Elgin, Joliet & Eastern- a couple of questions.

[EJE818]

Dale, right now stack trains only use the EJ&E from Eola to Joliet, and those are all BNSF. I'm not exacly sure on the clearances on the line but they must be at least high enough at least from Eola to Joliet for stacks, if not further then that. Murphy, before the SD38-2s and GP38-2s came along EJ&E had engines from EMD, Baldwin, and ALCO. They even had baldwin sharks very briefly. Ever since, they have been all EMD from the SD38-2s onward. An excellent site to check would be www.ejearchive.com for any information on EJ&E engines, past and present.

[snagletooth]

Dale, right now stack trains only use the EJ&E from Eola to Joliet, and those are all BNSF. I'm not exacly sure on the clearances on the line but they must be at least high enough at least from Eola to Joliet for stacks, if not further then that. Murphy, before the SD38-2s and GP38-2s came along EJ&E had engines from EMD, Baldwin, and ALCO. They even had baldwin sharks very briefly. Ever since, they have been all EMD from the SD38-2s onward. An excellent site to check would be www.ejearchive.com for any information on EJ&E engines, past and present.

What  clearences? HAHA! What bridges betweet Eola and Joliet? The only  obstrusuion is Rte. 34 and the Illinois River in Joliet(Romeovillle?) anyway, Yes, EJE owned Baldwin center cabs, re-engined with EMD's 645's, IIRC, or even 567's, they owned several Baldwin's that they repowered with EMD's, including switcher's. They didn't last long. The GP38's are long gone. They where bought for possible expansion on the Ex-RI line to Peoria (which they operated for a short while), which never came about, as CSX got the line. Thney didsometimes operate into Aurora, on the ex- MLWk line, but short lived.

The stack trains primarily from BNSF Eola, but they have several manifest and auto trains from UP and manifest from CN.

[EJE818]

Not all the GP38-2s are long gone. EJ&E bought back the 703 from the Birmingham Southern and it still is on the system today. It ususally works the locals around Waukegan.

[Chris30]

New York St in Aurora crosses the "J" on a bridge - no problems with clearance as the bridge is rather new (@15-17 years old). Rt. 34 can't really be classified as an obstruction... It's a grade level crossing. Just a pain for motorists as train traffic continues to increase.

CC

[Murphy Siding]

EJ&E's road fleet around 1948 was the centercabs and some RS2's.  Not surprisingly, they also had a fair collection of switchers from Baldwin, Alco and EMD, including some Winton-powered switchers and High Hoods.

I've always read that Baldwins realy only excelled in drag freight work.  Could this be the reason they found favor with the J ?

[Cris_261]

It looks like Baldwin and Alco diesels had something in common. Their respective prime movers may not have been that great, but their electrical systems and traction motors supplied by Westinghouse (Baldwin) and GE (Alco) were top notch.

The J reengined their Baldwin center cabs with EMD prime movers but kept the unit's Westinghouse traction motors (I'm guessing), to increase their reliability between times in the shop, while maintaining the lugging ability of each locomotive. Did the J reengine any of their Alco or Baldwin switchers?

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

The Alco switchers and RS2's all kept their original engines.  All but one of the VO1000's were re-engined with 606SC engines that were available when the center-cabs were rebuilt or re-powered.

[EJE818]

The centercabs were re-engined by EMD and renumbered. They lasted until the 60s/70s until the GP38-2s, SD38s, and SD38-2s came along. Only one GP38-2, 703 is still on the roster, and two SD38s, 650 and 654 are left, the rest of the SD38s went to the DM&IR. The SD38-2 roster has actually increased since the 670-675 came over from the BLE/Union RR. Those were the last engines EJ&E got from the BLE before the CN took over the BLE. BLE and DM&IR were where EJ&E bought a lot of power from and also the three of them would trade engines quite often. EJ&E still rosters many ex-DM&IR SDMs and a high hood SD18, plus two ex-B&LE SD18s even though those have been in storage for years. 

[eastside]

 There's an article in today's (12/22/08) Wall Street Journal about the political forces active in the EJ&E acquisition.

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

eastside

  There's an article in today's (12/22/08) Wall Street Journal about the political forces active in the EJ&E acquisition.

It's titled "Routing the Rails Through the Suburbs - Canadian National Plan to Avoid Inner-City Freight Bottleneck Triggers Protests", by Alex Roth, page A-5, cols. 1- 6.  The text occupies the entire page length of col. 1, but only about 2 inches of cols. 2 - 4.  Cols. 5 -6 are a poor quality - hard to discern (in my opinion) graphic of the rail line as a heavy line overlaid on a mosaic of the greater Chicago area, where the 4 "shadings" differentiate between the 1999 Median Household Incomes.

If you've been following this thread, I think there's nothing much new here, other than that some of the politicians from the inner-urban areas apparently support the proposed acqusition - at least verbally - to get the rail traffic out of their neighborhoods.  As the late. great Trains Editor David P. Morgan once wrote that one of his Army officers told him, "Morgan, it all depends on whose ox is being gored . . . ".

- Paul North.