A Farewell To The Roadrailers

This past weekend, Norfolk Southern signed "Fin" on the last Roadrailer Intermodal Service in the U.S., between Detroit and Kansas City. While I was not able to make the trek to catch the last runs of this unique operation, it did call me back to the joint Roadrailer runs that used to pass through Milwaukee! Up until the end of 2015, NS and Union Pacific partnered to bring the infamous Triple Crown Trailers to Wisconsin, handing them off at Chicago and up to Eau Claire Wisconsin as UP's "Z-CHEM" and "Z-EMCH". These were notoriously hard catches, as both runs were scheduled at night to avoid clashing with other traffic. The rare occasions when they did run in daylight however, it seemed like they always ran in the most dramatic ways possible.
On Halloween Day 2015, track work, foggy weather, and a fellow northbound held up that day's "Z-CHEM", and myself and @carney just so happened upon the Roadrailers as they were threading their way towards Butler Yard in the afternoon. Their slow pace let us get in front of them just as they arrived, and after a pause to allow the train in front of them to gain distance, their slowness continued as they swung westward onto the Adams Sub. A quick dash up to Sussex, and another pass as the NS EMD-GE duo lead the long line of trailers onwards. An added bonus were several ex-Amtrak trailers at the rear, still wearing "Phase 4" purple, red and silver, but now with Triple Crown Markings. Within the end of year, Union Pacific would cancel its side of the Roadrailer Contract, and these "strings of trailers" would no longer roll through Wisconsin. Now, the end has come entirely for the Roadrailers. On August 25th 2024, the last ever Roadrailer Service departed from Detroit at 1:50 AM, bound for Kansas City and closing out a unique intermodal era in North American Railroading.
Enjoy Everybody! There is plenty more to come!