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, 8.5 x 11 x .75 in., 217 illustrations, car drawings, bibliography and index.