Ep99 - Middletown & New Jersey: Railroading Through the Winter

Описание: Railroading never stops — not for cold temperatures, falling snow, or winter weather. In this video, we spend time along the Middletown & New Jersey Railroad during the heart of winter, capturing daily freight operations across some of Orange County’s most historic trackage.

We begin along the Walden Secondary, a roughly ten-mile line leased from Norfolk Southern that runs from Campbell Hall to Walden, New York. Once part of the Erie Railroad system, this line remains active today thanks to steady traffic from customers like Hunter Panels, ProAmpac in Walden and a few more. Hunter Panels is where MNJ crews work tank cars in the snow. Watch as CH-2 switches empties there and after, gathers cars from the Maybrook Industrial Track, and back to Campbell Hall to store empties.

From there, we head west toward Middletown, At Four Story Junction, we explore the history behind the name and the location — where the O&W once crossed over the Erie Railroad’s Graham Line, and where Conrail later built a connector in the 1980s to link the two routes. We then catch CH-1 hard at work on the Crawford Industrial Track, tackling the steep grade that gave Four Story its name. With MNJ 2175 leading and NJ Transit 4103 manned as a helper, both GP38-2s put on an impressive show of classic EMD power climbing up steep grades.

Much of MNJ operates over former New York, Ontario & Western trackage. The area around Builders FirstSource was home to a major O&W yard, which you can tell by surrounding buildings. Though the O&W fell into bankruptcy and decline in 1957, its legacy still lives on through today’s short line operations. We capture some action in Middletown, including the pickup of MNJ 5615 in the still very much active shops in town.


Despite the winter conditions, the MNJ keeps moving — serving customers, handling interchanges, and preserving a living piece of New York railroading history. Thanks for watching another MNJ Railroad video, and be sure to check out our other coverage of this hardworking short line.

Highlights:
Winter railroading on the Middletown & New Jersey Railroad
Switching along the Walden Secondary, including Hunter Panels
Former New York, Ontario & Western trackage and Four Story Junction history
CH-1 and CH-2 at work with classic GP38-2 power in the snow

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