February 24, 2018 – “The J,” ex-Elgin Joliet and Eastern, EJ&E 703 EMD GP38-2 works on building a train at the Canadian National Yard in Fulton, Kentucky.
According to Wikipedia, The Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway (reporting mark EJE) was a Class I railroad, operating between Waukegan, Illinois and Gary and Porter Indiana. The railroad served as a link between Class I railroads traveling to and from Chicago, although it operated almost entirely within the city’s suburbs, and only entered Chicago where it served the U.S. Steel South Works on the shores of Lake Michigan. Nicknames for the railroad included “The J” and “The Chicago Outer Belt Line”. At the end of 1970, the EJ&E operated 164 miles of track and carrying 848 million ton-miles of revenue freight in that year alone.
On September 26, 2007, the Canadian National Railway announced that it planned to purchase a majority of the EJ&E, leaving a portion of the line in Indiana to be reorganized as the Gary Railway. The purchase was approved on December 24, 2008 by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, and the deal was consummated effective February 1, 2009. In the years immediately following the merger, the railroad existed as a subsidiary of Canadian National, and EJ&E locomotives that were repainted into CN colors were sub-lettered for the EJ&E.
On December 31, 2012, Canadian National announced that the merger of the EJ&E into Wisconsin Central Ltd. (Another railroad subsidiary of CN) had been completed, and would take effect the following day. On January 1, 2013, the EJ&E effectively ceased to exist.