In 1989, Conrail began their Mercury intermodal service. Actually, Conrail Mercury was not one of the traditional 'Service Groups,' such as the Core Service Group. Conrail Mercury was a wholly owned subsidiary of Conrail, whose top executives all came from the trucking industry. Its brand-new central dispatch center was based in Plymouth Meeting, PA.

Conrail Mercury specialized in door-to-door and customized service. Its mission was to connect East-West intermodal trains with cities in the Southwest and on the West Coast. Eventually, Mercury expanded into the United States Postal Service Contractor business.

In 1989, Conrail purchased 48' Strick trailers for the service, painting them in the Mercury scheme. When modeling this prototype, you will need to check individual photos. Some trailers, as the CRMZ 229001 above, do not have the United States Postal Service Contractor decal that other CRMZ trailers have.

Conrail also purchased 48' and 53' smooth-side Monon containers for Mercury service and gave them reporting marks of CRMU, as well as container chassis.