Скачать или смотреть CN 3023 (EJ&E Heritage Unit) Through Normantown, IL on M336-81

CN ET44AC #3023 leads CN's M336-81 through Normantown, Illinois, on December 28th, 2025. CN ES44AC #2773 trails behind.

The Elgin, Joliet & Eastern was a 164-mile belt railway surrounding Chicago, Illinois. It served as an interchange with other railroads, making connections with every road that entered Chicago. It operated outside city limits for most of its trackage, and because of this, the J could quickly move freight around the city without dealing with congestion. CN took notice of this and purchased the EJ&E in 2008 for around $300 million USD; the deal was implemented in 2009. In the years immediately following the merger, the J was operated as a Canadian National subsidiary, and EJ&E locomotives that had been 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 had been completed and would take effect the following day. On January 1, 2013, the EJ&E effectively ceased to exist, 124 years to the day it was founded.

In November 2020, as part of celebrations for the 25th anniversary of CN's privatization, the company unveiled a series of locomotives repainted in the schemes of its predecessor and/or subsidiary railroads. GE ET44AC #3023 was repainted in a modified 'J-Ball' livery. Even though it's not really an EJ&E locomotive, it's still cool to see it on 'home rails'.

CN 2773 (the trailing unit) was built in 2013 as CREX (Citirail) 1332. In 2022, CN acquired several dozen ES44ACs for mainline service. They have yet to be painted; many still remain 'patched', which makes them an interesting spectacle. Even more so when it's a solid lashup of Citirail units.

M336-81 is a daily line-haul freight from Green Bay, Wisconsin, to Gary, Indiana. It can work the Neenah, Fond Du Lac, and Joliet yards en route. As it is a general-service train, it carries a variety of commodities.

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