Eastern Railroad Discussion > NS TripleCrown Roadrailer Service

While running some model roadrailers the other night another memeber of the local club I belong to asked me a bunch of roadrailer questions. Alot of the equipment specific ones I could answer but one that had me puzzled was "Why is NS(s) TripleCrown roadrailer service the only one left out there"? Why has NS been so successful in running this type of intermodal service while others have tried and failed? BNSF had SWIFT and Ice Cold Express trains, CN had their own fleet for awhile, Amtrak, and I think even Schneider Trucking had some (Bowser made these but I know nothing about them) so what is it about NS that makes them really the only one who can do it? Is the service still growing and holding it's own or is it on it's last leg and NS is just supporting it? These questions were the ones that got brought up and I really couldn't asnwer them. Also I remember a while back hearing that the service served niche markets like autoparts etc. Also what are the core routes and trains running currently? Thanks guys for any help!

One of the reasons was because NS made the investment and stuck to it.
Other roads made half hearted attempts and when it didn't appear right, they dropped it and ran the other way.
NS also had built specific traffic bases from auto suppliers, paint companies and industries based inside their service area but not on railroad access sites.

The down side is they are cranky and not fun to run. But NS makes money and I don't see it going any time soon.
Granted they have issues from time to time, but I worked them more then a few times and I only had one issue in line of road and was able to tend to it myself. I've seen however times that the forces have been called out to fix the issues, but that was rare.

You ask why is NS so successful with Roadrailers?

1)They hired personnel from the trucking industry to run TCS.

2) Diversified loads from food stuff, beer, auto-parts, and toys - time sensitive items that can demand a premium haul price

2) As repeated from above they stuck with the technology. Other roads dabbled in it and gave up.

3) Some NS has corridors are straight shots from one point to another whereas the road infrastructure may not be. Case in point I live in North Central Indiana along the NS Wabash which is a fairly straight route from Detroit - Ft. Wayne - KC/St. Louis while truckers do not have such a direct route.

John Troxler

One thing that helped NS was they created a subsidiary company for the Roadrailer service. Those people's job was to run the Roadrailer service. On the other roads the Roadrailers were such a minor project it is likely the work was added to someones already full load. When the RR's went away so did the extra work.

The only thing that may now hurt NS's RR is the auto parts industry turmoil. Yes Triple Crown has diversity of traffic but I fear it can't survive a long turn down turn in a major traffic base.

To answer another question from the original post, the primary traffic lanes I'm aware of for Triple Crown are:

Chicago-Fort Wayne
Fort Worth?-Oklahoma City(BNSF)-Kansas City-Fort Wayne
Toronto(CN)-Detroit-Fort Wayne
Atlanta-Fort Wayne
Bethlehem PA-Harrisburg-Sandusky OH-Fort Wayne

There was a New Jersey-Atlanta service for a while but I think that's gone now. I don't know if NS operates a Triple Crown terminal in Pittsburgh or not.

I seem to recall there was some RoadRailer traffic coming in to NS at Chicago from the Twin Cities or somewhere on UP for a while, but I don't know if that's still running. For a while, Triple Crown's Chicago-East Coast business was robust enough to run a dedicated RoadRailer train several times per week directly east from Chicago, bypassing the Fort Wayne hub, but I haven't seen that train in quite a long time.

I saw a roadrailer in Cordele GA (south of Atlanta) in 2003, so they
must have service south of Atlanta as well.

All of these points are still services by Triple Crown Roadrailers:

http://www.triplecrownsvc.com/ServiceArea.html

Patch: 242 used to run on the Chicago Line, but its routing has returned to the Chicago/Fostoria Discticts through Ft. Wayne.

Chris
K8CRQ

Cool. Going from memory I missed only St. Louis and Jacksonville. Thanks for posting that link!

Read the article "The Invisible Derailment" in the September, October, or November, 2007 (can't remember which one...yeah, I'm a year behind) TRAINS. Very interesting story about a wild trip for one Roadrailer van.

toledopatch Wrote:
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> To answer another question from the original post,
> the primary traffic lanes I'm aware of for Triple
> Crown are:
>
> Chicago-Fort Wayne
> Fort Worth?-Oklahoma City(BNSF)-Kansas City-Fort
> Wayne
> Toronto(CN)-Detroit-Fort Wayne
> Atlanta-Fort Wayne
> Bethlehem PA-Harrisburg-Sandusky OH-Fort Wayne
>
> There was a New Jersey-Atlanta service for a while
> but I think that's gone now. I don't know if NS
> operates a Triple Crown terminal in Pittsburgh or
> not.
>
> I seem to recall there was some RoadRailer traffic
> coming in to NS at Chicago from the Twin Cities or
> somewhere on UP for a while, but I don't know if
> that's still running. For a while, Triple Crown's
> Chicago-East Coast business was robust enough to
> run a dedicated RoadRailer train several times per
> week directly east from Chicago, bypassing the
> Fort Wayne hub, but I haven't seen that train in
> quite a long time.



Didn't they have a Buffalo to Ft Wayne service at one time?

NYSWSD70M Wrote:
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> Didn't they have a Buffalo to Ft Wayne service at
> one time?

During the last few years of Conrail, after CR bought a stake in Triple Crown, there was a Crestline, Ohio to Rochester (and reverse) service. As part of the Conrail partitioning, the current Sandusky terminal was built, Crestline closed, and the Rochester service ended.

Nick Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Read the article "The Invisible Derailment" in the
> September, October, or November, 2007 (can't
> remember which one...yeah, I'm a year behind)
> TRAINS. Very interesting story about a wild trip
> for one Roadrailer van.


I've read that one, it's very good! This is about the one on the BN somewhere that derailed for many miles and never hurt anyhting on the train. Remember seeing a photo of some track that had gouges in it from a flange. Then somehow the train rerailed itself right? But I think they ended up setting out the roadrailer out of consist and a truck came and grabbed it.

DeutzHDL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Nick Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Read the article "The Invisible Derailment" in
> the
> > September, October, or November, 2007 (can't
> > remember which one...yeah, I'm a year behind)
> > TRAINS. Very interesting story about a wild
> trip
> > for one Roadrailer van.
>
>
> I've read that one, it's very good! This is about
> the one on the BN somewhere that derailed for many
> miles and never hurt anyhting on the train.
> Remember seeing a photo of some track that had
> gouges in it from a flange. Then somehow the train
> rerailed itself right? But I think they ended up
> setting out the roadrailer out of consist and a
> truck came and grabbed it.


¡Exactamente!

toledopatch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> NYSWSD70M Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Didn't they have a Buffalo to Ft Wayne service
> at
> > one time?
>
> During the last few years of Conrail, after CR
> bought a stake in Triple Crown, there was a
> Crestline, Ohio to Rochester (and reverse)
> service. As part of the Conrail partitioning, the
> current Sandusky terminal was built, Crestline
> closed, and the Rochester service ended.

I have a couple slides of that train in Berea, OH in the late 90's. RR-233 and RR-234? Something like that.

Oh, also, there's no TCS terminal in Pittsburgh.

The Atlanta-NJ service used to run from Atlanta to Alexandria (VA). I remember when it first started, you would see just a few trailers but that train expanded to a decent length. I was kind of surprised it went away.

toledopatch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------> Fort Worth?-Oklahoma City(BNSF)-Kansas City-Fort
> Wayne


Fort Worth is correct. The BNSF roadrailer off NS terminates/originates in a facility in Saginaw, just north of "Cowtown."

1) I've pulled a RoadRailer, and for the trucker they're pretty much transparent- they work pretty much like a regular semitrailer. Watch for the grease buildup on the front "hook" though...

2) Norfolk Southern has essentually created an in-house trucking operation for the RoadRailers. It helps too that they pay their subcontractor truckers better than average rates. NS also understands schedules- when our Post Office facility used Amtrak Roadrailers they'd send the drivers over to Amtrak right when the trains came in, then wondered why it took so long to handle the paperwork and inspection and why the depot was so congested with 4 wheeler traffic.

I saw some NS trlrs out here in denver last summer

Conrail ran them for a while too.

TCS services the Denver area, but it's not by train. Loads are trucked to/from Kansas City. Not surprisingly the Kansas City - Denver service lane is our best performing of the whole bunch :)

dan Wrote:
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> I saw some NS trlrs out here in denver last summer