For PHL, an educational move

Railway Age, Jan, 2004

Anacostia and Pacific subsidiary Pacific Harbor Lines was the last railroad link for four LNG-powered Thomas Built school buses shipped from High Point, N.C., to customer BusWest, Whittier, Calif. The buses were shipped on prototype Unilevel railcars designed and built by Trinity Railcar for TTX.

The move originated at Norfolk Southern's vehicle loading facility at Winston-Salem, N.C. Union Pacific hauled the cars from Kansas City to Los Angeles, where PHL picked them up. After Vanco Heavy Lift, Inc., unloaded the buses from the Unilevels, they were driven by BusWest drivers to customer First Student, Inc., Wilmington, Calif. Progressive Rail, Inc., subsidiary Rail Retrievers Logistics, Lakeville, Minn., coordinated the move dock-to-dock. The Unilevel is a specialty enclosed motor vehicle car designed to carry large commercial vehicles like trucks, cement mixers, and buses. The Thomas Built buses would have been difficult to move cross-country by truck because of their size. They could not have been driven due to limited availability of LNG fuel, and transporting them by rail on an open flatcar would have exposed them to damage enroute.