Perhaps this is stretching the term "freight car" for some, but a Roadrailer does haul freight on the rails. The concept of an intermodal vehicle that could go directly from roads to rails has been around for nearly fifty years in one form or another. While many companies have experimented with the technology over the decades, the one that has made it work the most effectively and lastingly is Triple Crown Corporation, a subsidiary of Norfolk Southern.
"TCSZ Roadrailer 464437
>?2010 Ryan C Kunkle, licensed to About.com, Inc.
The Roadrailers in service today are built by Wabash National, best known for their truck trailers. Essentially trailers with an added hydraulic system to raise the chassis, an air line for train brakes and an extra coupling at front and rear; Roadrailers share more in common with trucks than trains. They are easy to transfer from road to rail and back, with no cranes or elaborate facilities necessary. Once coupled, there is virtually no slack in between units, unlike conventional railroad couplers. A 150 car Roadrailer train has just 6 inches of coupler slack...compared to nearly 40 feet for a comparable number of freight cars! This, combined with the uniform light weight of each unit, makes Roadrailers some of the smoothest rides on the rails.
Roadrailers are available in many scales. DeLuxe Innovations makes them in N scale, and Bowser has several versions in HO and O. Like the prototype, a train of Roadrailers can be a very smooth runner, with half the axles and a fraction of the coupler slack of a conventional train.
For a larger image of this and other freight cars, see the Freight Car Friday Image Gallery.
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