Five years...

[Blutorse4792]

September 26, 2012 will mark the fifth anniversary since the Canadian National Railway announced it's intentions to purchase the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway. Much has changed on this end of the line in those five years. The daily local no longer skirts back and forth from the end of the line in Waukegan to Rondout, in fact the tri-weekly train that does make it to Rondout rarely ever goes farther north. The yard in Waukegan was ripped up a few years ago, leaving nothing but some ancient trackside structures and a lone siding just long enough for a single engine (Though they haven't stored any power there since 2009).

Waukegan "Yard". You won't find an engine idling here over the weekend anymore.

This is the only mention of the EJ&E I could find north of Rondout.

These were the various structures in the yard, such as the crew quarters. I wish I had thought to photograph them back in 2007.

Here's where it used to come off of the main to switch local industry a few miles south...

...and here's what remains of said industry.

For all intents and purposes, the deal has been a great success. Rail congestion in Chicago has been lessened, the majority of the line has seen an increase in trains, and the grade crossing concerns turned out to be completely blown out of proportion. I suppose I should be thankful that the "J" maintained its fleet of SD38-2s so well, at least they'll be spared the fate of the Missabe or WCL fleets for a little while. The GP38-2 that worked here has apparently had its chronic oil leak fixed and is right at home with the CN's already large GP38-2 fleet. I suppose it is a shame for the few Missabe diesels that managed to escape the torch and find refuge on the "J", but CN isn't a railway museum.

I'm sad that the "J" is gone, but I don't want to come across as a whiny foamer, the CN is a fine railroad. I'm just a bit sad to see my end of the line wither and die, especially since I always took it for granted. But, I suppose the world keeps on turning. If anything, I guess I'm lucky that something as inane as a railroad going under is among the big tragedies in my life.

And now, a reminder of better days, the only video of mine I've been able to recover from my old computer, taken just a few months before the sale was announced... This interchange track has since been decommissioned, after a century of connecting the "J" to the Milwaukee Road and Soo Line/CP.

Finally, this isn't my shot, but it's a good approximation of my very earliest railroading memories as a child...

Watching these critters hustle back and forth all day is what made me a railfan.

C'est la vie.

 

[Euphod]

It is sad, but I'm sure many members do not know the vast history of railroading in the area, particularly in Rondout.

 

[rjhowie]

I always find it saddening when a railway slowly dies.

 

[JCitron]

I always find it saddening when a railway slowly dies.

Me too.

This reminds me of what Guilford Transportation Industries did to the Boston and Maine and Maine Central railroads. When they took over in the early 1980s, the yards were active and lines were busy. After they did their best to discourage customers, they then ripped up yards and abandoned a lot of lines.

John

 

[Blutorse4792]

The big problem is that the two cities on this end of the line, North Chicago and Waukegan had a large industrial base, as well as thriving commercial districts about 50 years ago. Unfortunately, the economic problems of the 1970s hit them particularly hard, and they've never recovered from it. Even when I was a kid railfanning up there, it was a shell of its former self. I will say, I give credit to Canadian National for continuing to serve the final 2-3 customers left on this end, they could've easily just dumped this line and "railbanked" it.

The last major (potential) customer up in Waukegan is a Midwest Generation coal power plant, which is primarily served by the Union Pacific though the "J" had an agreement worked out in which they would help the Union Pacific deliver cars there. Apparently, the BNSF was in cahoots with the "J" a few years ago, and their plan was to wait until the UP's contract with the plant expired, so they could swoop in and get that service, running their coal trains up there over the "J" trackage. My thinking is that CN might be planning on doing the same, so they don't want to let go of this line just yet...

Unfortunately, the Waukegan coal plant also been rumored to be next on the list of plants to be decommissioned (after those two that were recently shut down in Chicago). So if that goes, there's no major industry left up there.

 

[Blutorse4792]

Here's a map to better illustrate:

Orange is the former EJ&E
Yellow is the Union Pacific. The western line is the Milwaukee Subdivision, the eastern is the Kenosha Subdivision, and the one connecting them is the Lake Subdivision (Ex CNW)
Red is the Canadian Pacific's C&M Sub (Ex MILW)
Purple is the Canadian National's Waukesha Subdivison (Ex WCL)
(Blue is the former MILW Janesville subdivision, I believe Metra now owns it)

The interchange of the CP/EJ&E/Metra (Amtrak and the WSOR also use these tracks) is Rondout, IL. The connecting track was broken in 2009.
The interchange of the CN and EJ&E is called "Leithton", and the vast majority of CN trains go west from that junction.
The interchange of the EJ&E and the UP's Milwaukee Sub is called "Upton". The connecting track was broken in 1998.

The tiny, bright red dot east of Upton was where my childhood home was located. The EJ&E right-of-way was literally just over my backyard fence.
The red arrows indicate the remaining customers along the former EJ&E.
The green arrow indicates the Waukegan coal plant.
The dark red Xs are where the pictures in the first post were taken. The northernmost one is the former yard, the southernmost one is the industrial spur.

The final picture with the brown SW1200 (not mine) was taken between Upton and Rondout. Follow the road that the tail end of the Rondout arrow is covering, and that crossing is where the picture was taken.


I also feel it's appropriate to mention, I am still working on my combined EJ&E/CNS&M route, I am merely awaiting the arrival of more resources I've acquired (Books, video, etc.)

That is, if this thread hasn't made you all sick of the "J" yet

 

[Euphod]

Copied from another site:

The Great Rondout Train Robbery:

"We never killed anybody and we never wanted to. All we wanted was the money."
Willis Newton, 1976

The Newton Boys are America's most successful bank robbers. The four brothers from Uvalde, Texas,
Dock, Jess, Joe, and Willis Newton, robbed over eighty banks and six trains from Texas to Canada
between 1919 to 1924. The most notable thing about the Newton Boys was the fact they never killed
anyone or robbed women or children. They decided that it was okay to rob banks because they
weren't taking the people's money. The banks were insured, and the insurance companies and banks,
in the minds of the Newton Boys, were the biggest criminals of all.

Their career ended with America's largest train robbery, a three million dollar mail train heist outside
of Chicago, Illinois. It happened on the morning of June 14, 1924, when the four brothers from Texas
and some Chicago gangsters robbed a Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul mail train that held three million
dollars in cash, negotiable securities, and jewelry at Rondout, Illinois. Below are excerpts from an
interview with Joe Newton, conducted by Jack Maguire, explaining how the largest train robbery in
American history came to life...

Looking back, Joe said there was no way the Newton Boys could have planned and then pulled off the
mail train robbery alone. "We didn’t need no brains for that job," Joe would point out decades later.
"All we needed to do was to show up with our guns and our fast cars and follow orders. You can’t lose
when you’ve got a real-life cop bossin’ the job. It had to be the work of an ‘insider’—somebody
smarter even than Willis," Joe said. "We didn’t even know anybody like that."

However, such an "anybody" did know of the Newton Boys. His
name was William J. Fahy, a Chicago postal inspector rated as
one of the best detectives in the business by his superiors. He
had started his career with the Postal Service as a railway mail
clerk, worked his way up to inspector, and had achieved an
impeccable record of catching criminals.

Fahy spread word around the underworld that he knew when
every big money rail shipment moved out of Chicago. This
impressed J. Mahoney, a one-time beer baron and Chicago
politician, Brent Glasscock, a nitroglycerin expert, and Herbert
S. Holliday, another gangster with some experience in robbing
the mails.

Fahy told Glasscock that he could provide a complete list of all the mail sacks stuffed with cash,
jewelry, and negotiable securities on any mail train moving out of Chicago. When Glasscock heard, he
didn’t hesitate to act upon the news. He rushed to Kansas City where Willis Newton was operating at
the time, and persuaded him to come to Chicago.

Once Willis and his brothers were in Chicago, Fahy was ready. He took Glasscock and the Newton Boys
to the Union Station and pointed out to them how shipments were handled. He told them that all
registered mail would be in the third car of the train and that only three of the guards aboard would
be armed. Joe said that Fahy told Willis not to worry about the guards, "Fahy said, ‘They won’t shoot.
They don’t know how!’"

Willis and Glasscock were old hands at robberies and knew from experience that the actions of those
involved cannot always be predicted. Guns were useful, but they decided extra protection was
necessary, so they equipped themselves and their companions with their own version of a poison gas.
"This was formaldehyde, the same stuff they used to embalm the dead," Joe said. "It’s kind of like a
home-made tear gas bomb. Willis and Brent thought it would smother the mail clerks and send `em
chokin’ to the doors and we could just walk in and pick up the mail sacks."

Joe remembered the details of that robbery as if it had happened only yesterday... "Willis and Holliday
went to Union Station wearing overalls," Joe recounted. "They wanted to look like railroad workers.

When the engine and tender had been coupled to the train, they leaped onto the back of the tender. It
was 30-odd miles to Rondout where the heist had been planned. When the train got close, they
climbed over the tender and pulled their guns on the engineer and fireman.
"The rest of us had driven to Rondout. When they saw our flashlights, Willis and Holliday forced the
train to stop. From then on, it was easy goin’. We jumped on the mail cars and yelled at the clerks to
open the doors. Another gang member pulled one of the Cadillacs alongside car No. 2105 where Fahy
said the loot was located."

It wasn’t as easy as Fahy had said it would be, however. The clerks refused orders to open the car and
those who were armed fired some shots. "That’s when we tossed our home-made bombs through the
windows," Joe said. "The windows had bars but the stuff got inside anyway, and you can bet your
boots them clerks piled out of there coughin’ and tryin’ to breathe. We all had on gas masks and
somebody thought to put one on the chief mail clerk so he could see to open the car and toss out the
mail sacks."

To that point, Fahy’s careful planning had worked perfectly. However, there was one slip-up that
almost proved fatal for Dock Newton. The brakeman, following railroad rules, asked, and was given
permission to go to the rear of the train with a red lantern to warn any oncoming traffic. Dock was
ordered to move to the right rear to stand guard and keep an eye on the brakeman. Dock, however,
started back on the left side, discovered his error and, gun in hand, crossed the tracks between the
cars. Glasscock, who hadn’t worked with the Newton Boys before, thought that Dock was a member of
the train crew or a mail clerk and fired five shots. "Every shot hit Dock," Joe said. "Two went into one
side and one each into his jaw, right hand and shoulder. As you can guess, we was pretty mad. No
Newton had ever hurt anybody and no Newton had ever been hurt."

Joe and Jess Newton placed their brother in the back seat of one of the gang’s Studebakers and
headed for Chicago. Dock was near death, but the brothers drove around the city for two days before
they could find a physician with underworld connections. They finally found one, but to protect
himself, however, the doctor made the required report to police that he had treated a patient for
gunshot wounds. That broke the case.

Within days, Dock, Willis and Joe Newton had been arrested. Jess, the youngest brother, managed to
get out of Chicago and to San Antonio with part of the loot. "Jess had about $35,000," Joe
remembered. "Then he got drunk one evening and decided to bury it. He hired a cab to take him into
the country and he hid most of it. When he sobered up the next day he decided to dig up the money
and head for Mexico. The problem was that he couldn’t remember where he buried it." Jess still had a
little bit of money that he had not buried, so he went on to Mexico where he spent most of his time
drinking with friends in Via Acuna, across the border from Del Rio. A Federal agent located him there,
but couldn’t extradite him under Mexican law at that time. Eventually the Federal agent tricked Jess
into coming back to the United States and Jess was arrested, ending the bank robbing days of the
Newton Boys.

Except for about $100,000, their loot in the Rondout robbery was returned to the government. Joe
insisted that except for the cash that Jess had buried, the brothers got nothing from their $3 million
haul. He said they traded their share of the theft for lighter sentences.

William J. Fahy, the postal official who had master minded the robbery, was sent to Federal Prison at
Leavenworth, Kansas, for 25 years. Willis and Dock Newton were given 12-year sentences. Joe
Newton got a three sentence and Jess Newton got 1 year and a day in jail. The reason Jess received
such a light sentence was reported to have been because the engineer of the robbed train gave such
sympathetic testimony at the trial. He said that when Jess had approached him with demands to stop
the train, Jess smiled and said, "Isn’t this a hell of a way to make a living?"

 

[Blutorse4792]

Although it wasn't actually filmed in Rondout, the robbery is portrayed in the feature film The Newton Boys.
You'd think more people would at least have a passing familiarity with it, being that it was the largest railroad heist in U.S. history.

We (Illinoisans) need to get a good group of Chicago-based content creators going and get better representation for our neck of the woods in this simulator. There's nothing wrong with all of the east coast related content being produced, but I do think we need to catch up. That's why I took the plunge, and come Crook County or high water, I'm gonna get this route out.



I kid about the Crook County bit... Kinda... A little...

 

[JCitron]

That's quite a story, Ed. I had read some of that before but I can't recall where.

Many years ago when I stayed in Arlington Heights, I really enjoyed the railroad scene while I was there. I was out there for business, actually to repair the old video terminals that my company made for Walgreens. When I stayed at the Best Western right there near the tracks along Route 12, I think, I watched the trains all night until I couldn't keep my eyes open. On a trip into Chicago downtown I had the opportunity to watch the freight operations at one of the yards. I was in train-heaven seeing all the famous roadnames I've only read about. The only companies missing from the scene were the Pennsy, B&O, and NYC.

John