The encyclopedia · Engineering & Operations · Operational decision · 1955–1964
Trailer Train pooled railroads' flatcars and made piggyback rail work
Rival railroads co-owned one flatcar pool, so piggyback cars stopped deadheading home empty and intermodal rail took off.
TTX Company (Trailer Train)
The solution
After the Korean War, piggyback hauling — truck trailers on railroad flatcars — looked promising but could not scale. Each railroad owned its own cars, and a flatcar that ended its trip on another road had to return empty to its owner, so utilization stayed low and there was no standard for trailer tie-down devices.
In November 1955 the Pennsylvania Railroad and Norfolk & Western joined with Rail-Trailer Corporation to form Trailer Train, a company whose sole purpose was to own and manage a pooled fleet of standardized flatcars. It began operations in March 1956 with 500 cars; any railroad in the pool could use any car and reload it at the next destination.
The model worked because the pool made the fleet work harder. TTX cars could be reloaded anywhere and directed to the closest waiting load, and the company's standardized hitches became industry equipment. By 1964, 41 railroads — virtually every major US line — had become stockholders, and the pooled fleet became the backbone of North American intermodal rail.
Why it worked
- Pooled cars never deadheaded home, so each car earned on far more trips
- One standard car design and hitch removed the compatibility problem between railroads
- Unified control let empty cars be routed to where loads were waiting
- Small railroads got access to a modern fleet without buying it themselves
- Sharing the fleet aligned rival roads on one interoperable standard
What can be applied
When an expensive asset sits idle because of fragmented ownership, a shared pool can turn a cost problem into a network advantage.
Aftermath
Trailer Train, renamed TTX, became the standard equipment pool for North American rail: its fleet reached 98,666 cars by 1992, and it continues to supply intermodal, autorack and general-use cars today. The pooling idea spread to boxcars and gondolas, and TTX's cars still account for a disproportionate share of car miles because they are used so intensively.
Sources
- TTX Company — History
- Taking Risks & Doing the Undoable: After a Half Century, TTX Enjoys a Strong Business Partnership with Its Owner-Railroads
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