History of Roadrailers on CSX in Upstate NY

I recently saw a photo on flickr of someone who had a photo of a CSX roadrailer train that was run in cooperation with BNSF from the West Coast to Northern New Jersey. How many years did these trains run for?

Apparently 2001-2002, it didn't last too long.

This thread in a different forum from the era has more info.

NEW CSXT ROADRAILER TRAIN:
> > Starting on Monday, June 18th, 2001, CSXT will start running an eastern
> > segment of the Ice-Cold Express. These will be the first dedicated
> > RoadRailer trains on CSXT in many years. The new trains, Q-162
> > (eastbound) and Q-163 (westbound) will depart the BNSF's Cicero Yard in
> > Chicago, IL on Monday and Saturday around 16:00 EDT. Westbound trains
> > will depart on Monday and Thursday out of Little Ferry, NJ. The route is
> > via Selkirk, NY and Willard, OH. Arrival back in the Chicago, IL area
> > will be at the CNIC's Markham Yard.

lakeshoredave wrote:I recently saw a photo on flickr of someone who had a photo of a CSX roadrailer train that was run in cooperation with BNSF from the West Coast to Northern New Jersey. How many years did these trains run for?

Do you still have link to that photo?

Didn't Conrail run one from BUF to some point in the NYC area?

Yes, CR offered Roadrailer service between Buffalo and the Bronx, starting around 1982. Roadrailer was active when I moved to Rochester in 1991 and I think the Buffalo to Bronx run ended with the CR split in '99.

Did they run to Highbridge or the Harlem River Intermodal Terminal?

I never saw one through Syracuse, but I recall there was a run off NS from Buffalo to Rochester.

In fact, it was a big surprise the end of July to pass over NS in Macedonia OH (below Cleveland) and see a Roadrailer train, I think it's the first time I'd ever seen one in person.

rr503 wrote:Did they run to Highbridge or the Harlem River Intermodal Terminal?

I don't know. I saw Roadrailer here in Rochester.

lvrr325 wrote:I never saw one through Syracuse, but I recall there was a run off NS from Buffalo to Rochester.

In fact, it was a big surprise the end of July to pass over NS in Macedonia OH (below Cleveland) and see a Roadrailer train, I think it's the first time I'd ever seen one in person.

Yeah, NS and CR had a Roadrailer terminal at Goodman Street Yard in Rochester. I photographed it at least once in the late '90s. The Roadrailer terminal was moved to Buffalo by NS around the time of the CR split.

I found a NY Times article on the subject dated 11/9/1982:

The Roadrailer was designed and produced by the Bi-Modal Corporation of Greenwich, Conn. The service that started last week is being run by a Bi-Modal subsidiary that operates the vehicles. Using Conrail facilities, it is running a train composed of the vans on a regular schedule between the High Bridge Terminal in the Bronx and Buffalo.

http://www.nytimes.com/1982/11/09/busin ... rails.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

RoadRailer passing under the unique signal bridge at East Syracuse NY lead by an ex GN SDP40 GCFX 3093. 5-2002.

Charles

Matt Langworthy wrote:Yes, CR offered Roadrailer service between Buffalo and the Bronx, starting around 1982. Roadrailer was active when I moved to Rochester in 1991 and I think the Buffalo to Bronx run ended with the CR split in '99.

No I know there's no Roadrailer btwn buffalo and Bronx since 94 when I started to railfanning.. Only Roadrailer that I had seen in NYS was Rochester - FT Wayne. That's the only RoadRailer I had seen running thru (literally terminated at ) Rochester anytime since 1994. This business didn't last long after Day one. I'll check to see how long it continued to run to Buffalo.

and I recall that it stayed on Conrail all the way to Cleveland then hand it over to NS. I'll check on that.

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.

Roadrailer service in the Bronx ended in 1984:

Unfortunately, there was an imbalance of traffic between New York and Buffalo, with loads being carried eastbound, and mostly empty trailers returning west. After almost two years of attempts to make the train profitable, Road Rail Transportation ceased its operations in New York State. Bill Moll oversaw the departure of the final westbound Empire State Xpress train from Highbridge on July 30, 1984, before he made his way home through the streets of the Bronx for the last time

Source: http://klnl.org/magazine/KLLNews15.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;






http://klnl.org/magazine/KLLNews15.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I saw the CR Roadrailer trains in action around 1982, I was attending college in the area, and often took walks (2nd term Koch era NYC was nowhere near as bad as the movies made it out to be). Standing on the Broadway bridge over the Hudson Line and the Harlem River (OK, OK, before Brother Elias complains, over Spuyten Duyvil Creek/Harlem River Ship Canal), I saw that impressively long line of Roadrailers moving at a fast clip* under the bridge. It was pretty memorable, but it was not to last.

Roadrailers just seem to be a really good idea...that just never seems to pay off.

* I have no movies of this, so perhaps the train wasn't all that long, or moving all that fast. Looked pretty good, however.

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

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.