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C&O RoadRailers on an Eastbound Passenger Train at Wyoming, Michigan circa 1960

 

Three C&O RoadRailers bring up the rear of an eastbound passenger train about to depart Wyoming Yard, circa 1960.

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. Muskegon traffic was always transferred from rail to road in Grand Rapids and trucked to Muskegon.

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. Their home-built RoadRailers predated Wabash National's roadrailers by approximately 20 years. The C&O Historical Society has in the past sold copies of a promotional film produced by the C&O in the 1950s to promote RoadRailer service.

Photo by Ben Boshoven

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