You know, one thing I’m a little puzzled by is why Roadrailer cars aren’t more commonly used.
I’ve seen them on the Swift Roadrailers trains running on BNSF up and down the US West Coast, and BNSF runs insulated Roadrailer cars from the Los Angeles area to Chicago delivering perishable food.
A properly built Roadrailer car could be perfect for UPS, which could use them either for over-road transport or couple a lot of them together for lower-weight UPS package carrying train. Because we don’t need all the deadweight of spline cars or flatcars, a Roadrailer train with 70-80 trailers don’t need so many powerful locomotives, which means lower fuel and maintanence costs.
Actually not. The beauty of RoadRailer is that you need less heavy lifting equipment to load onto and unload off spline cars/flat cars, and it’s way faster to assemble/disassemble a RoadRailer train then to lift trailers on and off spline cars/flat cars! [8D]
Having just built a slug of trailers for UPS, I beg to differ.
UPS lately has had us build 28 foot, straight frame single axle trailers, the axle is fixed and there is a large bumper and pintle hitch assembly on the back. IMHO, this could pose a problem to get the rail wheels tucked up inside into this area.
UPS (and FedEx too, come to think of it,) can and usually does load these trailers to gross weight. The extra rail gear (even if it is just bracketry) means less weight they can load inside the trailer.
I also don’t believe that UPS has many full-length trailers left in the fleet, they seem to like the pup trailers more.
Road-railers can be hitched to the rear of a conventional freight train, and do not need a dedicated unit train. But you cannot put Roard-railers between conventional frieght cars and a locomotive , This still remains an operating problem, especially on railroads where distributed power or helpers are used.
Some railroads regard truckers as among their best customers and this discourages them from offering a service in competition.
This may be irrelevant with regard for UPS, but see the previous postings.
Norfolk Southern has been successful with roadrailers by making them the #1 priority on the mainline. Other railroads are unable or unwilling to make the commitment of holding stack trains for other traffic. Because of their expedited schedules, Triple Crown is able to charge enough to remain profitable.
I have read that a sizable percentage of the Roadrailers traffic on NS is auto parts and related business, which works well for NS but perhaps not so well on other roads in other markets.
Roadrailers, even in the Type IV version, are heavier than ordinary intermodal trailers, which are in turn heavier than standard truck trailers. Consequently, the Roadrailers have pretty much run in dedicated service, even on the highways.
BNSF doesn’t have roadrailers out west anymore. They sent them back east last year.
BTW- UPS loads cube-out. If they are not full it’s because there wasn’t a full load of packages for that orig-dest. I worked for UPS when I started tech school unloading 4-5 trailers a night, in 4 hours!!!
A few years before the UP takeover of the Southern Pacific, Roadrailers ran reguarly (about twice a week each way) on the Shasta Route, at the end of a conventional freight . The Roadrailers had a coupler mate front and rear. A single box car with Fred was coupled behind them.
UP and BNSF have no interest in doing Roadrailers, at least from LA. The BNSF Bell yard where they assembled the trains is now full of trailer traffic. You can’t waste precious land and resources for a niche service. Even the Ice Express railers are loaded onto intermodal trains at Hobart now.
Lots of us have gotten it right regarding the roadrailers. Yes, they do have an often unacceptable tare weight versus conventional trailers/containers, and yes they are more expensive than normal trailers/containers. Now, let me stop right there. A roadrailer is a lot more expensive than a regular 53’ trailer or container. So, if you want maximum flexability, and cost effective equipment for your hard to get $, a Roadrailer is NOT the trailer/container of choice. And most trailer/container operators/owners want flexability first after the overwhelmingly powerful first reason they won’t use roadrailers: Their up front cost! Add in the cost of the extra maintence they will need and extra tare weight, which limits the usefulness of a roadrailer. What good is a specialized trailer, that is more expensive and weighs more than a conventional trailer/container? The answer profoundly influences what they will buy or lease. Cost and flexability tell the tale, here, gang!