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C&O RoadRailer #186 Preserved at Sparta, Michigan in 2000

 

Former C&O RoadRailer #186 on display at Sparta, Michigan in May, 2000.

The C&O introduced RoadRailers in the late 1950s as a means of more efficiently moving packages and pre-sorted mail between Grand Rapids, Muskegon and Detroit. They were coupled to scheduled passenger trains by means of an adapter truck. At each end of their run, they were hauled to their final destinations singly over the road. After the first few years, RoadRailer service was expanded to include Grand Rapids-Chicago and Grand Rapids-Traverse City runs.

These RoadRailers predated the modern roadrailers built by Wabash National by approximately 20 years. Until Wabash National introduced their version, the C&O was the only railroad in the United States to use roadrailers in regular service, which they did from the late 1950s until the loss of mail service contracts in the late 1960s.

Number 186 is owned by the Muskegon Railroad Historical Society and is displayed at the West Michigan Railroad Historical Society's depot museum in Sparta, Michigan.

Photo by Fritz Milhaupt

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