I assume that this evolved into “Iron Roads” or Expressway CP service. http://www.cpr.ca/en/customer-resources/shipping-guides/expressway-operating-guidelines.For many years I saw a poster in Gare Central in Montreal that CN used to adverstise this service.
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[quote user=“CandOforprogress2”]
I assume that this evolved into “Iron Roads” or Expressway CP service. http://www.cpr.ca/en/customer-resources/shipping-guides/expressway-operating-guidelines.For many years I saw a poster in Gare Central in Montreal that CN used to adverstise this service.
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I meant to reply to this last week, but became busy and forgot.
Laser was not a special high speed service, nor did it operate with specialized or unique equipment. It was simply CN’s brand name for their piggyback (TOFC) service, and was similar to most other railroads’ TOFC service in terms of operations and scheduling. The only distincitive aspect of Laser (to a trackside observer) was that in Eastern Canada the trailers were hauled in well cars, in order to fit through the tight confines of the old St. Clair River tunnel at Sarnia-Port Huron:
Being a CN operation, Laser was also not related at all to CP’s Expressway service. I am not sure when the Laser brand name ceased to be used officially, but there are a number of containers and trailers still painted in the Laser scheme.
And of course Expressway is still in service between Toronto and Montreal, with its unique flatcars and cargo of standard truck trailers.
Both CN and CP tried using roadrailer equiment in the Eastern Canada corridor too, and both operations proved to not be economically viable. CN did continue to handle NS Triple Crown roadrailers from Detroit to Toronto (as their own train, Q144/Q145) until Triple Crown ended the majority of its roadrailer operations a couple years ago.
Did someone say Laser Train?
OK boys, here ya go!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhURhaIRdqI
Sorry the video quality isn’t better but sometimes you just have to go with what’s available.
Back in the bad old days when General Mills ran Lionel. Matter of fact what ever happened to Saterday Morning Cartoons on CBS,NBC and ABC followed by toy commercials? Its all education programing that hurts my head on a Saterday morning hangover.
This, from C&O for Progress came to me in my email, but did not come to me in the thread: "So on the Ex-NYC Ex-Conrail Main Line, Even though there is a dozen Intermodal Trains a day between Cleveland, Buffalo and Syracuse and all have IM Ramps last time I called the RR and freight forwarder to move a 20 ft container of my stuff they said that they would not do it. How hard can it be to switch off my car in the Buffalo yard? Furthermore they would not let my freinds drive up in a Pick-Up truck to the yard and hand unload the container, They told me that I had to hire a local dray trucking company to take the 20ft contaner off site to unload. So with lift fees and drayage at both ends its more then hiring a LTL Carrier.
Does anyone have an answer to his problem other than to hand him a towel to cry on?
That is not poor customer service, the railroad simply denied some trespassers access to the property.
They don’t let you unload boxcars in the middle of a hump yard for the same reason.
If one wants to unload their cargo on railroad property, it should be billed as a carload to the nearest transloading facility (aka team track), not as an intermodal shipment.
Railroads no longer chase after every single shipment, and some traffic is simply not suited to the rails anymore. A small, one-off shipment requiring specialized handling fits that bill, and is better suited to trucking.
Of course if truckers had to pay their fair share of highway taxes/maintenance fees then perhaps the trucking cost would have been less competitive for this shipment.
I’ll tell you man, if General Mills hadn’t come along when they did Lionel would have died. The crew running Lionel prior to the sale hadn’t a clue as to what to do with it. General Mills knew the name and the reputation and thought they could do something with it. Maybe they could have done better but in a very real sense they saved the company and the product line.
OK, this really belongs on the “Classic Toy Trains” Forum but I just had to say something about the subject.
What transloading facility? Conrail closed them down years ago. The Container yard have enough room to spot a container to unload by hand. and BTW its rather unbusy.