Gary Railway

(reporting mark GRW) is owned and operated by Transtar, Inc., a subsidiary of the United States Steel Corporation. It currently runs along 63 miles of yard track throughout Gary, Indiana as a class III switching carrier for local steel supply.

The Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway officially ceased to exist January 31st, 2009, at 11:59 PM. At midnight, February 1st, the line became Canadian National property. Over 120 years of history went out with a whisper. There were no special trains or ceremonies… Just business as usual.

Equipment disposition
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.

Under the agreement, U. S. Steel’s Transtar subsidiary will retain railroad assets, equipment, and employees that support the Gary Works site in Northwest Indiana and the steelmaking operations of U. S. Steel. Transtar’s remaining operations will become the Gary Railway.

Before applicants acquire control of EJ&EW, EJ&E plans to transfer all of its land, rail, and related assets located west of the centerline of Buchanan Street in Gary (together with the real property and related fixtures associated with the hump and Dixie leads located east of Buchanan Street) to EJ&EW, which at that time would become a rail common carrier. As noted above, this transaction is the subject of the SubNo. 1 related filing. EJ&E would retain its land, rail, and related assets east of the centerline (other than the real property and related fixtures associated with the hump and Dixie leads). It is expected that, if the Control Transaction is approved and applicants acquire control of EJ&EW, EJ&E would change its name to Gary Railway Company, and EJ&EW would assume the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway Company name.

You can monitor Gary mill operations on frequencies 160.725 and 161.550. Find out about former EJ&E locomotives working in the mill. 300, 301, 303, 304, 305, 307-T8, 310, 311, 312, 313, 314, 317, 318, 319, 320, 321, 324, and 460. The mill has its own roundhouse to maintain these units. Gary Railway (GRW) trainmasters, and yardmasters co-ordinate all of their moves. I just heard GRW 317 calling Kirk westend on 160.260 (the EJ&E yard channel) saying they had ten loads to deliver from the tin mill. Frequency 161.550 is still shared by EJ&E, and GRW operations. The GRW traffic on 161.550 is yard work, where operations on 160.725 is working in the mill. Seems to be the forgotten part of the Jay. Unfortunately there is little to see from public roadways. Mill activity seems to be holding up pretty well considering the economy.

Currently the Gary Railway’s primary customer is the U.S. Steel works in Gary, Indiana. However, it also serves four additional steel processing groups: ArcelorMittal USA, Tube City IMS, Brandenburg Industrial, and the Levy Company. The railway interchanges with Canadian National at Gary as well as several other Class I rail carriers connected along the lines of the former Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway.

Gary Railway should not be confused with former streetcar company Gary Railways

Gary Railway operating inside US Steel plant

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