Intermodal Terminals, "Cutoffs" & "Avaliable"? - Trains Magazine
Daniel Johnston
Updated on April 07, 2026
BT CPSO 266
Well now I am still confused. It was mentioned earlier that this train stops, loads, and unloads on it's trip from Pittsburgh to NJ. The train goes through a name change two times so I just assumed that it stopped in Harrisburg and then Philly would be the only other logical stop. Why you would load a trailer to go such a short distance I don't know.[snip]
If Harrisburg is this train's last stop why does it have three different names?
OK - now I see where the confusion might be originating. Harrisburg is not its last stop. The very non-obvious answer is in this excerpt from oltmannd's post of 11-10-2009 at 8:29 AM as follows:
"The service takes so long for two reasons. The first is that Harrisburg has two terminals and this business flow[s] thru both (HH15 is a transfer job between the two locations. I've always wondered if it wouldn't have been better to expand Harrisburg more and not build Rutherford.)"
The 3 trains are as follows (I'm inferring / guessing a little bit here):
22W - Pittsburgh Intermodal Terminal to Harrisburg Intermodal Terminal
HH15 - a local 'transfer' move from the Harrisburg Intermodal Terminal - see:
- to the ex-Reading RR's Rutherford Intermodal Terminal - see: - and former yard = gateway to the ex-Reading's line to Reading/ Allentown and then the ex-Lehigh Valley RR to Elizabethport.
Notably, the distance between this Harrisburg Terminal - at 3500 Industrial Way, Zip Code 17110, for which Wildwood Rd. is really the driveway, on the southern side of I-81 here, just west of US Route 22 - and the Rutherford Terminal - at 5050 Paxton Drive, southeastern Harrisburg/ Swatara/ Lawnton, Zip Code 17111, which is about 1.5 miles east of I-83 and about 1/4 mile north of US Route 322/ Paxton St., between Grayson Rd. on the south and Derry St. on the north, and for which Penhar Drive extended to the north is really the driveway entrance - is only about 6 miles 'as the crow flies', or 8 to 10 miles and 10 to 20 minutes by road 'depending', and a similar distance by the rail route.
22V - Rutherford Intermodal Terminal to Elizabeth Marine Terminal.
Interestingly, the reverse move - from Elizabeth at 1600 hrs. 'Cutoff' to Pittsburgh at 1700 hrs. 'Available' - is only just over 2 days, and shows as using only 2 trains - 25V and 21T - see:
Note also that Don also mentioned 'Erail' - which is another intermodal terminal in the same general Elizabeth, NJ area - see:
as well as the New York Container Terminal on Staten Island - see:
Finally, the new Philadelphia Intermodal Terminal hasn't happened yet - it was just announced around Nov. 2d for completion in mid-2010, and will have a capability of 72,000 lifts per year = roughly 1 train of 200 containers/ trailers per day. See ''Norfolk Southern, Pennsylvania plan intermodal expansion'' pubished on Nov. 2, 2009 on Trains.com's 'News Wire' at:
- Paul North.
"This Fascinating Railroad Business" (title of 1943 book by Robert Selph Henry of the AAR)
