Saturday I got stopped at the NS crossing and a WB roadrailer for Chicago passed. I didnt count trailers, but it was a long train, well over 100 units.
Is there much of a difference in the handling of a RR train vs a intermodal or boxcar train? When looking at the RR trains, i keep thinking how “fragile” (for lack of better word) those trains look, with the trailers riding right on the rails.
BTW, how is RR business these days? Has the economy/fuel prices affected the roadrailer business positively or negetively?
…It looks like the road railer trains have minimum slack…and surely that seems like that would account for a difference in handling. Must let the railroad experts give us the deciding answer on that one though…
I’ve wondered about the same basic thing: The individual weight of a roadrailer must be significantly less than that of your average box car. Would that lighter weight impose a greater risk for derailment at higher speeds?
When CSX was running Roadrailers early on, I remember a quote from one engineer along the lines of it being like handling a sports car as opposed to a loaded dump truck. Haven’t heard from UP employees catching our round trip to the Twin Cities.
One day I saw just that - two roadrailers trailing the Empire Builder as it rolled eastbound through Dayton’s Bluff in St. Paul (about 6 hrs late). I remember it because the last roadrailer looked to be leaning to one side - seemed kinda shakey. But they dropped the use of roadrailers on Amtrak, as I understand it went, not long after I saw them.
Four years ago we rode Amtrak’s Empire Builder and there were Roadrailers on the rear of the train behind three Amtrak boxcars. The roadrailers were taken off in St. Paul going westbound.
I believe C&O handled roadrailers behind some of their Michigan trains prior to Amtrak. One problem they had was could not trail through a spring switch as they’d derail rather than force the points to move.
A roadrailer is a trailer in which the unit rides directly on the rail rather than on a flat car. The most common use of this is the NS’s Triple Crown service. Do a search for Triple Crown and you can see the concept.
To be a roadrailer, does it also have to share an axel between the two conjoined cars: IOW three axles supporting two cars rather than four? Or is there a better technical term for that?
A road railer is better said to be 1 long car. there is no slack so its like having 1 articulate car. drag forces is ( air wise) isnt bad but with no slack it drags the train right down and they wont put enough power to work the train. but the bean counters are seen making it profitable so it stands.