Elgin, Joliet, and Eastern Railway (IL) (Images of Rail) [Paperback]

Paul W. Jaenicke (Author), Ralph A. Eisenbrandt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 9, 2007

In 1884, the Joliet, Aurora and Northern Railroad was formed to connect the growing industrial cities of Joliet and Aurora. This system evolved into the

Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway. By 1893, it encircled Chicago from Waukegan, via Joliet, to Porter, Indiana. The railroad developed into a prosperous subsidiary of U.S. Steel at the beginning of the 20th century. It primarily served the steel

mills and facilities of its parent company and as a bridge route between the many Chicago railroads it crossed. It has also been an industry innovator. It was one of the first Class 1 railroads to completely convert to diesel locomotive power in 1949 and the first in the world to install an automatic, electrically operated car retarder yard in 1952. Today it is the same prosperous railroad it was over 120 years ago, serving the rail transportation needs of its online customers and as an even more important bridge route for the region's railroads.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

The photographs presented in this book come from prominent railroad photographers as well as many from the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern's employee magazine. Paul W. Jaenicke is an author and historian with an interest in the Chicago area railroads and the south suburbs of the region. He has given talks and written articles pertaining to the transportation history of the area. Ralph A. Eisenbrandt is a retired railroader and historian with 44 years of experience in the industry. He is a cofounder of the Frankfort Area Historical Society, has presented many historical lectures, and has produced public access television programs for the Frankfort community.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing (July 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738550574
• ISBN-13: 978-0738550572
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,314,697 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Random photos, November 16, 2011

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Xerxes1138 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Elgin, Joliet, and Eastern Railway (IL) (Images of Rail) (Paperback)

As with all of these Arcadia published books, it's like one giant yearbook for the subject they are covering. Which is great if they are willing to fork over the cash to get the publishing rights to some good photos.

While they make a note that this is not a documentary of the company, or a roster of each locomotive and so on, its kind of insulting when they pretty much skipped over the entire train yard in Joliet and the book starts off with the early years, then 5 pages later has jumps to images from the 1950's.

Most of the photo captions are informative, but many leave you hanging with questions, or wanting just a bit more. The book has shown me a few things I wasn't aware of, but as a new fan of the EJ&E, that isn't saying to much.

I know Arcadia doesn't seem to like anything but black & white images in their books, but with the bright green & orange color scheme of "The J", I think they should have added at least a 4-8 page section of color images.

If you're a big fan of The J, you can't really go that wrong for $20, but you will most likely feel it could have been done better. If you're just a casual follow of railroads, I fear this book won't help bring the J's glory to full light.

I'm sure the authors put their all into this book, so I don't want to disparage them, but this book just doesn't feel complete and I can't help thinking it was on account of a lack of cheap or free pictures.