Manufacturers’ Junction

Company History: The MJ opened in 1906 as a switching line in Cicero, Illinois primarily to serve the Western Electric Hawthorne Works which manufactured telephone equipment. Ownership later passed to AT&T. In total, MJ operates 6 miles of track. The line has been operated with a pair of SW1’s for many years. In 1986 the MJ was acquired by Chicago West Pullman Transportation, now part of the OmniTRAX shortline group. Although technically MJ is still a going concern, the last train ran in 2009. The engine house was torn down and following much vandalism, both SW-1’s were scrapped. MJ has an agreement to borrow a locomotive from CSX if any business should appear.

Successor/Parent History: OmniTRAX, Inc is one of North America’s largest private railroad and transportation management companies with interests in railroads, terminals, ports and industrial real estate. OmniTRAX operates a network of 21 regional and short line railroads that cover 12 states in the US and 3 provinces in Canada. The company’s railroads have interchanges with BNSF, CN, CSXT, NS & UP, and transport commodities within the Agricultural, Aggregate & Industrial Mineral, Energy, Food, Crude Oil, Chemical, Lumber, Metal, Petroleum and Plastic industries.

Brief History: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.