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[WCfan]

You need to tell me these things Brent! lol.

Nice shot's EJE, 3 IC's in a day. That might not be possable in the near future.

[EJE818]

Thanks for the kind words. I didn't see all three ICs in one day, but I did see two of them on my day off Friday. The third one was on Sunday. I just caught a EJ&E train heading west about a hour or two ago, quite happy with that. Still, it may be hard to see two ICs in one day in the future, let along one unless you see a bunch of SD70s in one day. I know those don't make it up to the WC very often, but they do occasionally sneak up there. Some of those still have very nice sounding IC horns. Now, here are the photos from Blue Island. There are only two, but one of them is a IHB train. In my opinion, Blue Island is a nicer spot as there is quite a variety and it is much more open for photos than Dolton.

First is a CSX train heading through the junction with a AC6000CW. Believe it or not, this train was moving! If I had one tip of advice for anyone visiting Blue Island it is to use a lot of caution and stay back as the trains can move upwards of 30 through the junction. This junction has much more complicated trackage then Dolton, but the trains move at higher speeds. The trains moving at those speeds are on you before you know it, but some also move slowly.

Second is a very rare move, a IHB transfer heading down the old Rock Island mainline.  The train went up the connection tracks the backed towards Burr Oak Yard to interchange with the Chicago Rail Link. Normally the CRL brings the train down from Burr Oak, so it is very odd to catch IHB power on the Rock.

I'm going to try sneaking to IRM one more time this year once 7525 arrives. I'm not going to say it is for sure, but it is a possibility.

[oscaletrains]

good to see some GTW power. not much going on here today just another day in web publishing.

A petsmart is going to open up in port huron, i think i am going to aply for a job, i mean whats the worst they could have me do? pick up dog crap? lol like thats something new to me...

is it pet's mart or pet smart?

anyways i need a job, i have no money (no money = bad) so i figure that would be a cool job.

[Lord Atmo]

greetings, fellow teen railfans!

i have taken up a new interest in this hobby. chasing a local!

every night, the UP runs a local out of Altoona up north to Chippewa Falls. this local has been getting very long! and so now i am deeply interested in chasing it on this route to watch it interchange with the WN.

the track is special to me in that it was once....*sniff*... the old CNW mainline to Itasca. i saw my first train ever on this track. and now i am able to chase trains on it!

although i DO remember chasing the CNW on it for a very short distance....ah the good ol' days!

i'll provide pictures when i chase the local!

 

PS. Noah, i know you've seen this line. i saw your pics of the E9 OLS train on it. nice track, isnt it? now imagine seeing a long CNW manifest headed by SD60s and SD40-2s shoot past you on that line! that's my past for ya!

but the special thing is that these long locals are getting to be about the same length as those old ITPRA trains!

 

[WCfan]

EJE, again nice shots.

Atmo: I sure hope you have fun. I can't really chase trains here, no roads to follows along the tracks and it's pretty hard to catch the train at the right time. But I can chase the switcher in town. But sadly I have to do it on bike. Like I have been saying before a scanner would help. But first I'll need more cash to get one. 

[EJE818]

It is possible to chase the EJ&E from Joliet Yard to Crest Hill, but it is pretty much impossible once you get near Plainfield since traffic is terrible through Plainfield, and lots of traffic lights. Trains can only go 10 over the Des Plaines River bridge, but they throttle up all the way as soon as they clear the bridge and they are up to speed before you know it.

[K&ARailfan]

Hello all, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Daniel Grega, I'm 15, live in Rydal, Georgia, and I also have a residence in Jane Lew, West Virginia. I spent the first 6 years of my life living in Cleveland, Ohio, 1 block from a Conrail Double main. Currently I live 1 mile from CSX's Etowah Sub, an watch trains on a daily basis. I'm into 80's through modern day Metal/Hard Rock, XBOX 360 and PC, Hockey, Baseball, and Football and obviously railfanning. Nice to meet everyone here!

[oscaletrains]

WELCOME!

DO YOU HAVE HALO 3?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

 we must know all the important information. lol

please exsuse my spelling, i am the worst here but i hope you will be able to understand me though.

its nice to meet you. hope you enjoy it here.

 

nothing much going on here i got a speach next hour, in speach, imagine that!

 

i had to add this

why i like the detroit lions (not very much)

the tigers ( i like the detroit tigers much more ) win against hard teams loses against easy teams

the detroit lions are consistant they lose every game!

 

 

the sad thing is the truth. lol

[K&ARailfan]

No, I don't have H3. I DO however have Halo 1 & 2. About your grammer, I've seen way worse, I could read it.

[EJE818]

Welcome to the forum, Daniel! Feel free to brouse through the last couple posts and you will find what we have been talking about. Enjoy the forums, and feel free to respond as you feel, and be sure to check out some of the other topics floating around as well.

[EJE818]

Nooooooooooooo! CN is taking over the EJ&E! Its official! Here is the official announcement. http://www.cn.ca/about/media/news_releases/2007/3rd_quarter/en_News20070926.shtml. I suggest if you get the chance, come down here and shoot the heck out of EJ&E power, because it going to be gone soon probably. All of you WC and DM&IR fans can relate to this. I know how all of you WC fans felt when CN announced it was taking over WC. I can't believe CN has taken over my 3 favorite railways! This is a outrage! What terrible news! I hated CN enough for scrapping the WC SD45s, now they are taking over my favorite railway! I'm sure they will just turn the line into trash like they did with everything else. I can't believe this! Really, this is the biggest nightmare I've ever had to read! Farewell for now from a discouraged and sad EJ&E fan.

[WCfan]

Aw man. That stinks. CN really is gobbling up all the railroads. Now when I heard that WC had gotten purchase I was like 7. So I remeber balling a fit, even at that time! But I didn't realize what locos they had, and I never went RFing, but that's a WHOLE diffrent story. Sadly I won't be able to go down there. I really feel your pain. This is horriable. 

[Noah Hofrichter]

The CN sure has been gobbling up railroads in recent years...

I find it most interesting that Transtar is retaining a part of the railroad in Indiana though, which will become the "gary railroad." Must have decided they didn't need all of the railroad to be happy, and the CN was willing to only take part of it as well.

I haven't been posting much lately, as I've been awfully busy this school year. I haven't even had the time to download my doublehead photos yet, but hopefully this upcoming weekend I'll be in with pictures. I'm looking forward to getting them on the computer...

Lots of nice photos posted lately too. It looks like you had at least a halfway decent trip Matt, and some neat photos from it anyway.

Max, that is kind of a neat little line up to Norma, and it was neat to chase the E units on. Too bad there isn't a shot from the south end of the Bridge in Chippewa Falls though. The WN is an awsome little outfit as well. Following them is very much like following a local around....

I better get going as I've got things to do, but I'll keep checking in from time to time.

Noah

 

[EJE818]

I am very dissapointed by this deal. The EJ&E is one of the reasons I got into trains. They have some of the nicest employees you could find, and it's a shame that they are probably going to be laid off. It was always my dream to one day work for the EJ&E, and sadly that will never happen. I am also dissapointed by USX that they only sold EJ&E for 300 million, when the property is worth over a billion. CN could care less about serving the steel mills in Gary. They are probably glad USX kept that part. It is a shame to see a railroad that has been around 119 years is going to fall, especially to a railroad that isn't even from this country. CN mainly wanted it for the line from Leighton to Griffith. I wonder if they are going to try to sell the line north of Leighton. They could just sell that to UP, since it is mainly UP coal trains to ComEd in Waukegan that use that part of the line. The only thing EJ&E runs is a manifest every once in a while, and a local. South of Eola it is a different story. The line is much busier then it used to be, now used by upwards of 20 trains a day, including UP and BNSF run-throughs, as well as EJ&E's own trains, but it is very rare to see CN trains in the Joliet area, but unfortunatly that is bound to change. I don't know what the timeline is for when CN is stepping in, but I'm going to be shooting photos of the EJ&E like crazy until then. Like I said in my previous posts, of you get the chance soon, come down to Joliet and see this great railroad in its final days. EJ&E becoming a fallen flag? Who would've thought of that. Sad, but is going to happen. For now, come on down and enjoy before CN ruins everything. It takes patience but the reward is beautiful SD38-2s. The one thing about these SD38-2s is that EJ&E has rebuilt all but 3 to dash 3 standards. CN seems to like -3 engines, just look how many SD40-3s they own, so the future of the engines themselves might actually not be bad, but they could be in CN paint. YUCK! I just can't imagine seeing CN painted SD38-2s with EJE under the cab. Have a great day, and let it be filled with orange SD38-2s! I'll post a timeline on when CN is going to be stepping in as soon as I find out. This is a sad day for all loyal J fans.

[nssr9169]

Well havent been on for like half a year but what ever. Im now offically a steam fan, those sd45s just can't compeat with a 1923 4-6-2! I was shown the propper way to operate the SOO LINE 2719 by an old Gn engineer of 50yrs. MAN thats COOL. Any whay i don't know if max has said anything about this but coal siners hurt when swallowed! Hopfully I will post some picks of the locomotive but alas working at the place that operates the locomotive does make it hard!

C ya