimes the axle wouldn't lift up and we'd have to take them anyhow... the rail axle would leave grooves in the blacktop all the way to the plant... which was about 1.5 miles away.
Wow, very cool! I never knew these RoadRailers existed. I'm 53 and still learning new things thanks to Jaw Tooth. I'd love to see the logistics of of getting all those trailers on track and hooked up to the bogies. Also enjoyed seeing the dogs playing at the end 🙂
It was a swift one I watched them put together but the area was paved so the yard dog could place trailer on track, then they used the air suspension on the trailer to manipulate the kingpin height to hook onto bogie, once kingpin was hooked they would raise trailer suspension and put bogie under the back. Hope that makes sense.
Snow Batman, is it a tedious operation to couple up say 50 trucks, and why so few tri axel trailers in the US? Got to love his videos. If you want to see some good Australian driver view railways seek out and subscribe to Driver667, got me hooked.🇦🇺
I'm 70 years old and lived my the tracks in and around Dayton, Middletown and Hamilton and can't remember every seeing the Triple Crown trains. Thanks for sharing!
Hey Jaw Tooth, great to see more trains and here in Logansport, Indiana in this video here and I like watching trains and seeing the great scenery as well another great video and I really like seeing your videos for watching all the trains here Thank You Jaw Tooth. 🚂🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🇺🇲💨
Thanks for posting the RoadRailer piece. They have been around since the '80s (and even before on C&O passenger trains). I see an Eastbound through Jacksonville IL about 0930 each morning. May be one of the most efficient trainsets ever devised. A real shame for it to end.
I’ve never seen or heard of these in my life. It’s kind of embarrassing being a retired locomotive engineer and don’t know anything about them. Hey thanks for another cool video Jawtooth. 👍❤️
The concept was also tried in the UK as our loading gauge is too restricted to allow trailer on flat car. The excess tare weight was worse over here because British Railways were still using vacuum brakes which are heavier than air brakes.
The TripleCrown railer is a new one for me; thanks for featuring it. Also, looks like Chessie is teaching the little one well, on the fine art of rough-housing! Love to see 'em play. (I've forgotten the name of your pup 🤔).
I liked seeing all the Grand Trunk box cars . I live on the far Southside of Chicago . Was sad to see them go . I lived between the Grand Trunk and the B&0 . Both were about a 2 blocks from my house . I actually lived with in a mile of 3 lines Gt,B&O , Penn Central & The Rock Island . All gone .
I remember seeing those road railers many years ago around southern St. Louis area during my 18 wheeler days. I also use to travel US 30 across northern Indiana, Ohio. I agree about not seeing so many GT cars on one train in years. And I use to live 2 houses away from a D.T.& I. line. Great video....
One of the more elongated diamonds out there and then leans into a curve both directions. Plenty of volume and it sure is the place to catch the remaining Road Railers. The volume of 89ft Hi.Cube auto parts boxcars is a real throwback to the 70s where they went through almost every state. Today plant reductions and all the just-in-time deliveries by truck have removed quite a bit of them. Numerous GTW cars carried a stencil stating "Too high for St Clair Tunnel" it's ironic the last freight car to be cycled through the Milwaukee Road shops was 89 ft yellow Auto Parts car. Now both the car and shops are history
Are those Triple Crown trailers specially built to stand the strain of the weight they're pulling so they don't pull apart? Are there other trailers that can be transported that way? What is holding the weight on the nose of the trailer? I wish you could show us a "dolly" like that. I would love to see the process of mounting the trailers on those dollies. And what is the proper word for that unit?
I was the Director of Product Development at Wabash National when they built RoadRailers and they had much heavier top and bottom aluminum rails in the sidewalls to take the buff and draft loads. They also had a special upper coupler at front that had a tongue extending out front which we had to test all the weld ultrasonically. At the rear, behind the highway wheels, was a heavy floor structure that would sit on the rail bogie and had a receiver at the rear to accept the tongue of the trailer behind this. All of this added a lot of weight compared to a regular highway trailer which reduced its cargo capacity and made it much more expensive to build.
Awesome video!!! With the roadrailers being phased out, these captures are a gem 💎. I had the pleasure of seeing these pass through Reading (near Wyomissing Junction) on the NS Harrisburg Line. As a trucker, I am always blown away how that single diesel locomotive did the job of 100+ drivers pulling all those trailers with relative ease. 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
I used to work for triple crown and thay were a good company to work for pay good and my checks were always on time but when the economy started going down they started cutting pay and cutting corners wish them luck Sam
We don’t have these in Australia. I’d love to see a more in depth video on how they’re coupled together and how they’re able to stand the forces through them. By the time you have 50 trucks coupled up there’s potentially nearly 2,000 ton dragging on the lead trucks. Also rare to see tri axels ( 3 axels) in the US and rare in Australia to see anything less than a tri axel.🇦🇺
there is a short steel drawbar in front with a hole in it and in the back there is a place where the drawbar fits into and pin is put in though the hole and thats how they connected together
Having never seen or heard of this, I will say this is the train using engineering to meet a need. These trailers are definitely train ppty or lease to carriers. The trailers have a special design that accommodates the loads and stresses. This train is probably pulled into a paved siding that easily and quickly unloads them.
There's nothing quick about loading or unloading these cars, have to have special equipment, rail bogeys, street bogeys, equipment to lift the trailers off and on, special facilities to repair bogeys, these trains can only be switched apart or added to at special facilities, can't set out individual units en route for repair. This requires paved facilities and room to accommodate all the equipment to facilitate this specialized equipment, storage of equipment, specially trained people to perform this activity.
@Mr Iron spike Production you could say that again, this video was absolutely magnificant, hopefully one day, I will travel to the USA and film the trains with Brian and many other trainspotters, as a trainspotter from Portugal, i like the US trains, its amazing, despite being massive
Well I am new to this. That is the first one of those.I have seen. Thanks for filming it. I was watching the other train go by with NS painted and wished it had been N&W but wishing doesnt come true.. Thanks for doing the filming . Now I have something to do in my spair time.
Triple Crown was operated as separate division by Norfork Southern and was treated like a hated step child. The trains were often delayed because they were required to always give preference to the other freight trains. I worked as an owner operator delivering the trailers to customers and they were a nightmare to work for. Was a good system, but I'm sure you know how poorly managed are railways are.
I never seen a train like triple crown pulled like that. I can't wrap my brain how those tractor trailer take all that force being pulled together or how they are linked. Gave me something to search up on.
Worked at the trailer manufacturer for 15 yrs that built the triple crowns. Theyre build pretty roughed. We had to install heavier lifts and jigs to accommodate the extra weight.
This has to be the first time I ever saw a road railer train where there's only a set of wheels suspending the box trailers. That was awesome! Here's a fun fact. The 70s sitcom "One Day at a Time" took place in Logansport, Indiana. It amazed me that only one locomotive pulled all those box trailers effortlessly! Great catch! Hope this isn't the end of the road railers.
I used to pull those trailers on the road...a road legal trailer would not weigh more than 60,000 pounds including the load. Just count the trailers and figure the total weight and throw in some extra for the boogies....not a lot of weight there, compared to fully loaded standard rail cars.
I love that BNSF power solo unit on the NS line @Jaw tooth hauling those triple crown trailers without the flat decks and the NS SD70ace mid DPU alright on the first train
Thank you for showing me something I never knew existed in railroading. Why don’t they keep using these instead of the storage boxes I see all over the interstate? Seems like this is an absolutely great way to move lots of freight from rails to highways.
Each of those trailers costs far more than a Standard Dry Box. They have to have additional equipment added to them that adds weight... added weight to a Dry Box lowers the amount of Freight that can be loaded in it and still be road legal. It also adds additional Complexity for the driver that has to pull them over the road.
ISO containers are a whole system of shipping, from the ships they come overseas on to the frames they use when they are offloaded, the cranes that pick the containers up are specifically designed to work with this system as well.
I'm on the East Coast, and I've never seen that style of truck hauler on trains over here. Neither B&O or CSX have used them in the last 30 - 40 years that I've ever seen. That was an interesting (i.e. "cool") sight! 🤣👍
Somebody made sure to let everyone know their admiration of the GTW. At 04:42, one of the GTW boxcars said "Good Track road," handwritten "Grand Trunk Western, " and a large, artistic "2trainz." Then at 04:53, one said "the Good [space with no words] road" - probably originally also said "the Good Track road."
A road-railer is a rare thing for sure. They don't weigh a lot, so they move efficiently and quickly. My thought is: how safe are they - there really isn't a lot of structure there. They are very cool, however!
They don't work so well. They're too light for a rail car, so they need to be treated with kid gloves, but they're too heavy for a truck trailer, so they can't carry as much stuff as a regular truck.
@@beeble2003 true. Majority of dry van freight is gonna be in the 40k pound range. And these roadrailer trailers are way heavier than regular dry vans. Would be a pain for us truckers dealing with gross and axle weight. So it's just easier for JB Hunt, Schneider, Swift, etc to use their intermodal boxes
Great video as always. I grew up south of Danville Illinois and would see several Road Railers go through the city. Fortunately I have several pictures of the train going through other areas of Central Illinois. Always cool to see. I hate to see them go away
The Road Railer concept didn't catch on due to higher trailer tare weight caused by heavier frames and the extra air brake equipment which meant you couldn't carry as much on the highway. Add the fact that not much time was saved by having to add and remove the rail eqmuipment compared to conventional intermodal. When they first came out a lot of people predicted you would never see another container or trailer hauled by railcar again. Excellent video and love that the pup can give as good as she gets!
If i recall correctly, the frames themselves for the trailers were an extra 3 or 4 thousand heavier than standard dry vans, which brings allowable cargo weight down to around 38,000 to stay within DOT regs on the highway.
The original roadrailer had train wheels attached at the back making them a lot heavier and impractical on the road. The ones in this video are only about 800 pounds heavier than a comparable 53 foot trailer.
And it can’t have helped their cause that the whole train had to be turned at each endpoint, which would necessitate a large reversing loop, or a MiJack crane (or something similar) to lift each RoadRailer and turn it 180 degrees, as ALL of them had to face the same direction. 😢 This isn’t such a problem with modern 89’ TOFC flatcars which can be facing in either direction.
Before they stop using the road railers, I'd like to see a trailer being placed on a bogey and hooked onto trailers in front and behind. If you get the opportunity, plz make a video like that and post it. Thanks.
Wow! This is very efficient! Back inThe 60's I had a friend who was a vice president of a shipping company. He spent his day, making a phone call or two .. meeting with company AND country reps and entertaining them while making BIG DEALS! I remember that was the beginning of the " trucking containers" packed with goods, to be put on ships.
Those Triple Crown trailers have to be weird to pull, when they're behind a truck, beings that the king pin isn't in the normal location, but on a tongue out in front of the trailer. (That'd be another thing I'd like to see!) Awesome video JT! 🚂🚂🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃💯👍🇺🇸
A good friend of mine needed a storage trailer and I found one through my local dealer where I buy my trailers from. He got a triple crown road raiser for $2500. Trailer was in great condition. There are heavy built and ain’t going to rot out. Did have to get one of the air tanks replaced. Kingpin was deep but I just slid my fifth wheel back to keep the swing tolerable.
The king pin is in the same location as on a standard 53' trailer so as to conform to tandem laws in some states... The front tongue does not stick out any more than a refrigeration unit on a "reefer" trailer, so that is not an issue legally or mechanically. I have pulled these trailers in the mid 90's...the roadrailer trailer weighed about the same as a fully equipped "reefer" trailer.
Logansport is a very interesting and historical railroad meeting point. ATSF came very close to extending their ownership of the TP&W to reach the Erie from here for a true Chicago transcon bypass. Many of the ajoining rails are now in the hands of Class III/Shortlines.
I use to watch them load these up in the old Brockway Yard of the old Erie Lackawanna RR in Pennsylvania. The Shawmut RR would pick them up and deliver them to Pittsburgh. The company lasted a year or so and went out of business. This was in the late 80s / early 90s.
I thought the road trailers were a failed experiment. I was surprised to still see one running. Grissom AFB is just south of Logansport. I used to purchase tank cars full of antifreeze, store them on the base, and use them to deice the KC-135s in the winter. I was stationed there for 13 years before it was turned over to the reserves. Logansport was also well known as a place for the young airmen to spend their paychecks in the red light district.
Amtrak used to run them, and they were used for the US Mail as I remember, I think in the early 2000s. That might be what you’re talking about, because it cost more to run than what it was bringing in, I believe, so that’s why they stopped doing it.
These roadrailer Triple Crown trains are amazing! It’s too bad that they’ve declined so much to the fact that there’s only 2 left. I actually just caught the east bound (NS 256 is the symbol, and 255 is the westbound symbol) yesterday in Romulus MI. Since these go from Kansas City MO to Detroit MI and vice versa.
Back in the mid 70's and well into the 80S I believe,that Triple Crown used to come through my home town every Thursday night,running west from St Louis to KC.Haven't been through here in many years though that I can think of.,unless they come through in the middle of the night.
You got a salute toot. Awesome 👍😊 Cute little groundhog. Cool crew change, don't get to see that often. Sure do enjoy your train filming. 😊 Without graffiti on boxcars. Good to see clean ones. 😊This always makes my day at the end of your videos. Love your pets. That little puppy is so cute and keeps the others on their toes. Lol Thanks.😊
I have a student who was a conductor for Union Pacific. He said if it weren't for the concrete lobby. Almost all long distance trucks could go by rail..
I dont get around traveling much anymore , only catching local line here in Norton and Almena Ks along U.S. 36 & 383 now , old Rock Island line , Most of the seperate Burlington line removed now . Sevicing grain movement and catering to an ethenol plant 30+ miles east. I drove truck for years and have seen many trains , now that those for the truck trailers might be phased out , this is the first time I have ever seen those that I can recall. Interesting.
The RoadRailer with detachable rail bogies was developed and built just up the road from Logansport, where you filmed, in Lafayette, IN. Wabash National trailers built them in the 80's 90's and early 2000's. I was the Director of Product Development during most of this time. The version mostly used over the last 30 years was the Mark V, which was what you observed. Besides the detachable rail bogies, they were built with .180" aluminum plate walls with .188" outside posts for a total wall thickness of only 3/8". The trailers were connected by a tongue at the front of a trailer going into a receiver in the rear of the next trailer. A removable handle was then used to engage a large vertical pin. With this connection there was no lash between trailers, unlike normal rail car connections. Because of this when the locomotive started to move, every trailer in the consist would start to move at the same time, resulting in less force than the accumulative slack in regular rail cars would cause as each cars slack was taken up. So when we tested RoadRailers in compression and tension it was only to 400,000 lbs instead of 1,000,000 lbs with a regular rail car. I could go on but I won't. Thanks for posting the video.
Thanks for watching and commenting !
Thanks for that information.
Is there a tongues that connects the rail wheels so the trailers don't take any of the stress of pulling or slowing down?
@@JawTooth this system is a no brainer advantage.. DPUs, one is front, one in back equal out coupler loads. And one in middle for super duper sized train of Triple Crown. All works good. Lighter weight per pound shipped, lower fuel usage, easy peasy to take trailers to the road direct. Unfortunately, Ice men Neanderthals running transportation, and rail lines have fought Triple Crown for decades. Using predatory tactics and legal wrangling. Where is Buttojudge TransPortation cabinet chief from Elkhart help Triple Crown out?
Love your videos!
Thanks for explaining this for me!! Now I get it.
Some of the art on those train cars was very impressive. Some of those kids are very talented.
129 Truck trailers pulled by one locomotive, awesome!
Right but a loaded truck trailer weighs about 30 tons, compared to up to 130 tons for a loaded railcar. So pulling 129 truck trailers is about the same as pulling 30 railcars.
Enjoying watching and enjoy the side show too AWESOME VIDEO Jaw Tooth 👍😃😎♥️
I was amazed that the road railer only had one engine, I counted 130 trailers. It was amazing how fast they took off from Peru, they must have been empty. Peru has a permanent circus and circus building. Ringling Bothers Barnum & Bailey circus used to winter in Peru with all their circus animals. Peru used to have a very large Norfolk & Western switching yard which has an underpass for cars on the Main Street called Broadway. The town also had a C & O (now CSX) switching yard at the south end of the town!!! Before the tracks were removed the Erie Lackawana Railroad ran north south through town headed north towards Chicago. It was a rail fans dream town back in the day!!! Awesome Video Jaw Tooth!!!
From KC to Detroit they are loaded with car parts. Don't know if they come back empty or not.
130 trailers have as many trucks as, I think, 86 flat cars, and they weigh much less, so I guess one 4400 hp engine will do.
Excellent video. Thank You.
First time I seen truck trailer with train wheels attached. Now that was a real treat to view!
Merci beaucoup pour cette très belle vidéo ! Thanks a lot! ✨✨👍🙏
For 6 or 7 years in the late 90's and early 2000's I was on a dedicated run into GM Wilmingtons Assembly plant. Automakers don't have warehouses with parts storage, everything is "just in time" freight. Sometimes the parts coming off my trailer were being added to vehicles on the assembly line within a couple hours. We had quite a few runs into Wilmington and GM decided to save a couple bucks by awarding some of these runs to Triple Crown. If I remember correctly NS would drag the roadrailers to the Rutherford yard near Harrisburg, PA and then TC owner operators would bring them on down to Wilmington. I don't think that lasted 2 months because of late deliveries shutting down the assembly line, which gets very costly.
I used to enjoy watching them load new vehicles into the rail cars, it was easy to figure out which drivers were just starting out because the old hands just hammered down up that ramp.
Nice my first triple crown glad I got to see it
Amazing videos Jaw tooth keep up the good work
My father, a 91 Korean vet told me he remembers them testing those trailers with rails at the Pueblo depo, Pueblo, Co. He had a hustler who helped place them on the tracks.
Just found you, Nephews an engineer in Colorado. Thanks for making my fathers Day with your videos.
A team of us from Wabash National was at Pueblo for testing. It was a great experience riding in the instrument car around the test tracks.
Thanks bro for sharing another very interesting video
Stay safe out there
Cheers 🍹
Good Morning Everyone.
That Triple Crown was for the most part so quiet and smooth. Not many flat spots, a few but not many. She caught up to speed fairly quickly as well. Great video as always Sir. Cheers from Ontario Canada 🇨🇦
Thanks for watching 😊
What are you doing there?
That’s a beautiful piece of property !! God Bless You for giving a loving home to the puppies and kitties!!
Our pleasure!😊
Hey dude.
I've been watching your channel for some time now and I've gotta say you are number 1 when it comes to American diesel train uploads 👍.
You've got many fans over here in the UK so keep 'em coming buddy.
Paul. ❤
Wow, thanks!😊
A diamond and triple crown? Brian, you spoil us!!!!
A very unique way to ship trailers, Great catch never saw that before this video. Very cool JT.
Thank you very much!
So glad i am ; to see this . I had seen these train cars in passing a time or two , and thought I was seeing things . Thirty years later now I know , thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it
What a rare treat!..not many roadrailer style cars left due to safety concerns..still what an incredable find
About 20 years ago when I was a Plant Switcher for Buick City in Flint Michigan, we'd have to put those Triple Crown trailers in Dock 20 full of tires for the new Buicks, Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles. Back then, the trailers often had a single rail axle and it took forever for the air to build up so they'd lift up so we deliver them to the plant. Sometimes the axle wouldn't lift up and we'd have to take them anyhow... the rail axle would leave grooves in the blacktop all the way to the plant... which was about 1.5 miles away.
Wow, very cool! I never knew these RoadRailers existed. I'm 53 and still learning new things thanks to Jaw Tooth. I'd love to see the logistics of of getting all those trailers on track and hooked up to the bogies. Also enjoyed seeing the dogs playing at the end 🙂
They were popular in the 80s and 90s, but died off because of the invention on wellcars and containers
It is explained here
ruclips.net/video/0_1Kp3pdzNQ/видео.html
It was a swift one I watched them put together but the area was paved so the yard dog could place trailer on track, then they used the air suspension on the trailer to manipulate the kingpin height to hook onto bogie, once kingpin was hooked they would raise trailer suspension and put bogie under the back. Hope that makes sense.
@@Snowbatman99 Yep, makes sense. Thanks!
Snow Batman, is it a tedious operation to couple up say 50 trucks, and why so few tri axel trailers in the US? Got to love his videos. If you want to see some good Australian driver view railways seek out and subscribe to Driver667, got me hooked.🇦🇺
I'm 70 years old and lived my the tracks in and around Dayton, Middletown and Hamilton and can't remember every seeing the Triple Crown trains. Thanks for sharing!
Rock on!😊
WOW !!! there is so much history in this podcast. Love the VARIETY you bring us every week JT and scott Thanks 😀
Glad you enjoy it!😊
You are very welcome, Phillip!
Awesome video Gt box carsand triple crown road railers just awesome Jaw tooth and Scott 1960 Gambit
As a truck driver that was very interesting, I have never seen semi trailers hauled like that before👍🙂
That was cool to see the semi trailers being carried like that
Thanks for watching 😊
Hey Jaw Tooth, great to see more trains and here
in Logansport, Indiana in this video here and I like
watching trains and seeing the great scenery as
well another great video and I really like seeing
your videos for watching all the trains here
Thank You Jaw Tooth.
🚂🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🇺🇲💨
GT box cars, road railers, coal trains - what a greatb week - THANKS!
Thanks for posting the RoadRailer piece. They have been around since the '80s (and even before on C&O passenger trains). I see an Eastbound through Jacksonville IL about 0930 each morning. May be one of the most efficient trainsets ever devised. A real shame for it to end.
They might be efficient on paper but where headaches on the yard crews and e and c teams.
@@jamesbuckner4791 YUP I can see what it might be like to uncouple them and so on ? I would like to see a video on that ?
@@alanwannemaker2518 do a search on RUclips, there are several, even a high speed in Ga.
I’ve never seen or heard of these in my life. It’s kind of embarrassing being a retired locomotive engineer and don’t know anything about them. Hey thanks for another cool video Jawtooth. 👍❤️
North American / ComTrans out of Ft Wayne Indiana ran Triple Crown back in the late 80's
I heard they will stop these trains in the near future. I used to get the road railers in the 90's here in NY
Magnificent catches of the trains coming coming by pass, I like it 5 stars, keep up the great work, my friend, Greetings from Portugal to the USA.
Thank you very much!😊
@@JawTooth my pleasure
Nice rythme at that x crossing
It would be a real treat to see them load those trailers
Welcome to our neck of the woods, Jawtooth! We live in Galveston, In-and glad you got out our way!
The triple crown vans are handicapped by excess tare weight as opposed to conventional containers. Cool video as usual, Bri!😎⚠️
The concept was also tried in the UK as our loading gauge is too restricted to allow trailer on flat car. The excess tare weight was worse over here because British Railways were still using vacuum brakes which are heavier than air brakes.
Newer TC trailers are only 800 pounds heavier than a conventional.
I would imagine that the frames are heaver than a regular truck trailer to pull all the weight and would of been piped for breaks
Over in Australia,we call them trailer rail ,but went out about 20 odd years ago ,,thank for the memories.
That was pretty cool, I had forgotten those existed.
Wish I had the energy that pup has.
The TripleCrown railer is a new one for me; thanks for featuring it. Also, looks like Chessie is teaching the little one well, on the fine art of rough-housing! Love to see 'em play. (I've forgotten the name of your pup 🤔).
We named him Loki which is short for locomotive
@@JawTooth
What is on the flat cars?
I liked seeing all the Grand Trunk box cars . I live on the far Southside of Chicago . Was sad to see them go . I lived between the Grand Trunk and the B&0 . Both were about a 2 blocks from my house . I actually lived with in a mile of 3 lines Gt,B&O , Penn Central & The Rock Island . All gone .
Seem to be making a comeback. Thanks again for sharing your videos and God bless you and your family JT
Thanks 👍
I remember seeing those road railers many years ago around southern St. Louis area during my 18 wheeler days. I also use to travel US 30 across northern Indiana, Ohio. I agree about not seeing so many GT cars on one train in years. And I use to live 2 houses away from a D.T.& I. line. Great video....
Thanks for watching!😊
I've never seen a configuration like that. I've usually seen truck trailers mounted piggybacking on flat cars.
One of the more elongated diamonds out there and then leans into a curve both directions. Plenty of volume and it sure is the place to catch the remaining Road Railers. The volume of 89ft Hi.Cube auto parts boxcars is a real throwback to the 70s where they went through almost every state. Today plant reductions and all the just-in-time deliveries by truck have removed quite a bit of them. Numerous GTW cars carried a stencil stating "Too high for St Clair Tunnel" it's ironic the last freight car to be cycled through the Milwaukee Road shops was 89 ft yellow Auto Parts car. Now both the car and shops are history
Are those Triple Crown trailers specially built to stand the strain of the weight they're pulling so they don't pull apart? Are there other trailers that can be transported that way? What is holding the weight on the nose of the trailer? I wish you could show us a "dolly" like that. I would love to see the process of mounting the trailers on those dollies. And what is the proper word for that unit?
9:35 Amazing! End of an era! Thanx Jaw Tooth!
I wouldn't think semi trailers were strong enough to link together but obviously they're doing it.
Good stuff JT
Standard trailers are not. These are specially designed for this type of service.
@@perrybabin8427 thats what i was wondering actually. because this is one of the first times i seen these trailers.
Very interesting for sure 😊
Wabash National built them.
I was the Director of Product Development at Wabash National when they built RoadRailers and they had much heavier top and bottom aluminum rails in the sidewalls to take the buff and draft loads. They also had a special upper coupler at front that had a tongue extending out front which we had to test all the weld ultrasonically. At the rear, behind the highway wheels, was a heavy floor structure that would sit on the rail bogie and had a receiver at the rear to accept the tongue of the trailer behind this. All of this added a lot of weight compared to a regular highway trailer which reduced its cargo capacity and made it much more expensive to build.
Awesome catch.
Whenever I see old abandoned factories or warehouses along these rail lines, I try to find there history! Really cool!
Hey JawTooth another AWESOME video
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Awesome video!!! With the roadrailers being phased out, these captures are a gem 💎. I had the pleasure of seeing these pass through Reading (near Wyomissing Junction) on the NS Harrisburg Line. As a trucker, I am always blown away how that single diesel locomotive did the job of 100+ drivers pulling all those trailers with relative ease. 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
Not to mention, wear and tear, fuel, traffic, tolls.
I used to work for triple crown and thay were a good company to work for pay good and my checks were always on time but when the economy started going down they started cutting pay and cutting corners wish them luck Sam
We don’t have these in Australia. I’d love to see a more in depth video on how they’re coupled together and how they’re able to stand the forces through them. By the time you have 50 trucks coupled up there’s potentially nearly 2,000 ton dragging on the lead trucks. Also rare to see tri axels ( 3 axels) in the US and rare in Australia to see anything less than a tri axel.🇦🇺
This is a first for me also, great video, I like seeing those Road Train videos that are from Austrailia
They used to have them but no more
Its a special trailer/frame to be compatible with road railer,
there is a short steel drawbar in front with a hole in it and in the back there is a place where the drawbar fits into and pin is put in though the hole and thats how they connected together
we used to
That was cool to see! You always find great stuff! Have a great weekend!
Having never seen or heard of this, I will say this is the train using engineering to meet a need. These trailers are definitely train ppty or lease to carriers. The trailers have a special design that accommodates the loads and stresses. This train is probably pulled into a paved siding that easily and quickly unloads them.
There's nothing quick about loading or unloading these cars, have to have special equipment, rail bogeys, street bogeys, equipment to lift the trailers off and on, special facilities to repair bogeys, these trains can only be switched apart or added to at special facilities, can't set out individual units en route for repair. This requires paved facilities and room to accommodate all the equipment to facilitate this specialized equipment, storage of equipment, specially trained people to perform this activity.
That is coolest train I have ever seen in my life! Thank you for sharing this one!
Glad you enjoyed it!😊
Fantastical Video Bud :D
@Mr Iron spike Production you could say that again, this video was absolutely magnificant, hopefully one day, I will travel to the USA and film the trains with Brian and many other trainspotters, as a trainspotter from Portugal, i like the US trains, its amazing, despite being massive
Big manifest with auto parts box cars some circa 1970s and the Road Railers are great!🛤🚂👍
Well I am new to this. That is the first one of those.I have seen. Thanks for filming it. I was watching the other train go by with NS painted and wished it had been N&W but wishing doesnt come true.. Thanks for doing the filming . Now I have something to do in my spair time.
Triple Crown was operated as separate division by Norfork Southern and was treated like a hated step child. The trains were often delayed because they were required to always give preference to the other freight trains. I worked as an owner operator delivering the trailers to customers and they were a nightmare to work for. Was a good system, but I'm sure you know how poorly managed are railways are.
I never seen a train like triple crown pulled like that. I can't wrap my brain how those tractor trailer take all that force being pulled together or how they are linked. Gave me something to search up on.
They're sturdier than regular truck trailers. But that's their problem: they're heavier than a regular truck, so they can carry less stuff.
Can only see corner clip for the back, not the front
Worked at the trailer manufacturer for 15 yrs that built the triple crowns. Theyre build pretty roughed. We had to install heavier lifts and jigs to accommodate the extra weight.
@@beeble2003 Heavy trailers are a huge pain in the ass, the shippers want to jam the same weight in there and dont understand why not.
Engineering!
That’s was COOL ! I keep learning so much from videos, Thanks for educating us !
This has to be the first time I ever saw a road railer train where there's only a set of wheels suspending the box trailers. That was awesome! Here's a fun fact. The 70s sitcom "One Day at a Time" took place in Logansport, Indiana. It amazed me that only one locomotive pulled all those box trailers effortlessly! Great catch! Hope this isn't the end of the road railers.
I did not know that about One Day at a Time. Wow, the more you know.
Actually, they moved from Logansport to Indianapolis.
I used to pull those trailers on the road...a road legal trailer would not weigh more than 60,000 pounds including the load. Just count the trailers and figure the total weight and throw in some extra for the boogies....not a lot of weight there, compared to fully loaded standard rail cars.
I love that BNSF power solo unit on the NS line @Jaw tooth hauling those triple crown trailers without the flat decks and the NS SD70ace mid DPU alright on the first train
Thank you for showing me something I never knew existed in railroading. Why don’t they keep using these instead of the storage boxes I see all over the interstate? Seems like this is an absolutely great way to move lots of freight from rails to highways.
Because they suck to pull down a road and they suck on tracks too. Triple Crown came out back in the 80's so this is very old tech
Each of those trailers costs far more than a Standard Dry Box. They have to have additional equipment added to them that adds weight... added weight to a Dry Box lowers the amount of Freight that can be loaded in it and still be road legal. It also adds additional Complexity for the driver that has to pull them over the road.
ISO containers are a whole system of shipping, from the ships they come overseas on to the frames they use when they are offloaded, the cranes that pick the containers up are specifically designed to work with this system as well.
I'm on the East Coast, and I've never seen that style of truck hauler on trains over here. Neither B&O or CSX have used them in the last 30 - 40 years that I've ever seen. That was an interesting (i.e. "cool") sight!
🤣👍
@@stoopidpeoplephuck2much5586 Could you be more specific?
These trains are right in my wheelhouse because I see these same trains where I live.
Somebody made sure to let everyone know their admiration of the GTW. At 04:42, one of the GTW boxcars said "Good Track road," handwritten "Grand Trunk Western, " and a large, artistic "2trainz." Then at 04:53, one said "the Good [space with no words] road" - probably originally also said "the Good Track road."
That’s awesome 😊
😂very strange wagons Tripple Crown,very special.never see this before,coooool.👍👍👍👍👍
A road-railer is a rare thing for sure. They don't weigh a lot, so they move efficiently and quickly. My thought is: how safe are they - there really isn't a lot of structure there. They are very cool, however!
They don't work so well. They're too light for a rail car, so they need to be treated with kid gloves, but they're too heavy for a truck trailer, so they can't carry as much stuff as a regular truck.
@@beeble2003 Thank you for the info. I think "kid gloves" says a lot :)
@@beeble2003 true. Majority of dry van freight is gonna be in the 40k pound range. And these roadrailer trailers are way heavier than regular dry vans. Would be a pain for us truckers dealing with gross and axle weight. So it's just easier for JB Hunt, Schneider, Swift, etc to use their intermodal boxes
Love the vid's. never knew about the road railer trains. pretty cool!
Great video as always. I grew up south of Danville Illinois and would see several Road Railers go through the city. Fortunately I have several pictures of the train going through other areas of Central Illinois. Always cool to see. I hate to see them go away
Cool triple crown action!
The Road Railer concept didn't catch on due to higher trailer tare weight caused by heavier frames and the extra air brake equipment which meant you couldn't carry as much on the highway. Add the fact that not much time was saved by having to add and remove the rail eqmuipment compared to conventional intermodal. When they first came out a lot of people predicted you would never see another container or trailer hauled by railcar again. Excellent video and love that the pup can give as good as she gets!
If i recall correctly, the frames themselves for the trailers were an extra 3 or 4 thousand heavier than standard dry vans, which brings allowable cargo weight down to around 38,000 to stay within DOT regs on the highway.
@@legotrainfan460119You are correct. The brake gear added for rail service also added extra weight and added to maintenance costs.
The original roadrailer had train wheels attached at the back making them a lot heavier and impractical on the road. The ones in this video are only about 800 pounds heavier than a comparable 53 foot trailer.
And it can’t have helped their cause that the whole train had to be turned at each endpoint, which would necessitate a large reversing loop, or a MiJack crane (or something similar) to lift each RoadRailer and turn it 180 degrees, as ALL of them had to face the same direction. 😢 This isn’t such a problem with modern 89’ TOFC flatcars which can be facing in either direction.
@@williamsquires3070 Another good point.
Love ❤ to see your pets playing! What are the names of the new puppy and the black cat? Give them all a belly rub for me when you get home. 😊😊
Great catches and cool videos
Thank you very much!😊
That road railer was something that I had never heard of or seen before today !!! It was really cool !!!
Before they stop using the road railers, I'd like to see a trailer being placed on a bogey and hooked onto trailers in front and behind. If you get the opportunity, plz make a video like that and post it. Thanks.
Me too
It exist on youtube
@@4423422 Thanks. Here's a link to some of the details of connecting Triple Crown roadrailers into a train:
ruclips.net/video/tWz36dnEEGg/видео.html
Great to see the Grand Trunk boxes
AIR LINES...Yeah...that's right ....never thought about how do they get "air" to the individual "carriers"..⁉
Wow! This is very efficient!
Back inThe 60's I had a friend who was a vice president of a shipping company.
He spent his day, making a phone call or two .. meeting with company AND country reps and entertaining them while making BIG DEALS! I remember that was the beginning of the " trucking containers" packed with goods, to be put on ships.
Those Triple Crown trailers have to be weird to pull, when they're behind a truck, beings that the king pin isn't in the normal location, but on a tongue out in front of the trailer. (That'd be another thing I'd like to see!)
Awesome video JT!
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Kingpin location is same as any 53 footer, they use an adapter on the bogeys to hook up.
Good point!😊
@@MrEferrell thank you!
A good friend of mine needed a storage trailer and I found one through my local dealer where I buy my trailers from. He got a triple crown road raiser for $2500. Trailer was in great condition. There are heavy built and ain’t going to rot out. Did have to get one of the air tanks replaced. Kingpin was deep but I just slid my fifth wheel back to keep the swing tolerable.
The king pin is in the same location as on a standard 53' trailer so as to conform to tandem laws in some states... The front tongue does not stick out any more than a refrigeration unit on a "reefer" trailer, so that is not an issue legally or mechanically. I have pulled these trailers in the mid 90's...the roadrailer trailer weighed about the same as a fully equipped "reefer" trailer.
Love trains, since i was a kid. Something very calming while watching them pass.
Thanks for watching!
Logansport is a very interesting and historical railroad meeting point. ATSF came very close to extending their ownership of the TP&W to reach the Erie from here for a true Chicago transcon bypass. Many of the ajoining rails are now in the hands of Class III/Shortlines.
I think loki will be bigger than chessie one day
Thanks for watching!😊
@@carolmcallister1908I think so too. Loki is about 4 times bigger than he was when we got him
@@JawTooth How are those semi trailers hooked together ?
It doesn't look structurally sound !
I use to watch them load these up in the old Brockway Yard of the old Erie Lackawanna RR in Pennsylvania. The Shawmut RR would pick them up and deliver them to Pittsburgh. The company lasted a year or so and went out of business. This was in the late 80s / early 90s.
I thought the road trailers were a failed experiment. I was surprised to still see one running.
Grissom AFB is just south of Logansport. I used to purchase tank cars full of antifreeze, store them on the base, and use them to deice the KC-135s in the winter. I was stationed there for 13 years before it was turned over to the reserves.
Logansport was also well known as a place for the young airmen to spend their paychecks in the red light district.
Awesome information thanks!😊
Amtrak used to run them, and they were used for the US Mail as I remember, I think in the early 2000s. That might be what you’re talking about, because it cost more to run than what it was bringing in, I believe, so that’s why they stopped doing it.
My dad grew up there and we used to visit his mom and dad all the time. There is no red light district.
Sliced bread got NOTHIN' on this clever giddyup. Thanks for the movie.
Glad you enjoyed it
Who knew trailers went over rails
NOT standard trailers though.
Good video jawtooth, cool too see road railers , sucks not for long though
These roadrailer Triple Crown trains are amazing! It’s too bad that they’ve declined so much to the fact that there’s only 2 left. I actually just caught the east bound (NS 256 is the symbol, and 255 is the westbound symbol) yesterday in Romulus MI. Since these go from Kansas City MO to Detroit MI and vice versa.
Back in the mid 70's and well into the 80S I believe,that Triple Crown used to come through my home town every Thursday night,running west from St Louis to KC.Haven't been through here in many years though that I can think of.,unless they come through in the middle of the night.
The yard is in Melvindale I believe
@@blauer2551 It is, and it's also in parts of Allen Park as well.
TC was used heavily by the automotive industry to get assembly parts from one area of the country to another for use in assembly plants.
I love it when I catch it over telegraph and 94 in the morning on my way to work
You got a salute toot. Awesome 👍😊 Cute little groundhog. Cool crew change, don't get to see that often. Sure do enjoy your train filming. 😊 Without graffiti on boxcars. Good to see clean ones. 😊This always makes my day at the end of your videos. Love your pets. That little puppy is so cute and keeps the others on their toes. Lol Thanks.😊
Thanks 👍😊
At 13:30 are the Auto Rack's damaged or just open?
Good Morning everyone 😊👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Good morning
TGIF.... Enjoy the weekend folks...
@jon watt same for you too.
Good morning, Jon. You too
@@charlottecunningham2141 hey, Charlotte, how are you doing today
Great video JT. Glad you are getting these documented while there are still here to do so. Thanks.
Glad you like them!😊
So, are there no air brakes on that train?
There are brakes on the bogies, the air lines are permanently attached underneath the trailers and then are connected to the bogies.
That is impressive...takes a lot of big trucks off the road.
I have a student who was a conductor for Union Pacific. He said if it weren't for the concrete lobby. Almost all long distance trucks could go by rail..
That's cool! I wonder how they do that, with the trailers?
@Eric D. Beckman Sr. obviously, they use a crane to put the trailers gently on the cars, and its great too them hanging still.
@@LisbonRailProductionsandF1 Oh ok, cool.... I kinda figured that.
@@ericd.beckhamsr.2305 you could say that again.
@@ericd.beckhamsr.2305 I just wanted to let you know that I subbed your channel.
@@ericd.beckhamsr.2305 hopefully you enjoy my videos.
I've lived on the UP line heading west out of Chicago nearly all of my 60+ years. Never seen one of these... Fascinating!
Triple crown train was neat.not all ruined with graffiti.
I was thinking the same how clean they are. Most trucking terminal have better fencing and security
Wow, how cool is this. I have never seen a road railer being pulled by a train or truck that I can remember. Thanks for the video.
Thanks for watching
Thanks for the catch of road railers! We don't get that here in Charleston SC....
I dont get around traveling much anymore , only catching local line here in Norton and Almena Ks along U.S. 36 & 383 now , old Rock Island line , Most of the seperate Burlington line removed now . Sevicing grain movement and catering to an ethenol plant 30+ miles east. I drove truck for years and have seen many trains , now that those for the truck trailers might be phased out , this is the first time I have ever seen those that I can recall. Interesting.