I have seen several of these. The one I saw today was almost 130 cars long. How did they lower the back of the trailer into the trucks? And when looking up under the front of the trailer in front of the kingpin it looks like a plate that slides into the back of the other trailer. How did they move these into position? I could see the brake lines running under the trailers. Were these normal trailers you see on the road? It looked like the airhose was bolted to the bottom of the trailers and the plate that connected them was NOT removeable. It seems like a lot of stress on the small trailers when pulling a long train like this. It’s not like a steel hopper or boxcar frame to take the pulling power. I also noticed that none of these trains had pushers.
I do not know specifics, but they are called “road-railers.” They are fitted with special equipment to ride on those trucks. Someone with more knowledge can detail the rest.
Road railers are specifically built trailers that go on either roads or rails. They are put together at intermodal yards, on tracks running through the concrete. I don’t know how they are put together as in the trucks, but I would assume that there is something to lift them up and they roll the trucks under. I see these trailers on the interstate all the time.
They used to actually have a railroad type wheel at the rear and were simply coupled together and used these wheels when on the tracks. The problem was when they were on the roads. Among other things there were weight issues with the extra equipment. If I am wrong about that please correct me.
tomkat you beat me to it lol. also f you can find it get the trains video railroads and intermodal, this also has a segment on triple crowns ft wayne,in intermodal facility and how road railer trains are made up
