Eastern Railroad Discussion > What's going on with EJ&E-CN?

I thought they would have closed by now. Here's a hint of US Steel's position from a 4th quarter earnings call yesterday:

"Charles Bradford – Bradford Research


Can you give me some color on the status of what's happening with the EJ&E?

John Surma


Certainly as I understand it, Chuck, the relevant regulatory body, which I believe is the Surface Transportation Board, has issued their final order and we are moving towards a closing in the near-term.
"

Transcript:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/116881-united-states-steel-corp-q4-2008-earnings-call-transcript?page=-1

However, efforts continue with trying to stop it in the courts. Here is one example:

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/news/1400354,4_1_JO28_NLRAIL_S1.article

Based on an EJE employee friend of mine, effective midnight 1/31/08, the EJE will no longer exist and should become the Gary Railroad. Word is on Saturday (1/31/09) the J will moving tons of equipment (locos, freight cars, MOW, parts) off the J property and onto US Steel property. On Sunday (2/1/09), the CN should be making massive eastbound equipment movements heading to Kirk Yard in Gary. My friend becomes a CN employee effective 1201am Sunday. He is kind of joking about reporting to work on Monday at Kirk and all the employees hanging out in the locker room for the lack of equipment, repair parts, trucks, etc and managerial direction.

Yes, my EJE friend said the same thing about that Griffith diamond, that the CN is going to put so much new track in that diamond area that train traffic is going to triple (or worse) through there. Something to do with those sidings that are over there.

leroystew Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Based on an EJE employee friend of mine, effective
> midnight 1/31/08, the EJE will no longer exist and
> should become the Gary Railroad. Word is on
> Saturday (1/31/09) the J will moving tons of
> equipment (locos, freight cars, MOW, parts) off
> the J property and onto US Steel property. On
> Sunday (2/1/09), the CN should be making massive
> eastbound equipment movements heading to Kirk Yard
> in Gary. My friend becomes a CN employee
> effective 1201am Sunday. He is kind of joking
> about reporting to work on Monday at Kirk and all
> the employees hanging out in the locker room for
> the lack of equipment, repair parts, trucks, etc
> and managerial direction.

Thanks. So the sale did not include the rolling stock as such transactions usually do? That might explain partially why the price was so low.

It is my understanding in speaking with my friend, that the rolling stock is going to Gary Railroad. Kind of makes sense, US Steel still needs to switch its facilities and have cars to load that used to be done by the EJE.

What about the SD38's? I sure would like to see those still roaming around!

More train traffic at Griffith! More train action to watch is a good thing.

Yea well...Somebody should have stopped CN from taking over the GT,IC, WC and the DMIR, and now its the Js turn. The Feds should have blocked CN from taking over any of our American railroads to start, but they did not. Im glad the Mexican railroads dont have enough money. Thanks to E.Hunter Harisson, I will no longer watch three WC SD-45s roll by on a freight train.

Yes but the only reason you had the (modern) WC was because a Canadian railroad (SOO-CP) took over MILW and spun off the parts they didn't want. Those big SD's would have been razor blades that much sooner without WC buying them. Glad it happened for as long as it did.

There is so much misinformation in this thread, I hardly know where to start. To begin:

1. It's Gary Railway, not Gary Railroad
2. Judging from the map CN provided in its purchase application to the STB (p.240), the diamonds will remain at Griffith, or at least one of them will since GTW will no doubt be single-tracked west of Griffith. The connection to the north-south main will be built well east of the diamonds.
3. GTW thru Blue Island will not have zero traffic. In the purchase application, CN estimates it will continue to run 2-3 trains a day over it. There is no indication that a "switch connection" will replace the remaining diamond. The GTW may disappear a few years down the road but for now it stays.
4. A very reliable source has said that when the deal was first announced,
it was agreed that CN gets the road power, the SW1001s, four SW1200s, two slugs, and the flatcars. Gary Railway/USS will keep the rest of the SW1200s and slugs, the
NW2, the SW1500, and the EJ&E car fleet except for the flatcars. There may be a little juggling here and there, but it should end up roughly like that.

The SD38s probably won't last long. CN apparently doesn't see much use for them and most if not all will be sold or scrapped in 3-4 years.

EJE 316 went from US Steel Midwest back to the J on Wednesday via CSS-Goff. -WC

My question remains, will there be an immediate, visible impact on the EJ&E operations west of Kirk, as in job changes and immediate motive-power reassignment?

toledopatch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My question remains, will there be an immediate,
> visible impact on the EJ&E operations west of
> Kirk, as in job changes and immediate motive-power
> reassignment?

Here's the best I can do for you:

CN spokesman Jim Kevadaras said in a Chicago Tribune article that there would be "no overnight changes." Then again, here's a quote from him responding to a question from a local NRHS chapter. Reading between the lines, you may be seeing a few CN units soon.

"Just like IC, WC, CC&P, and even GTW, the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern will live on
as a legal entity. In essence, the EJ&E will continue on as it has in the past,
except that instead of being a US Steel property, it will be a CN property. In
many ways, once the deal is consummated, there will be little change that
observers will notice, except, of course, for the infrastructure improvements we
will bring to the property. Of course, CN power will be on the property, along
with units of the various other CN properties, but just like you can see units
of all the other CN roads today, so will you continue to see EJ&E-labeled
equipment. I am not familiar with the ages of of the various EJ&E power units,
but we have said that we will bring more fuel-efficient power to the property. I
expect those to be painted in CN's color scheme."

He estimated the infrastructure improvements should be finished in about three years. And until Kirk and East Joliet improvements are made, there are only a limited number of CN trains that can operate via the J. Whether that means only a few CN units will be around--and the rest J power--is hard to say.

I've been told there will be no major job changes right away, although I can't vouch for the source.

calumet Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> toledopatch Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > My question remains, will there be an
> immediate,
> > visible impact on the EJ&E operations west of
> > Kirk, as in job changes and immediate
> motive-power
> > reassignment?
>
> Here's the best I can do for you:
>
> CN spokesman Jim Kevadaras said in a Chicago
> Tribune article that there would be "no overnight
> changes." Then again, here's a quote from him
> responding to a question from a local NRHS
> chapter. Reading between the lines, you may be
> seeing a few CN units soon.
>
> "Just like IC, WC, CC&P, and even GTW, the Elgin,
> Joliet & Eastern will live on
> as a legal entity. In essence, the EJ&E will
> continue on as it has in the past,
> except that instead of being a US Steel property,
> it will be a CN property. In
> many ways, once the deal is consummated, there
> will be little change that
> observers will notice, except, of course, for the
> infrastructure improvements we
> will bring to the property. Of course, CN power
> will be on the property, along
> with units of the various other CN properties, but
> just like you can see units
> of all the other CN roads today, so will you
> continue to see EJ&E-labeled
> equipment. I am not familiar with the ages of of
> the various EJ&E power units,
> but we have said that we will bring more
> fuel-efficient power to the property. I
> expect those to be painted in CN's color scheme."

That pretty much leaves open how quickly CN will move to retire or reassign the EJ&E road power. With GTW and IC, there was home-road stuff around for quite a while, whereas the WC, CC&P, and DMIR purges started fairly quickly. Is there any CC&P power still running? I know WC is virtually extinct, loco-wise, while less than five years after the DMIR takeover, there are just six Missabe units left in maroon plus maybe 10 others with DMIR sublettering but CN paint. Bessemer has fared better, but it's isolated, too. Considering that EJ&E's newest units can't be newer than about 25 years old, that's reason for concern from a railfan perspective.