In the '80's when they first started building these trailers we had a good look and they are built heavier. both ends are reinforced to carry the loads and the bottom rail running the entire length on both sides are much stronger than a standard trailer. When they first dreamed this idea up they had 1 pair of wheels permanently attached to the tail end of each trailer which had to be carried around between the rail yard and the delivery and pickup point. This configuration only lasted a couple of years as the rail wheels added over 3000lbs to the weight of each trailer reducing the amount of freight each trailer could carry. We didnt see them for a couple of years figuring it was a dead idea but toward the end of the 80's we started seeing the current configuration with a much reduced weight penalty and special yards set up to build the "trains" and separate them after they arrive.
Wow. This goes against everything I thought I knew about Roadrailers. Back in the 1980's, we has 10 of these in New Zealand. They always ran in groups of 2 or 3 at the rear of the train. They got rid of them after about a decade because we were told they were too restrictive to operate. They could only take about 600 ton behind them due to their "light construction". They were too light for rail use and very heavy for road use. I guess no one told these guys that. Very impressive.
Ours seem to have had the same problem as yours did. Too light for rail and too heavy for road. Various railroads since the 1960's or 70's have tried to use roadrailers but always ended up going back to "piggybacking" the trailers after a while (carrying them on flatbeds). Norfolk Southern had the most success, with their roadrailer program lasting almost 30 years before their service ended just a couple of years ago. I think they were the last railroad to have it, and when I went back the next year it was no longer running. The train in this video had 75 trailers, but they got clearance for 150 per train before the service stopped.
pretty common in the USA. They don't have that much traffic (outside of a few metropolitan areas almost no passenger service exists), and even around those metro areas they exist. Search for "diamond crossing" and you'll find too many videos to watch...
Yeah I never seen such in Russia. As 2 way crossing 2 way seems like a horrible idea, when you can build over/under tracks to avoid any delays on mainline.. Same with trailer train on carts... jeez what the heck is this! LOL!!! Couldn't afford flatbeds?
@@digimaks Building over- or underpasses is expensive, and the railways systems in the US are mostly operated by private companies. They also always had cost issues and thus tried to build as cheaply as possible (since the distances were quite high and the margins low). Gouvernment operated rails may have diffferent priorities. And yes, I know, the Transsib is longer, yet it was mostly built under public reign and not by private operators...
I was thinking the same thing especially the first trailer connected to the engine because it is taking the all stress of pulling the remaining trailers. i don't like the set up and it looks dangerous. I'll bet they are not allowed to pull dangerous loads like tankers loaded with fuel like gasoline but I may be wrong.
This is my first time seeing this kind of lashup. It does make good sense, because of the hundreds of tons of extra weight the engines didn't have to pull, thereby saving a great deal of money for fuel costs.
These things must really make the anal graffiti jerks angry, too, as these trailers don't stay in one spot long enough for them to get to and screw up like they do conventional trains. There are even more savings on the drop off end as the semi's don't have top waste extra fuel pulling a carrier frame around like they do for conventional container boxes.
I have never seen this style of transporting truck trailers. Amazing. I do not understand how the connection manages the stress, though. Thanks for posting.
Yep! The heritage B&O, not the heritage C&O, has the right of way as the NKP line has to wait. As soon as they were clear though....wow! This may be the best train acceleration I've seen. Great catch, in my favorite city in Ohio for railfanning.
I was working for NS when the first NS roadrailers came through Spartanburg, SC. The train consisted of about 10 trailers. It was the hottest train on the rails at that time.
When i was a kid my dad switched trailers here in staten island nyc for visy paper. Every trailer was a triple crown and i was interested how they looked and worked on a railtrack. This is a cool video!!!
That's the old Triple crown train, which I used to pass by the terminal in Atlanta while at home. These tracks are close to the Petro truckstop in Fostoria I believe.
There are two CSX Subdivisions and one Norfolk Southern running through town. The CSX Willard runs east-west, the CSX Columbus Subdivision running north=south. They cross on the south side of the Iron Triangle Park. The Norfolk Southern Fostoria District Subdivision runs east-east to the north of the park. The video was shot with a westbound train running on the Fostoria District Subdivision as it was crossing the diamond with the CSX Columbus Subdivision on Columbus Avenue. The train will cross the NS Fostoria west of the park near Hale Drive. CSX has two yards, one on the Willard Sub east of town, it is the CSX B&O Yard, the CSX C&O Yard south of East Lyle Street. Norfolk Southern has the Blair Yard on the Fostoria Sub east of town, and the Wilson Yard, west of town. CSX has their depot near Hale and Main Streets on the Willard Sub. According to Wikipedia, Fostoria has over 100 trains per day running through town.
I remember back when the original RoadRailers first came out. The trailers had an attached single-axle rail truck behind the highway wheels. They weren't favored too much, mostly because the rail truck would be easily damaged when backed to hard against a trailer dock door.
That was one issue. The other one is that these cars / trailers needed a special design and the extra weight of the gear meant decreased payload. And even with that, the loading capacity allowed on highways and on such lightweight frames means they can't be loaded at full railroad capacity. This second design solves this issue: almost ordinary cars, albeit with a frame, and a bogie that remains with the rail company. Nowadays, most transportation is either done by loading the trailer on a wagon or by loading a container on a wagon. Indeed, most intermodal stuff is done using containers. They are put on a carrying frame for the road or on a wagon for train movements. An additional advantage of containers on trains: on most main lines, they can be double-stacked.
Feels like a Penn & Teller show. First the jogger is inside the fence, then the train provides some distraction, and suddenly he's outside the fence. Magic teleportation!
When this was first developed in the mid/late 80's the rail wheels were mounted on the trailers between the axles on the trailer. That's about when they started putting spread axles on trailer,by the way. General Motors developed the concept. The spread axles and the retractable rail wheels added way to much weight to the trailer,so they redesigned it to the configuration. As far as I've ever seen,these are always a unit train. Nothing else but these. They don't really use but one actual coupler, at the loco end,the rest are drawbars.
@@josephnadler5521 I'm not sure what you mean. They were/are solid frame trailers,with a drawbar linking them together. Of course there is lateral movement between the trailers,is that what you're talking about?
I pulled bunches of these out of Norfolk Southern in Charlotte NC. The only difference is the roadrailer has shorter axles and therefore could tip over easier than a standard trailer. You had to watch your speed in cornering.You couldn't see your rear wheels as well as the wider road trailer because the axles were set in more so you needed to check your tires more often. They always seemed heavier to me. I am always amazed at the power of locomotives. Semi trucks are no slouch either. Get in the proper gear for the load and they will pull a load up the side of a mountain.
@Randall Slaughter its not the point....peterbilt NOT OUT OF CALY....is testing the same tech....why would you use fossil fuels to move freight....its not just california....other countries are basically 80% if not more off fossil fuels, then again their railways run under wire....
@@roscoepcoltrane5499 Yes run under wire powered by electricity, by far mostly still generated by burning fossil fuel. By the way, the air and water is MUCH cleaner now than when I was growing up in the 60's & 70's. That's a measurable fact.
@@markurbanosky3301 you need to visit Brasil and see the MRS under wire or even Europe....its done by hydro.....america needs to get their head out of their A%&!!!!
@@roscoepcoltrane5499 72 percent of Europe's electricity in 2018 was coal, petroleum, or gas. Hydro was 10%. And that's straight from the EU ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/infographs/energy/bloc-2a.html
It just hit I paused the video to look at sumthang an when I trun back around I realized there no undercarriage just dollys set's that's pretty cool Iv just never seen it before.. great video 👍👍👍👍👍
Wow, I have never seen this type of intermodal before. This freight train does not have any flatbeds. I guess they figured out that eliminating the flatbed would lose million pounds of weight. Thus, a lighter freight train would increase fuel economy, acceleration, and improve braking. Norfolk Southern is definitely reducing fuel costs here. Noticed how the train suddenly started accelerating? Cool video here!!!👍
I've been there, back in the mid-2000s before the park. We saw a WB roadrailer being held at the signals by CSX for a time. When they got the Green, they train took off and got to road speed within a minute. We were standing pretty much where the guy in black was, but closer to the side of the road closest to the warehouse. It was pretty impressive start-up.
Without a doubt, these powerful machines have been and will continue to be one of the most beautiful and great inventions of mankind! I love them and every time I see one they bring me many memories of my childhood!👍👍
I worked at Wabash national semi trailer manufacturer in Lafayette Indiana in 97-99, we built a lot of these, they had a large cast iron front coupler and a very heavy duty rear framework but I don't know what they used to reinforce the middle, we built a lot of them and was a hot item for a while
I kind of wonder how the ones at the head end handle the stress of pulling all of them. I guess they're built for it. But I would assume they would not include actual rail cars with them because it would be too much weight for them to pull and tear them apart.
That is one reason Road Railers aren't profitable for trucking. They have to be built heavier to take the strain which means less cargo and more fuel used.
Wikip says 'weighs 1000 lbs more than a regular highway-only trailer'. Earlier types incorporated railroad wheels into the trailer. With these, the rail bogey stays in the rail yard. With these, no cranes needed at the origin & destination. So there's that. Are they not being made any more?
Always have wondered how these trailers can handle the stress of all the trailers behind them... especially when going into an emergency stop. I bet some of em get mangled up pretty good and come off the tracks during an emergency stop. Also I have to think these must only be pulled like this when they're empty.
the roadrailers have in total 160 axles and the locomotives Dash 9-40cw #9137 and trailing was Dash 9-44cw #9267 each have 6 axles and the total is 12 axles so that’s a total of 172 axles
Tesla will put a end to this, if not railways in a whole! lets see, the next 10 years will be interesting for the railways....with Tesla and BYD im pretty sure railways are starting to sweat....
@phillyslasher research Tesla and see what their plans are, i shouldnt have to DO TELL....i work in logistics, im a ex railway man....i dont want to face it, but it will happen.
With only one truck under each trailer how do they connect the trailing trailer to the lead trailer? This is amazing! I've never seen Vans transported this way.
Used to live near a yard where they built up and broke down these RoadRailer consists. Sometimes the trailers were obviously repainted from Schneider orange but sometimes they'd just throw Schneider trailers right in the mix. As far as I know, Schneider was the only other company using this kind of hardware. It seemed to me like this was great way to do multimode. Sure you lose double stacking but you don't need all those double stack cars and you don't need cranes and whatever to hand the trailers. These RoadRailers seem much more efficient.
Ns is slowly getting rid of the triple crown trains. Closed the Fort Wayne yard down a couple years ago. I think Ns only runs 1 both ways out of Detroit towards Decatur Ill. And that's mostly auto parts. They are light trains and they did run them up to 150 trailers.
rail is best suited to heavy,high density freight...........double stack containers and heavy bulk hoppers. This is just a waste of track. Due to the stress put through each semi trailer, there is a very real limit to how many can be coupled AND they cant be coupled to heavy rolling stock. Economic fail and waste of rail resources.
Long haul trucking is killing people because more is expected of the drivers than is humanly possible. Rail transport of trailers between inter-modal ports is the safest and best method. Drivers pickup and deliver trailers/loads in their own region and sleep in their own bed at night.
I'm not sure if anyone else noticed the Mansfield Bars missing from the rears of semi trailers. 🤔 to convert these trailers for rails even for temporary makes for economically sound Logistics? Seems like a lot of energy used to assemble this train. Or does it truly save the work of the load and unload process of their contents?
Some of these roadrailers might be registered in Pennsylvania where they get Permanent Trailer plates PT plates. NJ Trailer plates are TAA-10A-TZZ-99Z post 2004.
Are the trailers a special design for this kind of use? I think the average tarmac trailer is not designed to be strong enough to haul 50+ other trailers.
They are special built trailers with a 2 inch train-line airline going down the side. The ICC bumpers flip up to allow the piggy-back wheel-set. NS is the only carrier that I know that has them,(Note the entire train is "Triple Crown trailers). The only advantage from this method of Intermodal is weight saving. From a utility aspect most customers either have their own intermodal trailers/containers, or lease them . In the Triple crown situation you are leasing from NS entirely. The only utility these road railers have is if they can be delivered remotely,(ie: at the customers location rather than a railyard),which would require expensive loading unloading equipment.Also the weight saving would be lost because who would want a whole train delivered remotely, when it can be piggybacked from the railyard in the same amount of time??Roadrailers are a good concept,but has little utility for the rail customer. RIP Triplecrown.
The main advantage was that unlike normal TOFC trains, Roadrailers didn't need cranes or lifting equipment at terminals. That saved money and time, but that still wasn't enough to make it successful.
I hated too see the triple crown's phased out. They eventually got to where the airbrake was terrible on most of them. Grab 1st service and "pow" your were in emergency in most cases. Other than that, they ran like a sports car as long as you had good power. Glad I got to experience them.
Thank you for that video....we don't get those kind of trains up here by corning ny...the corning glass museum area....that I have ever seen...so once again thank you. I've always wondered how they hooked up. I just don't understand how the trailers frames hold up with all that weight towing that train...crazy!!! Or I'm missing something....lol
Brian Boorman I don't think so. If so then they must not sit in the yard in painted post off I -86.....cause that would be so cool to see in person. Thanks for responding. I just wish I could find somebody in n scales localin the corning painted post area. Thanks again!
Tad Heath I was joking. LA&L in Avon bought B&H years ago, and I saw recently they've torn up the crossings to Hammondsport out of Bath. They just carry corn syrup out of Wayland to Corning.
Brian Boorman are talking about past the prison? Cause if so my uncle use to maintain those rails in the 60's & 70's....plus he use to live right in that area. Where are you from?
Tad Heath I grew up in Avoca in the 80's. The train tracks cut diagonally straight through town. The train smooshed a lot of pennies for us when we were kids.
I saw such a train in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada once when CN was pulling a long train of them in 2001. Seems they prefer Intermodal and container traffic better. Must be because you can take the wheels off very quickly and stack the van 2 high on a stacker train.
That is really cool how those tracks are designed like that. That's some skilled work right there. Impressive. Being a railfan myself, I'd be in awe hanging out there.
Many people do. There's a nice little building with vending machines etc where you can sit and watch trains. If you're interested, look up a map of Dolton Illinois, or the "Matteson Cloverleaf" just southeast of Matteson Illinois. Those are quite impressive as well, but they don't provide food or anything there.
Faster transportation. But if this is the goal, i think the German system is better. In Germany they use flat cars designed as a kind of road on trucks. Semi drivers just ride their big rigs on the train. The driver then take place in a passenger car and train is ready to go. At the destination they start up the big rigs and ride of. There is no assembling and disassembling of any kind needed.
Perhaps...but don't be surprised at the acceleration even if they were loaded. Those were some high hp locos up front. Those roadrailers even if loaded were WAY under the HP/ton ratio for this train.
Fully loaded they would weigh between 61 to 62k lbs, which with a average road tractor weighing 18k lbs reaches max legal limit of 80k lbs. That’s roughly 30 tons per trailer or about the same weight as many rail cars weigh empty. It’s just not enough to make modern locomotives break a sweat!
NS was the only Railroad to use these. I don’t know l old this video is to but they had a lot of trouble with this system. Mostly derailments because they were so light. This is the only Railroader I’ve seen in 15 years, so what’s that tell you. As far as I know NS went back to intermodal only.
Hi greeting from Indonesia. Oh mann, we didn't see a kind like this in our country, and look that break pipe that spread across the trailer, just amazing. I'm sorry my bad english
As much as I enjoy a good train video, I have to say this one was as interesting as taking a good shit and then realizing that I don't have any toilet paper to wipe my big ass with!
Is it funny that I kinda thought about a similar idea I mean, allow me to explain. At one point I was imagining a train that uses fifth wheel couplings instead of the traditional Janney ones. Most of the cars lack road wheels, instead having bogies fixed onto them. Also the card have extensions of their frames to accommodate the fifth wheels, but the others don’t have any wheels at all and are purely supported by separate bogies/trucks that have the same couplings like in a traditional Road Railer. Several adapter cars are part of the consist to connect the train to the locomotives. Kinda shocked to see something like what I described is actually a thing, I got recommended this at an inappropriate time but I still can’t get over the fact that some railroads have the guts to make these tractor trailer trains.
Sean Vance; yes a lot of trucks off the highways for sure but way more trucks around your neighbourhood for certain. point to p[oint trucking long proved to be the safest and most efficient with cleanest footprint.
@xv70 1 Ok ....but you can stack two to four trailers on 1 intermodal so how much space are you really saving and if you actually watched the video he said those triple crowns were going out of service....DUH🙄
I suspect the lead box TCSZ361111 will be slightly longer than 53 feet by the time it gets home. The wheel dust stains on the rear of the trailers are common to see on New England highways. Now I know how they get that way. I wonder how this effects the carrier's insurance rates...?
This just shows you how important trains are. Imagine how many trucks it would’ve taken to transport the same amount of containers
One truck for each trailer, perhaps?
@@oubrioko1 para 2 o incluso 3 maximo
@@Lucho-mf3fx 1 for 4 if you're not particularly worried about what the last one is getting up to.
That was a good-sized Triple Crown train - with duel power. I remember seeing it in 1988/89, pulled by a single GP50, long hood forward.
In the '80's when they first started building these trailers we had a good look and they are built heavier. both ends are reinforced to carry the loads and the bottom rail running the entire length on both sides are much stronger than a standard trailer. When they first dreamed this idea up they had 1 pair of wheels permanently attached to the tail end of each trailer which had to be carried around between the rail yard and the delivery and pickup point. This configuration only lasted a couple of years as the rail wheels added over 3000lbs to the weight of each trailer reducing the amount of freight each trailer could carry. We didnt see them for a couple of years figuring it was a dead idea but toward the end of the 80's we started seeing the current configuration with a much reduced weight penalty and special yards set up to build the "trains" and separate them after they arrive.
Joints crossing is like a heartbeat for me, so soothing and my love for trains are so pure
I've never seen this kind of train before and same goes for the railroad setup too
This puts new meaning to what we Aussies call a "Road Train".
What?
I love that sound when that freight train speed up over that diamond crossing .😍😍
I just love that sound wheels passing over tracks .❤️
Wow. This goes against everything I thought I knew about Roadrailers. Back in the 1980's, we has 10 of these in New Zealand. They always ran in groups of 2 or 3 at the rear of the train. They got rid of them after about a decade because we were told they were too restrictive to operate. They could only take about 600 ton behind them due to their "light construction". They were too light for rail use and very heavy for road use. I guess no one told these guys that. Very impressive.
Ours seem to have had the same problem as yours did. Too light for rail and too heavy for road. Various railroads since the 1960's or 70's have tried to use roadrailers but always ended up going back to "piggybacking" the trailers after a while (carrying them on flatbeds). Norfolk Southern had the most success, with their roadrailer program lasting almost 30 years before their service ended just a couple of years ago. I think they were the last railroad to have it, and when I went back the next year it was no longer running. The train in this video had 75 trailers, but they got clearance for 150 per train before the service stopped.
@@Tolono The NS Triple Crown service is still happening. Some trains have been spotted as recently as 2020 and 2022
What really amazed me was the existence of a double railroad crossroad. Never seen that before.
HForceClan in the netherlands there pretty common somtimes they are even triple
pretty common in the USA. They don't have that much traffic (outside of a few metropolitan areas almost no passenger service exists), and even around those metro areas they exist. Search for "diamond crossing" and you'll find too many videos to watch...
There's quite a few in Australia
Yeah I never seen such in Russia. As 2 way crossing 2 way seems like a horrible idea, when you can build over/under tracks to avoid any delays on mainline.. Same with trailer train on carts... jeez what the heck is this! LOL!!! Couldn't afford flatbeds?
@@digimaks Building over- or underpasses is expensive, and the railways systems in the US are mostly operated by private companies. They also always had cost issues and thus tried to build as cheaply as possible (since the distances were quite high and the margins low). Gouvernment operated rails may have diffferent priorities. And yes, I know, the Transsib is longer, yet it was mostly built under public reign and not by private operators...
I'm surprised the trailers can structurally handle the stress, got to be something inside them some extra supports
I was thinking the same thing especially the first trailer connected to the engine because it is taking the all stress of pulling the remaining trailers. i don't like the set up and it looks dangerous. I'll bet they are not allowed to pull dangerous loads like tankers loaded with fuel like gasoline but I may be wrong.
Yeah better to just use those trailer flatbeds like normally done.
lone wolf: actualy they cant., blows my mind they are doing this
All of those trailers are renforced
Was going to comment the same, how can these trailer boxes handle the stress of pulling dozens of other trailers ??
This is my first time seeing this kind of lashup. It does make good sense, because of the hundreds of tons of extra weight the engines didn't have to pull, thereby saving a great deal of money for fuel costs.
These things must really make the anal graffiti jerks angry, too, as these trailers don't stay in one spot long enough for them to get to and screw up like they do conventional trains. There are even more savings on the drop off end as the semi's don't have top waste extra fuel pulling a carrier frame around like they do for conventional container boxes.
With the trailers being so close, the aerodynamics are a lot better, saving extra fuel.
Quite right.
Kevin S on top of that. Pull up with trucks and take too their destination without labor of unloading and loading.
Being cheap isnt allways the best option from traditional operations. Dont they derail all the time?
Never seen anything like this. Thank you for bringing this to us!!!
Why I haven't seen such a setup as that in all my days! excellent video.
The wheels clanking over the diamond, relaxation noises!
I have never seen this style of transporting truck trailers. Amazing. I do not understand how the connection manages the stress, though. Thanks for posting.
Yep! The heritage B&O, not the heritage C&O, has the right of way as the NKP line has to wait. As soon as they were clear though....wow! This may be the best train acceleration I've seen. Great catch, in my favorite city in Ohio for railfanning.
I was working for NS when the first NS roadrailers came through Spartanburg, SC. The train consisted of about 10 trailers. It was the hottest train on the rails at that time.
I remember seeing them in Georgia and heard they were hot. At that time a single GP unit handled the entire train.
When i was a kid my dad switched trailers here in staten island nyc for visy paper. Every trailer was a triple crown and i was interested how they looked and worked on a railtrack. This is a cool video!!!
That's the old Triple crown train, which I used to pass by the terminal in Atlanta while at home. These tracks are close to the Petro truckstop in Fostoria I believe.
There are two CSX Subdivisions and one Norfolk Southern running through town. The CSX Willard runs east-west, the CSX Columbus Subdivision running north=south. They cross on the south side of the Iron Triangle Park. The Norfolk Southern Fostoria District Subdivision runs east-east to the north of the park. The video was shot with a westbound train running on the Fostoria District Subdivision as it was crossing the diamond with the CSX Columbus Subdivision on Columbus Avenue. The train will cross the NS Fostoria west of the park near Hale Drive.
CSX has two yards, one on the Willard Sub east of town, it is the CSX B&O Yard, the CSX C&O Yard south of East Lyle Street. Norfolk Southern has the Blair Yard on the Fostoria Sub east of town, and the Wilson Yard, west of town. CSX has their depot near Hale and Main Streets on the Willard Sub. According to Wikipedia, Fostoria has over 100 trains per day running through town.
Not. Now-- less trains,but still busy
Damn, I've never seen such unusual cars for trains to haul! You definitely need to watch your speed with these kind of train cars 😬
I remember back when the original RoadRailers first came out. The trailers had an attached single-axle rail truck behind the highway wheels. They weren't favored too much, mostly because the rail truck would be easily damaged when backed to hard against a trailer dock door.
That was one issue. The other one is that these cars / trailers needed a special design and the extra weight of the gear meant decreased payload. And even with that, the loading capacity allowed on highways and on such lightweight frames means they can't be loaded at full railroad capacity.
This second design solves this issue: almost ordinary cars, albeit with a frame, and a bogie that remains with the rail company. Nowadays, most transportation is either done by loading the trailer on a wagon or by loading a container on a wagon. Indeed, most intermodal stuff is done using containers. They are put on a carrying frame for the road or on a wagon for train movements. An additional advantage of containers on trains: on most main lines, they can be double-stacked.
yeah these weren't really profitable so I think they abandoned this way of doing intermodal trains and just load cars with cranes now.
Feels like a Penn & Teller show. First the jogger is inside the fence, then the train provides some distraction, and suddenly he's outside the fence. Magic teleportation!
When this was first developed in the mid/late 80's the rail wheels were mounted on the trailers between the axles on the trailer. That's about when they started putting spread axles on trailer,by the way. General Motors developed the concept. The spread axles and the retractable rail wheels added way to much weight to the trailer,so they redesigned it to the configuration.
As far as I've ever seen,these are always a unit train. Nothing else but these. They don't really use but one actual coupler, at the loco end,the rest are drawbars.
tom cline I think the trailers are articulated
@@josephnadler5521 I'm not sure what you mean. They were/are solid frame trailers,with a drawbar linking them together. Of course there is lateral movement between the trailers,is that what you're talking about?
tom cline I guess so?
I love these. I just bought 13 roadrailers from Swift, BNSF Ice Cold Express, and Triple Crown (and one unpainted one)
It's weird how those trailers just sit on those wheels would love to see that contraption up close
I pulled bunches of these out of Norfolk Southern in Charlotte NC. The only difference is the roadrailer has shorter axles and therefore could tip over easier than a standard trailer. You had to watch your speed in cornering.You couldn't see your rear wheels as well as the wider road trailer because the axles were set in more so you needed to check your tires more often. They always seemed heavier to me. I am always amazed at the power of locomotives. Semi trucks are no slouch either. Get in the proper gear for the load and they will pull a load up the side of a mountain.
I always thought this seemed like a bad idea. Now that I've seen it in action, I still think its a bad idea. LOL.
dont worry, Tesla will put a end to this, maybe even end railways...
@Randall Slaughter its not the point....peterbilt NOT OUT OF CALY....is testing the same tech....why would you use fossil fuels to move freight....its not just california....other countries are basically 80% if not more off fossil fuels, then again their railways run under wire....
@@roscoepcoltrane5499 Yes run under wire powered by electricity, by far mostly still generated by burning fossil fuel. By the way, the air and water is MUCH cleaner now than when I was growing up in the 60's & 70's. That's a measurable fact.
@@markurbanosky3301 you need to visit Brasil and see the MRS under wire or even Europe....its done by hydro.....america needs to get their head out of their A%&!!!!
@@roscoepcoltrane5499 72 percent of Europe's electricity in 2018 was coal, petroleum, or gas. Hydro was 10%. And that's straight from the EU ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/infographs/energy/bloc-2a.html
These things, the ROAD-RAILER,are on their way out, for whatever reason. They were pretty damn neat to see!
I like the up close view of the cross tracks,
and the way the truck trailers hang on the RR cars.
It just hit I paused the video to look at sumthang an when I trun back around I realized there no undercarriage just dollys set's that's pretty cool Iv just never seen it before.. great video 👍👍👍👍👍
Mercy sakes alive we got ourselves a CONVOY!
That's a big 10.04!
ROGER THAT 10.4
I REPEAT 10.4
@Randall Slaughter
Rubber Duck this here's Pigpen
@Randall Slaughter
You mean what's your 20? 😉
Je connaissais pas ce genre de transport de semi remorque sans wagons plateaux. Merci.
Wow, I have never seen this type of intermodal before. This freight train does not have any flatbeds. I guess they figured out that eliminating the flatbed would lose million pounds of weight. Thus, a lighter freight train would increase fuel economy, acceleration, and improve braking. Norfolk Southern is definitely reducing fuel costs here. Noticed how the train suddenly started accelerating? Cool video here!!!👍
No? They are getting rid of these
I've been there, back in the mid-2000s before the park. We saw a WB roadrailer being held at the signals by CSX for a time. When they got the Green, they train took off and got to road speed within a minute. We were standing pretty much where the guy in black was, but closer to the side of the road closest to the warehouse. It was pretty impressive start-up.
Without a doubt, these powerful machines have been and will continue to be one of the most beautiful and great inventions of mankind! I love them and every time I see one they bring me many memories of my childhood!👍👍
I worked at Wabash national semi trailer manufacturer in Lafayette Indiana in 97-99, we built a lot of these, they had a large cast iron front coupler and a very heavy duty rear framework but I don't know what they used to reinforce the middle, we built a lot of them and was a hot item for a while
I'm not gonna lie: That's dope! Great catch and keep them coming!
Ive heard of these, but this is the first video I've ever seen with them in it.
rip road railer, these one of a kind trains will always be remembered
Seen the opposite combination frequently in NC. A peterbilt on train wheels tugging rail cars down the line. Never seen this setup however.
I kind of wonder how the ones at the head end handle the stress of pulling all of them. I guess they're built for it. But I would assume they would not include actual rail cars with them because it would be too much weight for them to pull and tear them apart.
thought the same thing
strange that there's not even one beam to handle the pulling stress
TheRantingCabby I have seen Roadrailers used in regular freights in Australia but all the Roadrailer vehicles were at the rear of the train.
That is one reason Road Railers aren't profitable for trucking. They have to be built heavier to take the strain which means less cargo and more fuel used.
Wikip says 'weighs 1000 lbs more than a regular highway-only trailer'. Earlier types incorporated railroad wheels into the trailer. With these, the rail bogey stays in the rail yard. With these, no cranes needed at the origin & destination. So there's that. Are they not being made any more?
I've never seen anything like this before. I'm thinking these are not like your regular trucking trailers.
Always have wondered how these trailers can handle the stress of all the trailers behind them... especially when going into an emergency stop. I bet some of em get mangled up pretty good and come off the tracks during an emergency stop. Also I have to think these must only be pulled like this when they're empty.
This setup has been around for a long time. And the speeds they traveled were faster than what you saw at the end.
Glad you showed the track crossing. Nice that you panned around to show the area 3C still used today?
Time to get a tripod.
Thank you.
There is 82 trailers and 2 locomotives so that is the total of 84
Too much free time, eh
Yeah but how many axles is that
hmm
the roadrailers have in total 160 axles and the locomotives Dash 9-40cw #9137 and trailing was Dash 9-44cw #9267 each have 6 axles and the total is 12 axles so that’s a total of 172 axles
there are definitely way more than that but ok
wow. now there's something you don't see everyday. a real road train. nice vid.
This is a first for me ,,iv never seen truck trailers being pulled this way ,,good idea
This is amazing ... container trucks on the tracks. very unique. very good video
truckdrivers: trains cant handle our loads
train industry; hold my beer
Because they can’t.
phillyslasher Trucks don’t need to. They can get places trains can’t.
@Keith Willis on the docks sure, but on the stores no. They go to hubs. And smaller vans and trucks take it from there.
Tesla will put a end to this, if not railways in a whole! lets see, the next 10 years will be interesting for the railways....with Tesla and BYD im pretty sure railways are starting to sweat....
@phillyslasher research Tesla and see what their plans are, i shouldnt have to DO TELL....i work in logistics, im a ex railway man....i dont want to face it, but it will happen.
With only one truck under each trailer how do they connect the trailing trailer to the lead trailer? This is amazing! I've never seen Vans transported this way.
Now I know what roadrailer means. Never seen one before.
How do they turn corners? Does not look easy.
They turn on corners easily.
Used to live near a yard where they built up and broke down these RoadRailer consists. Sometimes the trailers were obviously repainted from Schneider orange but sometimes they'd just throw Schneider trailers right in the mix. As far as I know, Schneider was the only other company using this kind of hardware. It seemed to me like this was great way to do multimode. Sure you lose double stacking but you don't need all those double stack cars and you don't need cranes and whatever to hand the trailers. These RoadRailers seem much more efficient.
Awesome catch ! 👍🏻
Ns is slowly getting rid of the triple crown trains. Closed the Fort Wayne yard down a couple years ago. I think Ns only runs 1 both ways out of Detroit towards Decatur Ill. And that's mostly auto parts. They are light trains and they did run them up to 150 trailers.
Why? This seems like great system, were there some problems with them?
I remember watching triple crown roll through town everyday when I was younger. I used to think they were boring but now I kinda miss them.
Thank you the video. I cannot believe the trailers can handle load. Fascinating!
Because why hire lot of trailer drivers when you can only hire one train driver?
Like a boss!
rail is best suited to heavy,high density freight...........double stack containers and heavy bulk hoppers. This is just a waste of track. Due to the stress put through each semi trailer, there is a very real limit to how many can be coupled AND they cant be coupled to heavy rolling stock. Economic fail and waste of rail resources.
wazza33racer, dude is a joke :v
Mew Two
You're wrong. At some point driver will be needed as the train can't go to all the individual places each cargo need to go.
Get right or Get left, afraid of the past sir?
Long haul trucking is killing people because more is expected of the drivers than is humanly possible. Rail transport of trailers between inter-modal ports is the safest and best method. Drivers pickup and deliver trailers/loads in their own region and sleep in their own bed at night.
I'm not sure if anyone else noticed the Mansfield Bars missing from the rears of semi trailers. 🤔 to convert these trailers for rails even for temporary makes for economically sound Logistics? Seems like a lot of energy used to assemble this train. Or does it truly save the work of the load and unload process of their contents?
Thanks for posting-
Don't see many of these. Intermodals won that round 🚂
akro
n61972 drove for Roadway for 18 yrs in SLC,UT. Local, rail shuttle
akron61972 it's cancelled
Some of these roadrailers might be registered in Pennsylvania where they get Permanent Trailer plates PT plates. NJ Trailer plates are TAA-10A-TZZ-99Z post 2004.
Beautiful sounds of trains
This is such an efficient way of doing intermodal! I hope it is adopted in Europe, too. Thanks for posting.
It was deemed a failure in the US, I doubt they are gonna try something that was deemed a failure again.
See these trains a lot in Peru, IN
I’ve seen trains before but not like this- that is a must see on how it’s loaded 😁
2:56 that track is called a diamond crossing because it splits into 4 or more track ways, almost creating a diamond.
this is railway
can you explain how it works though becayse i dont understand it at all
Thats an Interlocking.
I work for the railroad and have never heard diamond crossing
@@roydavis5222 oh. I just call it diamond because it shaped like diamond 😅
All the creaking and cracking, I could fall asleep to this.
Are the trailers a special design for this kind of use? I think the average tarmac trailer is not designed to be strong enough to haul 50+ other trailers.
Yes, weight is 1000 lbs heavier than a road trailer.
Nice RoadRailer catch with the D9W leader
They are special built trailers with a 2 inch train-line airline going down the side. The ICC bumpers flip up to allow the piggy-back wheel-set. NS is the only carrier that I know that has them,(Note the entire train is "Triple Crown trailers).
The only advantage from this method of Intermodal is weight saving. From a utility aspect most customers either have their own intermodal trailers/containers, or lease them . In the Triple crown situation you are leasing from NS entirely.
The only utility these road railers have is if they can be delivered remotely,(ie: at the customers location rather than a railyard),which would require expensive loading unloading equipment.Also the weight saving would be lost because who would want a whole train delivered remotely, when it can be piggybacked from the railyard in the same amount of time??Roadrailers are a good concept,but has little utility for the rail customer.
RIP Triplecrown.
The main advantage was that unlike normal TOFC trains, Roadrailers didn't need cranes or lifting equipment at terminals. That saved money and time, but that still wasn't enough to make it successful.
Not to mention road trailers have a much short lifespan than railcars and lower weight carrying capabilities.
I've seen a few retired triple crown trailers that had the norfolk southern and conrail logos on them.
I hated too see the triple crown's phased out. They eventually got to where the airbrake was terrible on most of them. Grab 1st service and "pow" your were in emergency in most cases. Other than that, they ran like a sports car as long as you had good power. Glad I got to experience them.
Thank you for that video....we don't get those kind of trains up here by corning ny...the corning glass museum area....that I have ever seen...so once again thank you. I've always wondered how they hooked up. I just don't understand how the trailers frames hold up with all that weight towing that train...crazy!!! Or I'm missing something....lol
Tad Heath pretty sure they run those on the Bath & Hammondsport RR all the time keeping Mercury Aircraft supplied 😂
Brian Boorman I don't think so. If so then they must not sit in the yard in painted post off I -86.....cause that would be so cool to see in person. Thanks for responding. I just wish I could find somebody in n scales localin the corning painted post area. Thanks again!
Tad Heath I was joking. LA&L in Avon bought B&H years ago, and I saw recently they've torn up the crossings to Hammondsport out of Bath. They just carry corn syrup out of Wayland to Corning.
Brian Boorman are talking about past the prison? Cause if so my uncle use to maintain those rails in the 60's & 70's....plus he use to live right in that area. Where are you from?
Tad Heath I grew up in Avoca in the 80's. The train tracks cut diagonally straight through town. The train smooshed a lot of pennies for us when we were kids.
I load/unload these trailers a lot. Loaded with parts for Auto plants or empty knockdowns and totes going back to supplier.
General Motors developed these in the mid 80s. We're gonna be primary shippers for the ,then,new Fairfax B.O.P. plant.
I saw such a train in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada once when CN was pulling a long train of them in 2001. Seems they prefer Intermodal and container traffic better. Must be because you can take the wheels off very quickly and stack the van 2 high on a stacker train.
That is really cool how those tracks are designed like that. That's some skilled work right there. Impressive. Being a railfan myself, I'd be in awe hanging out there.
Many people do. There's a nice little building with vending machines etc where you can sit and watch trains. If you're interested, look up a map of Dolton Illinois, or the "Matteson Cloverleaf" just southeast of Matteson Illinois. Those are quite impressive as well, but they don't provide food or anything there.
That was pretty neat. Never saw it done like that before. Nice.
so whats the point of truck trailers?
Faster transportation. But if this is the goal, i think the German system is better. In Germany they use flat cars designed as a kind of road on trucks. Semi drivers just ride their big rigs on the train. The driver then take place in a passenger car and train is ready to go. At the destination they start up the big rigs and ride of. There is no assembling and disassembling of any kind needed.
The system is used everywhere in Europe, not only in Germany
Dazzalinco1 no tracks behind Wal-Mart
The distances are much greater. What is a driver going to do, ride with the truck from LA to NYC, some 3,000 miles? ( Or 5,000 odd kilometers)
+Ludwig Strauss you mean the system of intermodal containers, not the one where semi-trailer trucks are transported as-is on top of flatcars.
I had no idea you could hook those flimsy semi trailers together like that.
You would think the first one would pull apart during hard acceleration.
The sounds of the track is satisfying who agrees?
Nice one, really rare seeing something like this...and the diamond crossing was also sweet...👍👍
As fast as they accelerated tells me those were empty.
Perhaps...but don't be surprised at the acceleration even if they were loaded. Those were some high hp locos up front. Those roadrailers even if loaded were WAY under the HP/ton ratio for this train.
Fully loaded they would weigh between 61 to 62k lbs, which with a average road tractor weighing 18k lbs reaches max legal limit of 80k lbs.
That’s roughly 30 tons per trailer or about the same weight as many rail cars weigh empty. It’s just not enough to make modern locomotives break a sweat!
NS was the only Railroad to use these. I don’t know l old this video is to but they had a lot of trouble with this system. Mostly derailments because they were so light. This is the only Railroader I’ve seen in 15 years, so what’s that tell you. As far as I know NS went back to intermodal only.
Doug McMullen
Conrail and NS both used them years ago and NS was able to fix a lot of issues except they couldn’t fix the lack of profit.
Matt Moschkau 👍👍
Hi greeting from Indonesia. Oh mann, we didn't see a kind like this in our country, and look that break pipe that spread across the trailer, just amazing. I'm sorry my bad english
whats the point of roadrailers we already have container cars box cars and flat beds
Less handling time & equipment at the road-rail transition.
Also lowers the overall height profile and makes it easier for trains to travel underneath lower bridges and tunnels.
You learn something new everyday
I counted there were 508
Jonathon Cole: damn 509... i need to count them again?
509 x42 ft...=
i was looking for this.
Except the documentation for these cars states 125 max. My favorite part is it says absolutely do not hook up any regular rail cars to these.
Gracias
Wow, how vehicle designed to be pulled on a road can also manage to pull such a huge load.
Think what kind of force handles the first "car"
As much as I enjoy a good train video, I have to say this one was as interesting as taking a good shit and then realizing that I don't have any toilet paper to wipe my big ass with!
Is it funny that I kinda thought about a similar idea
I mean, allow me to explain.
At one point I was imagining a train that uses fifth wheel couplings instead of the traditional Janney ones. Most of the cars lack road wheels, instead having bogies fixed onto them. Also the card have extensions of their frames to accommodate the fifth wheels, but the others don’t have any wheels at all and are purely supported by separate bogies/trucks that have the same couplings like in a traditional Road Railer. Several adapter cars are part of the consist to connect the train to the locomotives.
Kinda shocked to see something like what I described is actually a thing, I got recommended this at an inappropriate time but I still can’t get over the fact that some railroads have the guts to make these tractor trailer trains.
I've seen those semi trailers come apart under load. Not a good idea.
@akron/nov61972 the fact is, they did it till everything was fucked and cost too much to replace/upgrade. what does that tell you.
Their must be some sort of steel rib running through each of these trailers as the drawbar pull alone would rip the first ones apart ?
'Twas a lot of trucks off the road
Sean Vance; yes a lot of trucks off the highways for sure but way more trucks around your neighbourhood for certain. point to p[oint trucking long proved to be the safest and most efficient with cleanest footprint.
Sean Vance there where a lot of road trailers nice diamond
Sean Vance truck drivers still have to make final delivery.
No any more triple crown is,gone bye
There are more trailers than trucks
Thats cool never seen that set up before.
I have never seen that befor
Not that type of connection.
The joint between trailers look so close compared to ordinary freight car. I wonder this can handle all curves.
Apparently it can but I was thinking the same
Rest in peace, Triple Crown trains.
yup
?
The only Triple Crown train left is a daily NS run for Detroit-Kansas City if I'm not mistaken.
When you're company cant afford real intermodals and this was the last resort
@xv70 1 Ok ....but you can stack two to four trailers on 1 intermodal so how much space are you really saving and if you actually watched the video he said those triple crowns were going out of service....DUH🙄
That is an interesting system. I'd like to get an up close and personal look at the set up. Also Interesting is the quadruple diamond.
jesus that is a LONG consist. I've not seen that long of a consist before of nothing but Big Rig Trailers LOL!!!!
I suspect the lead box TCSZ361111 will be slightly longer than 53 feet by the time it gets home. The wheel dust stains on the rear of the trailers are common to see on New England highways. Now I know how they get that way. I wonder how this effects the carrier's insurance rates...?