MELVINDALE, Michigan — Norfolk Southern’s flagship train, 255, has a date with destiny at 2:20 a.m. It’s the last departure — ever — of a Triple Crown RoadRailer train. At Detroit’s Oakwood Yard terminal, crews have lined up 95 of the bimodal trailers on three tracks, ready to be assembled into today’s train for the 715-mile trip to Kansas City.
But at half past twelve on this warm Sunday, August 25, it looks as if fate will have to wait.
Things started well enough. On track 18, the last trailer was mounted on its bogie and tied down at 23:40, an event that led to fist bumps and handshakes among the terminal crew. Fifteen minutes later, the nearly 24-year-old NS C44-9W No. 9936 joins the lead group of 33 trailers on track 15. At 00:31, the old warhorse pulls up to double the train on track 17.
But there’s a problem when pushing, and the 255 comes to a halt. The loud hissing sound under TCSZ No. 468883 is a telltale sign of an air leak. The terminal crew besieges the trailer, inspects the line, and tightens a connection with a wrench – but to no avail. It’s still leaking. They replace the faulty section of rubber hose. No, that doesn’t work either.
Nobody wants a delayed departure. Not for the RoadRailer finale. And certainly not for the cargo in the 95 trailers that are scheduled to arrive at the terminal in Kansas City at 2:45 a.m. today (Monday, August 26). Among them: auto parts for the Ford assembly plant in Kansas City, where F-150 and Transit Connect vans are built.
In nearly 39 years of building RoadRailer trains, the Road & Rail Services terminal crew has seen this before. They climb away in their orange Kubota utility vehicle and come back with the prize: a bypass hose. Within six minutes, it is unspooled, secured with cable ties to the underside of the trailer and firmly connected to the air lines at either end of TCSZ No. 468883. The air is flowing again, the pressure is holding and the train is ready to depart at 1:05 a.m.
Engineer PG Green pulls the 255 outside and waits for conductor NA Noftsger to set the switch on track 18, where the last group of 26 RoadRailers is waiting. The coupling takes place at 1:27 a.m., making the 255 1,576 feet long and 2,817 tons. The brake test is successful. And the 255 moves forward a bit at 1:49 a.m., with its official departure time being 1:50 p.m. – exactly 30 minutes ahead of schedule.
Current and former terminal employees watch quietly as 255 is removed from the camp, some using their phones to record the event for posterity.
Mike Theisen, terminal operations manager at Triple Crown in Detroit, joined the company in 1992 and says RoadRailer’s last departure was a bittersweet event. But the newest piece of RoadRailer equipment dates back to 2010, and he says the air hose drama is an example of why the equipment needs to be retired.
The age of the equipment – and the increasing need for maintenance – led NS to eliminate RoadRailer before the reliability of the service became a problem. As evidence, the last 255 train encountered brake problems en route in Bluffs, Illinois. The train arrived in Kansas City 4 hours and 19 minutes late.
This week, and just in time, Norfolk Southern is introducing the new Triple Crown domestic container service to handle the freight previously carried by RoadRailers. The eastern terminal will be moved to Toledo, Ohio. Trains 255 and 256 will operate on the same schedules but use conventional intermodal dump cars and Triple Crown boxes in double-deck service. For a few days or weeks, some Triple Crown RoadRailer trailers may join the ride in TOFC style.
Keeping RoadRailer freight traffic is a reversal. In 2015, NS decided not to modernize the RoadRailer fleet. The Triple Crown network was reduced from 13 terminals to just two terminals serving the Detroit-Kansas City route. And almost all RoadRailer freight traffic on the closed routes was moved back to the highway.
Now the growth-oriented NS does not just want to hold on to the RoadRailer business – it wants to use the Triple Crown to boost door-to-door trade in auto parts on other routes.
“With great appreciation for the historic role RoadRailers has played in expanding our network, Norfolk Southern plans to retire the equipment and launch a new service product with greater value that will enable growth for our railroad and our customers,” said spokeswoman Katie Byrd. “We will move the Triple Crown business to its TCZU 53-foot container fleet, freeing up capacity on existing trains and paving the way to expand Crown services across North America.”
