EJ&E History Lesson

During the course of our recent research on the EJ&E Railway, we have come across a 1966 edition of the Railway's official "Milepost" Newsletter, which has a very interesting article entitled, "Outline of the Railroad". This is an 8 page status report on the EJ&E just 40 short years ago. Here are some highlights from it and the railroad's 1966 Annual Report.

In 1966 the EJ&E was still known by the brand slogan, "Chicago Outer Belt". According to the article,

"A unique aspect of the railroads serving the Chicago area is that there is no continuous route for movement of traffic by one carrier through this point. Railroads leading into the area from every direction all terminate at Chicago and cars destined to go through the City must be transferred from one road to another to continue their movements. The Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway, appropriately known as The Chicago Outer Belt, provides a fast route for accomplishing these transfers by moving the cars around the congested central area (sound familiar?)."

In 1966 the Railway had 320 miles of mainline track and included a 10-mile branch line that ran between Aurora and Normantown, IL. EJ&E interchanged with 19 railroads and 7 switch lines at 32 separate points. 20 of these interchange points were located in the state of Illinois between Waukegan and Lynwood. About half these interchange points remain in place today, controlled by Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, Union Pacific and BNSF.

The Western Subdivision of the Joliet Division extended from Joliet to Waukegan, IL. The Eastern Subdivision of the Joliet Division extended from Joliet, IL to Griffith, IN.

Approximately 40,000 cars per month were being handled to and from the 22 rail interchange points located on the Joliet Division (Western and Eastern Subs). That's about 480,000 cars per year.

The major yards on the Joliet Division were East Joliet Yard and Waukegan Yard.

An average of 26 trains per day were arriving and departing East Joliet Yard in a 24 hour period. The Yard was handling about 1,950 cars daily, or about 39,000 cars per month.

In 1966 train volume on the Joliet Division was about evenly spread out between the Western and Eastern Subdivisions, while today about 75 per cent of train volume is concentrated on the Western Subdivision between West Chicago and Joliet.

An average of six trains per day were received and dispatched at the Waukegan Yard. This Yard was handling approximately 13,200 cars per month. Today this Yard is all but abandoned.

According to the railroad's 1966 Annual Report, the railroad handled 29.9 million revenue tons that year, or about twice what it handles today.

The Joliet Division had already begun to handle unit coal trains, which ran in addition to the regularly scheduled manifest trains previously described. Destinations in 1966 included the Waukegan station of Commonwealth Edison, the Dean Mitchell station of Northern Indiana Public Service Company, and the Gary Works of U.S. Steel. These trains consisted of 100 to 160 cars of 7,000 to 10,000 tons total capacity. EJ&E was handling about 19 unit trains per week.

The 1966 Annual Report shows a total of 524,451 revenue cars handled, with an average of 57.08 tons per loaded car and an average length of haul of 34 miles. That year the railroad still handled a large amount of steel products, which accounted for over 40% of all tonnage, followed closely by coal. These were the two dominant commodity groups.

The EJ&E of 1966 was a busy, heavily used, and noisy freight railroad. The difference between then and now is that very few people lived in the region to be annoyed by all the heavy rail activity.