History of Roadrailers on CSX in Upstate NY

Matt Langworthy wrote:You are correct. I though I saw a Roadrailer train east of Rochester in the '90s, but that may have been a one time only run or perhaps I was mistaken about the location.

U probably were thinking of amtrak's
Mail srevive in railroaded behind 48/49?

sd80mac wrote:

Matt Langworthy wrote:You are correct. I though I saw a Roadrailer train east of Rochester in the '90s, but that may have been a one time only run or perhaps I was mistaken about the location.

U probably were thinking of amtrak's
Mail srevive in railroaded behind 48/49?

It was a dedicated train of trailers. I wasn't driving at the time, so maybe I don't remember the location correctly.

sd80mac wrote:

rr503 wrote:Too bad it didn't last.
Thanks for all the information!
I hope they try it again

No. NS aren't going to continue it. They will keep running it until trailers fall apart.

I know...
I'm allowed to dream though, right?

I did see trailers on 48/49 a few times.

Some of those trailers were in the train I saw in Ohio this year.

lvrr325 wrote:I did see trailers on 48/49 a few times.

Some of those trailers were in the train I saw in Ohio this year.

Amtrak quit mail business years ago..... I have not heard anything about that. Amtrak's RoadRailer trailers are in Triple crown.. and MBC (I think that I have it right - box cars) are all over USA and canada in different ownerships.

The original Roadrailer service was marketed by Bi-Modal Corp and operated under the name of "Empire State Xpress" Buffalo / High Bridge.

Conrail acquired 4 formerAuto-Train u-boats (IIRC 2971 / 2974) as power assigned only to these trains. Single unit per train.

Biggest problem for Bi-Modal was that the train was 100% loads eastbound and about 15% loads westbound.

Bi-Modal got out of NY and the next service was (IIRC) out in the Mid-West, possibly Detroit / Kansas City.

2971-2974 Had an interesting background. They were originally built for the Auto Train but Auto Train was having major financial problems. They were built to SCL specifications and had EMD trucks when they first came to Conrail. I had them once or maybe twice on the River Line back in the period when I was working that line. Later on Conrail swapped the trucks for the GE trucks that were under most of these engines built. They ran them on the Roadrailer out of High Bridge because they had enough HP to make track speeds with a relatively light tonnage train and could clear the third rail as well. Conrail was quite limited as to just what kind of power they could run in third rail territory in and around New York City. I don't remember just when they swapped the trucks on these locomotives but they were still cleared to operate in third rail territory. I don't think they ever operated on the Auto Train.
Noel Weaver