Photo of roundhouse
Update: (Shortlines, Fixed) Flickr photo of treated telephone poles leaving the plant in 1925. The MJ locomotive is a 0-4-0 steam engine.
The Manufacturers junction Railway Company was incorporated in Illinois, January, 1903 to provide rail connections linking the Hawthorne Works with all major railroad systems entering Chicago. There are about 13 miles of track in and about Hawthorne and a small but adequate rolling stock. The railway delivers all of Hawthorne’s inbound rail freight (mostly raw materials) to required locations within the Works area and all outbound finished communications equipment shipped as railroad freight. The railroad also serves some of Hawthorne’s industrial neighbors. [TheBellSystem, pdf page 75]
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| OmniTRAX |
"Our two locomotives were built in 1947, but they still run like tops," said Turk, a 30-year veteran of the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway before taking over the MJ four years ago. Its age aside, the MJ is a busy little railroad that keeps Turk and his colleagues hustling from 6:30 a.m. till whenever quitting time occurs. "We already moved 60 cars this morning and have another 27 coming off the Belt (Belt Railroad of Chicago) later today," Turk said.
The little railroad, which serves seven industries and connects them with some of the city's major railroads and belt lines, has benefited from Chicago's booming economy as well as the efforts of its parent, OmniTRAX Inc., in redeveloping the sprawling but abandoned Western Electric Co. Hawthorne Works as a logistics center specializing in transferring commodities between trucks and railroads. "OmniTRAX bought Hawthorne and is turning it into a warehouse transloading facility," Turk said. (ChicagoTribune)During its hayday, it had 200 employees and 600 miles of track. In 1998, it had four employees and 5.5 miles of track with 1.78 route miles. (ChicagoTribune) But we have had two recessions since then, and it seems they have taken a toll. A TrainOrders posting in Nov. 2012 indicates there had been no freight customers for a few years. A Nov. 2012 photo of the remaining two engines indicates they are to be scrapped. I wonder if the Menards replaced the industries they did have.
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| Google Earth, Mar 2012 The last image with the "armstrong" turntable |
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| Google Earth, Jul 2016 The last image with the roundhouse |
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| Marc Malnekoff posted MJ RY 23 at Cicero, IL 3/23/2007 Pete Kaplan IS MJ STILL IN BUISNESS? Bryan Howell No. The locomotives were scrapped a few years ago [written in 2020] after copper thieves stripped them. Dennis DeBruler MJ = Manufacturers' Junction It was created by Western Electric in 1903 to serve its Hawthorne Works. When the works was closed in 1986, MJ was sold to OmniTRAX. The turntable still appears in a Google Earth 2012 image and the roundhouse still appears in 2016. https://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/.../manufacturers... Marc Malnekoff posted Going through my archives today and found this shot. Looking back I am glad I asked and was allowed to shoot some photos here. MJ 23 Cicero, IL. March ,23,2007 |
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| Junior Hill commented on Marc's post This warms my soul seeing this beauty in such nice shape here in your photo, as she should be .. Last time I saw her, she was being ripped apart by scrappers... |
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| Steven Kakoczki commented on Marc's post June 1980 |
Marty Bernard posted three images with the comment:
A Loved SW1sShe is Manufactures' Junction Railway #6 built in January 1947. I had been looking for her for years but she was always hiding where I couldn't seek. Finally I tagged her near a street in Cicero, IL on January 10, 1991, first photo.Manufactures Junction is a six mile pike (see map) incorporated to serve the former Western Electric Hawthorne Works which produced telephones and related equipment. It is now owned by OmniTRAX.I shot the second photo on the same day. Unfortunately I didn't bring my chain link fence filter. Darn!
Marty Bernard shared
Marty Bernard shared
Doug Kaniuk: info: http://casr.dhke.com/casr492.htm
Marty Bernard shared
Doug Kaniuk: info: http://casr.dhke.com/casr492.htm
Stan Stanovich: …though his name escapes me, there was a gentleman who worked for the Conrail “flying squad,” (mechanical department gang that went from yard to yard to set up road power for outbound trains), who also worked for the MJ in some capacity. I was invited by him to visit the MJ, where I was treated to short cab ride and though I was unfamiliar with the ancient pre 26 brake valve was allowed behind the throttle for a few minutes! A memorable experience!!!
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| Craig Holmberg commented on Stan's comment It was 6BL on the locomotive. I was on board several times. I saw no changes on the interior of the cab, still had the headlight control above the window. |
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| Craig Holmberg commented on Marty's post, cropped The last tariff that I have listing the industries. 9/15/2006 |
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| Craig Holmberg commented on Marty's post 4/9/1970 Aerial Photo |
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| Bob Kalal commented on Marty's post not my photo, wish all that was still there. |
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| Craig Holmberg commented on Marty's post Junior Farmer: Craig Holmberg Ex- CNW. |
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| Larry Burke posted Manufacture Junction Railway. Cicero, IL Oct 1968 Dave Regittko photo, John DePauw collection Glen Miller shared The railroad of Western Electric Hawthorne Works Plant. Jack Franklin shared Edward Kwiatkowski shared |
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| Logan Fifer commented on Larry's post I believe this caboose is still in existence. Here is the lat/long: 42.2571058, -88.4473407. It's located next to a pond on Dean Street, south of Woodstock, IL. It's in serious need of repair and restoration. |
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| Steve Pahl commented on Larry's post This is what it looked like February 2021. Pretty sad. |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Edward's share In the middle background is the water tower of the Western Electric Hawthorne Plant. It is extant: https://maps.app.goo.gl/6Ug1rVvLR8kCS81v6. The posted view is looking North. The street view is looking South. Location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/12CDmAS1aZdHet8X9 |
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| Art Gross commented on Edward's share I have slide of this same scene must have been taken seconds apart. Only difference is some smoke along the BRC to the right of the caboose. |
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| Brian Krotzman posted to Off the Beaten Track Branchline |
Facebook has a closeup of this color scheme and Marty caught a different color scheme. From the Facebook comments we learn that bums broke into the roundhouse and set both well-maintained SW1s on fire. The fire was bad enough that neither unit could be salvaged.
In addition to several pictures of the locomotives, Paul Rome has pictures of the interior of the roundhouse and a crane. David Parker posted a 1982 picture of an engine on the turntable in a blue livery. And a shot that includes the roundhouse. Larry Meyer posted a sequence of five pictures of the roundhouse and turntable. (Click on the pictures to go through the sequence.)
Scott Griffith posted five photos with the comment:
Any of you OLD HEADS remember delivering or interchanging with this railroad off the Cicero branch? Manufacturers Junction Railway If so could you explain the move or give details.Earl Wacker I guess I qualify. It was a very short, steep connection near 16th St. Early 70s we only had one car at a time.
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| Ray Weart commented on a posting The MJ was a very hard railroad to get photos of as it ran behind fences for the most part. I work for a Class 1 railroad which allowed me to be legally "Inside the fence" so to speak to get some rare MJ photos. This shot was taken May 1, 2009 on what we believe was one of the very last MJ runs |
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| John DeWit Woodlock II posted UTAH 2959; MJ 7;6 @ MJ shops/Ogden Ave-Cicero,IL 16 DEC 97. |
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| 3D Satellite |
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| WE 100th Anniversary If the smile looks a little strained, it's probably because the wrench was heavy. Irene Kramer of the Hawthorne Works donned an oversized pair of coveralls and engineer's cap and posed in front of a Manufacturer's Junction Railway engine. The year? 1931. |
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| Junior Hill posted In 2011 I was able to "access" the dormant roundhouse of the Manufacturer's Junction Railway at Cicero, IL. What I found inside wasn't nice, the RY's vintage SW1's were being picked apart by scrappers and bums who were living inside the roundhouse. Sadly, a couple years later the SW1's were pulled outside and scrapped onsite by contractors. Later the 100 year old roundhouse was demolished, ending the MJRR forever. Charlie Benoit Do you have any other photos of the MJ? I am researching for a book on Chicago industrial railroading Junior Hill Charlie Benoit I have 100+ photos of the MJ from 2 visits to the roundhouse from around the same time. All photos show the interior in decay such as above. The book sounds very interesting! I'd be happy to let you use any of my photos for the project. |
Rob Olewinski Cmraseye posted three photos with the comment: "revisiting the former MJ before it was all torn down...Cicero, IL. 2/2010"
[There are a lot of informative comments on this post.]
Edward Kwiatkowski posted a 2007 photo of #23 pulling a train through Hawthorn Junction. The comments provide the history that the last train ran in 2009, the switchers have been scrapped because the copper was stolen out of them, and the roundhouse was torn down in 2016.
Gary Talsky posted a couple of pictures he took March 1, 2015.
Gary Talsky posted 12 photos he took Feb. 25, 2012.
Gary Talsky posted 3 photos of the interior that he took March 1, 2015.
John Smith collected 30 of Gary's photos into one "Part 1" posting.
John Smith collected 38 of Gary's photos into one "Part 2" posting, some of them are different.
Bob Lalich Flickr 1986 Photo, MJ #6 passing a neat looking steel storage yard.
Additional photos, including a steam locomotive, are available in this Facebook posting.
Photo of orange caboose #101 (posting)
Jon Roma Western Electric's Hawthorne Works there in the background ... my grandmother and many of her siblings worked there.
Jeff Delhaye That caboose sits in a yard in Crystal Lake, Il, these days.
Bob Lalich I've never seen an MJ caboose before! It is striking! There are interesting details in the background as well - the Hawthorn Works tower, the rise of the MJ tracks to the Cermak Road bridge, the light tower of the BRC yard, and the smoke. It is coming from a stack; possibly on a caboose, but that is a lot of smoke to be coming from a stove.
Arturo Gross I noticed the smoke too, it appears to be coming from a smokestack beyond the BRC tracks, but can't tell for sure.
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Not many railroads are small enough that the whole thing can be captured by a screen grab of a topo map.
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| 1929 Englewood Quad @ 24,000 |
John Smith posted several pictures of the roundhouse and turntable from 2006 in a group that is now public.
Gary Talsky posted three interior shots.
Edward Kwiatkowski posted a 2007 photo of #23 pulling a train through Hawthorn Junction. The comments provide the history that the last train ran in 2009, the switchers have been scrapped because the copper was stolen out of them, and the roundhouse was torn down in 2016.
Gary Talsky posted a couple of pictures he took March 1, 2015.
Gary Talsky posted 12 photos he took Feb. 25, 2012.
Gary Talsky posted 3 photos of the interior that he took March 1, 2015.
John Smith collected 30 of Gary's photos into one "Part 1" posting.
John Smith collected 38 of Gary's photos into one "Part 2" posting, some of them are different.
Bob Lalich Flickr 1986 Photo, MJ #6 passing a neat looking steel storage yard.
Now a intermodal container storage yard for JB Hunt. How sad indeed.
Additional photos, including a steam locomotive, are available in this Facebook posting.
Photo of orange caboose #101 (posting)
Jon Roma Western Electric's Hawthorne Works there in the background ... my grandmother and many of her siblings worked there.
Jeff Delhaye That caboose sits in a yard in Crystal Lake, Il, these days.
Bob Lalich I've never seen an MJ caboose before! It is striking! There are interesting details in the background as well - the Hawthorn Works tower, the rise of the MJ tracks to the Cermak Road bridge, the light tower of the BRC yard, and the smoke. It is coming from a stack; possibly on a caboose, but that is a lot of smoke to be coming from a stove.
Arturo Gross I noticed the smoke too, it appears to be coming from a smokestack beyond the BRC tracks, but can't tell for sure.
Earl Camembert Water Tower is still standing, but the MJ RR roundhouse was demolished just last year.
William Foamer posted eight photos of the interior from 2003 and 2016. Some comments add two interior shots from 2015.
A 1986 0:17 video of the roundhouse and a locomotive four Flickr photos starting here
12 2006 photos by Brian Berthold
My dad worked for Western Electric for over 30 years, starting his career with the company at the "Hawthorn Works". I remember going with him to see the M.J.R.R. when I was a young boy, probably around 1950. I took a picture of one of their locomotives during that visit which was actually published in Western Electric's employee newspaper. What a proud moment that was for this boy, seeing my photo in print and my very own name in the newspaper! I've never forgotten that and never will
ReplyDeleteOmnitrax still lists the MJ on their website as a customer. And I heard they still have one customer. The map for the MJ on the Omnitrax site is confusing as it seems to show an MJ long spur circling to the east also to access Charter Steel just south of 16th Street. What is the real story on the MJ today?
ReplyDeleteIn July 2022 the ROW, including some rail and all bridges, still exists from Cermak Ave. south and Google Maps satellite view appears accurate. Only the lead west to the BNSF ends at a new Cicero Ave. alignment. Although you can get to the ROW in several places it is so overgrown with weeds that you can’t really walk it. Some rail is left but you can’t see how much. None is in service.
ReplyDeleteOn Cicero Ave between Cermak and Ogden you can get to the roundhouse site thru the Menard’s lot, all the way to the south side then east. Along the south side of the wall is a nice paved road that goes to the roundhouse site and stops. This area is cool but very rough.
The water tower, just north of Menard’s, behind the AMC, looks nice from a distance but when you get close it rises out of a ruin. The tracks run right behind (east) of it, over a dangerous viaduct.
South of Ogden/BNSF/26th you can get very close behind Food 4 Less, just north of 31st St., but it is just so overgrown.
This is what “abandoned” looks like, I’m not sure if they even scrapped the rails.
No, they didn't. In April 2008 the USGS satellite shows the place almost empty but everything looks intact, including the roundhouse and turntable. In October 2009, (5 months after Ray Weart's picture of #23) the USDA satellite shows about 20 empty gondola cars on the main track behind Menards, in June 2010 Google shows couple of them had moved south of the roundhouse. If that was a scrap train it probably left empty, in March 2018 Google showed the railroad just like it looks today. Most, maybe all, of the rail between Ogden and Cermak is in place. I can't see the south embankment, but a siding from the Western Electric days still has rails that run into the bottom of a fill hill.
DeleteA ghost railroad that only graffiti artists, a few homeless people, and the occasional tourist use.
Thanks for collecting all of this info! I made it out to the roundhouse ~1 month before they tore it down and it was in a sad state. I can share pictures if anyone is interested but there's quite a few photos of it in its abandoned state already.
ReplyDeleteI'm currently building a model railway layout based on the MJRY, and the photos here have been quite helpful!
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DeleteIf I had your email address, I lost it. So please email me at bruler@xnet.com
DeleteIf you want to brag about your layout email me at sammydthree@gmail.com
Delete1929 was a good year for maps, the @24,000 days were here. Like the 1929 Englewood Quad shown above. For scale, from Cermak Rd./22nd St. (I'm using "22nd" for the addresses) south to 31st. St. is one mile. Almost all of MJ's work as inside one mile (there was a little north of Cermak/22nd.
ReplyDeleteIt needs to zoom out or re-center a little. The area south of the BNSF and 26th. St. down to 31th St. was Western Electric's telephone pole factory. There is a picture of an 0-4-0 floating around, it must be there.
Very little of the track shown is MJ. Very little. They had one "mainline"??? track from 14th. Street (connection with B&OCT) south over the rickety looking bridges and down to a mystery around 31st. St. Almost everything was on the west side of it.
At Cermak Rd./22nd. St. two tracks split off and ran south, parallel with the "main", down to the roundhouse area. There is a yard and, of course, Western Electric, on the west. Rob Olewinski Cmraseye's photo #3 is looking north at that (uphill) yard.
From the roundhouse track ran west to a bridge over Cicero Ave. to the Burlington (the bridge is gone now). Another track ran east, under the rickety bridge "main" line and the Belt Ry., to the Cable Building and other stuff on the east of the Belt Ry. You can see it in the right background on Marc Malnekoff's MJ RY 23 at Cicero, IL 3/23/2007. JB Hunt is south of the Cable building, which is still there, today. That area is in Chicago, the Belt Ry. is the city limits. Everything else is in Cicero.
There are two levels, the MJ and Belt Railway are elevated on embankments from north of Cermak/22nd south to 31st St. Rob Olewinski Cmraseye's photo #3 shows the embankment in the background, the yard goes up to it. Brian Krotzman posted to Off the Beaten Track Branchline a shot of #23 on the south embankment (the tracks in the foreground go to the BNSF). That was the telephone pole factory behind it, Home Depot (in the background on the right) is on fill.
To the north there was some industry between 16th and 18th
Sts. (the tracks along 16th St. are not theirs). To the south, from about 30th St. south everything has changed and I haven't found maps are detailed enough.
Hmmm, I wonder what it looks like from the 31st. St. bridge. Maybe I should get Joon and...
Hello MJ Historians - I may have a finding. Through some detective work, I now believe that the MJ caboose is now located on the Hillbunker farms property in Woodstock, Illinois. Not far from the last reported position of Crystal Lake. They claim its a CNW caboose but if you look closely at the older pictures of it (circa 2012) you can see the distinct black bordered by white side panel.
ReplyDeleteThis photo from 2019 sold it for me: https://scontent-ord5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/59948601_2032098376898614_4288447582889312256_n.jpg?_nc_cat=109&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=0f5592&_nc_ohc=fvSqYtXddAsAX-8QwOX&_nc_ht=scontent-ord5-1.xx&oh=00_AfCm9dO6wsAd6ljRkre4eMZnSuyAuxgRdXALPR38qJsG0A&oe=65F5E669
Looks like they tried to raise funds to repair it and failed. In a sorry state now.
I found a bunch of other pictures in its derelict state if others would like to see them.
DeleteThe only picture I've seen of it in service is this one (also linked above): https://www.flickr.com/photos/arthurbig/49031874497/in/datetaken/ . Looks like a match to me. Look at the light color on the rear wall, comes down to just below the top of the door. Yellow steps, too. Looks like you got the good side of it.
ReplyDeleteDo you know that it was somewhere else in Crystal Lake? Could Jim Delhaye (above) have meant "NEAR Crystal Lake"? Google Earth shows it at the farm in 1999, maybe even 1988 (the resolution isn't good). This article is from 2015, when it was already there. The farm has a Woodstock ZIP but it's not in the town. I don't know the area, though.
You probably know that the UP/METRA used to be the "Northwestern". People up there would know that name, how many of us on the planet have heard of the MJ? Is there a sign? I wonder why it went up there to start with.
I'm the anonymous guy above who linked the hillbunker caboose pic. Nice to see that somebody else still thinks about this forgotten railway, and is also interested in where the caboose ended up!
DeleteThe only source/lead I had on crystal lake was from this page, so it could be that Jim meant ~near~ Crystal Lake. At one point I thought remembered someone commenting on a photo that they saw it stored in a yard out there though, but I can't find it, so I could be wrong. I used a historic aerial viewer website + local news to try and figure out when the caboose got to the farm.
MJ had the caboose as late as '77 (http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2325668). I used this website try and get a vague date on when it got to the farm (https://www.historicaerials.com/viewer) - the 1980 resolution is not great but my hunch is it might be there are early as then. It doesn't appear prior to that.
A local news piece talked about it and said local folks used it as a changing room before swimming in the little lake on the property. (https://wwordsmith.com/2019/06/10/bees-balm-bacon-and-a-bb/). The Woodstock independent, which published the piece, later ran a correction regarding when/who brought the caboose there (Judy and John Kunzie, if those names mean anything to anybody reading). Next time I go up to Union to the IRM I'm definitely stopping by!
From what I read on the farm's website & campaign to save it, they're under the impression it's just an old C&NW caboose. No sign or anything. I have absolutely no clue how in the world it ended up there. MJ sell it at scrap value? Fascinating story for a unique piece of kit.
I also need to credit Doug Kaniuk's incredible resource of static railroad equipment around Chicago for the reason I found the caboose in the first place (https://www.dhke.com/rrus/static/static13114.html). Lots of gems on his list.
One last treat - the gofundme has photos of the inside.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/woodstockcaboose
Re-reading the gofundme... I guess my mind skipped over the part where they said it was delivered to Union, Illinois first before it made its way to them. MJ donate it, and the IRM not want it?
Delete"I'm the anonymous guy above" too. Common name, I guess. I'm Sammy D III but I am in a world of computer hurt and can't seem to sign in.
DeleteJohn Kunzie meant something to Trains magazine: https://www.trains.com/mrr/news-reviews/news/john-kunzie-founder-of-johns-lab-dies-at-87/ He was losing money on two Baldwin Shark-noses around 1977 (half way down): https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3625578
The current owner of the farm dates to 2008, I don't know if it was her family farm before that. Do the Hills themselves say Northwestern? I would think the owner would know. Maybe not care, but they'd know what it wasn't. I'm not social enough to ask them and from their site I don't know if they'd try to get me high or shoot me.
On Historic Aerials 1999 is a sure bet. That white spot in 1988 is in the right place... I think 1980 may be a tree or ground feature.
Where do you think that picture from Stephie Kolata was taken? Doesn't look like any place on the ROW that I can see. There is a name or address on the building left center but I can't quite read it. The building itself looks pretty good but I couldn't see it anywhere. Maybe it was inside the Hawthorne plant? Maybe IRM?
Donated to IRM then they dumped it sounds good to me.