Question about Road Railers

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hello,

do road railer trains consist of strictly one customers trailer, or could the trailers from Schneider, Triple Crown and Swift be all in the same train?

Thank you

Frank

2

.

3

All the trailers are owned by NS/Triple crown at this point, all kinds of customer products are hauled from Auto Parts to Pork Products to Beer. Sometimes you’ll see trailers that once belonged to CN or Amtrak, but currently in North America the NS is the only railroad that has figured how to make money running these type of trains.

Jim

4

Thanks!
So, Schneider, Werner, & Swift …all dropped out?

I reckon, (my set is all outdated!..) & I still want to run some behind my Amtrak Box cars & Pepsi schemed -8’s!!!

Thanks again!

5

Hello,

thank you for the replies. I now know what to purchase when I want to start a road railer train.

Frank

6

Schiender Road Railers were operated on the Southern Pacific’s Shasta Route. I used to see them going through Marysville CA on the SP east valley line.

They were at the tail end of a regular train (mostly boxcars). A single box car with FRED was coupled behind the Roadrailers.

A few years after the Schienders ceased operation solid trains of SWIFT Roadrailers appeared on the line.

7

I have about 80 road railers of different road names, mostly triple crown but I run them all together because its my railroad and I can do what I want when I want. It’s your trains do what you want . Jim.

8

Another way to handle Roadrailers is as a regular TOFC shipment. For many years, Reeferrailers,(a refridgerated roadrailer w/ ICEZ markings), would arrive in Pittsburgh on 22W & 24M as TOFC. They were always very heavy compared to UPS trailers. Regular reefers are more common now, but the Reeferrailers do appear once in a while.

9

Depending on the era Amtrak had some too.

Richard

10

All the trailers I see are NS/Triple Crown. I think Fort Wayne is the center of the NS Roadrailer operatons. A few months ago Trains Magazine had an issue mostly devoted to intermodal traffic on todays railroads. There was a side bar or short article about the NS roadrailers. It also showed a map of where the NS operates their roadrailers.