Piggyback and Containers: A History of Rail Intermodal on America's Steel Highway

This is a second edition with updated information, images and tables. This book presents the complete intermodal story: The development of Gene Ryan's Rail Trailer Company, General Motors flirtation with a depressed center-car design, the establishment of Trailer Train, Southern Pacific's truck-trailer train experiment between Los Angeles and San Francisco (handling only company owned Pacific Motor Trucking Trailers), the separation of Pennsylvania Railroads influence over Trailer Train, and the combination of rail-highway units familiarly called Rail Van and RoadRailer.

Featured are the various hitch arrangements, the once popular trailer-leasing program, the expansion of United Parcel from a department store delivery service to the United States' largest freight carrier and their influence on rail-piggyback.

This book is written by an industry insider who tells the 'who' and 'why'.

Contents:
Introduction, pp. 10-12,
The Less-Than-Carload Problem, pp. 13-20,
It's Soup-The First-Generation, pp. 21-26,
The Amazing Mr. Ryan, pp. 27-32,
Commercial Implications, pp. 33-42,
Load 'Em Up, pp. 43-50,
Technology- Never Where's, Wanna-Bee's and Sorta Where's, pp. 51-66,
The Birth of Trailer Train, pp. 67-72,
Intermodal Gains a Voice, pp. 73-76,
Trailer Leasing, pp. 77-82,
Terminal Mechanization, pp. 83-98,
United Parcel Service-The Little Brown Package Car, pp. 99-104,
Trailer Train and Gene Ryan, pp. 105-110,
Santa Fe-Super C and the Coax Train, pp. 111-118,
Federal Railroad Administration, pp. 119-128,
Road-Railer, pp. 129-134,
New Technology, pp. 135-146,
Deregulation-Free at Last, pp. 147-150,
Putting Technology to Work, pp. 151-166,
The Movement to Domestic Containers, pp. 167-174,
End of the Beginning, pp. 175-178,
Appendix, pp. 179-183,
Bibliography, pp. 184-187,
Index, pp. 188-192.

Golden West Books, hardcover with jacket, 207 pages, standard portrait book 8 x 10 in., 217 illustrations, car drawings, bibliography and index.

• New
• Hardcover
• David J. DeBoer
• Golden West Books