Trainworx - 2903-05 - Box Car, 86 Foot, Auto Parts 4-Door - Chicago & Eastern Illinois - 271220

Specific Item Information: 4 plug doors

Road Name History: The Chicago & Eastern Illinois was formed in 1877 as a result of the reorganization of the Chicago Danville & Vincennes. By 1902 the C&EI ran south out of Chicago and split into three routes south of Danville, Illinois.

The eastern fork followed the Indiana-Illinois border (on the Indiana side) south to Evansville near the Kentucky border. At Evansville, traffic was primarily handed off to Louisville & Nashville for points in the South. This route saw the lion’s share of C&EI’s passenger business. In fact, many Chicago to Florida passenger limiteds traveled the C&EI from Chicago to Evansville. The Dixie Flagler, for instance, was routed: C&EI, Louisville & Nashville, Nashville Chattanooga & St. Louis, Atlanta Birmingham & Coast, Atlantic Coast Line, and Florida East Coast to get to Miami.

The center fork passed through Salem and Mount Vernon to the southern tip of Illinois, over the Thebes Bridge to Chaffee, Missouri and friendly connections with Cotton Belt, Frisco, and MoPac. This line generated considerable coal traffic in addition to through freight from Chicago to Louisiana and East Texas. Passenger service was provided by The Meadowlark. In later years this train used ACF Motorailers and later still, Budd RDC’s.

The western fork went to St. Louis. However the line from Pana, Illinois to St. Louis was actually on trackage rights with New York Central’s “Big Four” route. Passenger service on this line ended right after WWII due to unbeatable competition from GM&O, IC, and Wabash.

Total system mileage maxed out at about 950, putting C&EI between Lackawanna and Montana Rail Link in relative size. Prior to 1933, C&EI had been controlled by Frisco, then Chesapeake & Ohio (on behalf of the Van Sweringen Brothers.) That year brought another receivership but freed them from control by other lines for more than three decades.

In the 1960s, Louisville & Nashville, Illinois Central and Missouri Pacific dueled for control of the C&EI. In 1967, a compromise was reached. MoPac took control of the C&EI and sold the Evansville line and half interest in the line from Danville to Chicago to the L&N. L&N also received portions of the C&EI diesel and freight car fleets and most of the remaining passenger equipment. The sales to L&N were completed in 1969.

The remaining C&EI diesels were painted MoPac “Jenks Blue” and received buzzsaw logos with “C&EI” within. In 1976, the C&EI was merged into the Missouri Pacific.

Brand/Importer Information: Trainworx was founded in 1999 by Pat Sanders and is located in Delta Colorado. Their first freight car was the Quad hopper and it was released in 2000. They have been making N scale products ever since. Their website can be found at www.train-worx.com. As of 2016, they have produced 8 different rolling stock body styles as well as a range of different highway vehicles in N Scale. Their limited edition runs have proven a huge success with collectors and modelers enjoy the accuracy of all their products.

Trainworx sells their products both through tradional retail channels as well as directly by phone order. When asked "What prompted you to found Trainworx?", Pat Sanders responded "There was a freight car that hadn't been done in N scale that I just had to have and it didn't look like anyone was ever going to make it."