Middletown and New Jersey Railroad
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| Reporting mark | MNJ |
|---|---|
| Locale | Middletown, New York |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
| Previous gauge | , formerly 6 foot broad gauge |
The Middletown and New Jersey Railroad (reporting mark MNJ) is one of two railroads in the city of Middletown, New York; the other being its interchange partner, Norfolk Southern Railway. The MNJ consists of 43 miles of track in southeastern New York serving Orange County and the Hudson Valley. The railroad also operates and has trackage rights on three additional branch lines (the Hudson Secondary, Maybrook and Walden Industrials, and Southern Tier) totalling 40 miles leased from Norfolk Southern in Orange County. It was known as the Middletown and New Jersey Railway until 2009, when East Penn Railroad parent Regional Rail, LLC bought the line through a new subsidiary. In 2015, Regional Rail was in turn acquired by Levine Leichtman Capital Partners (“LLCP”).
In 2012, The Middletown and New Jersey Railroad, LLC received a $1.6 million New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) grant to perform rail upgrades on the four lines it operates in Orange County. The railroad rehabilitated the line between Campbell Hall and Warwick and portions of the track in Middletown and between Walden and Montgomery.
The first railroad to reach Middletown was the New York and Erie Railroad, a predecessor of the Erie Railroad, which reached the hamlet on June 1, 1843 and remained the only railroad in the immediate region for over two decades. In the early 1840s, the NY&E fostered the growth of the Orange County dairy industry by developing the capacity to ship fluid milk to New York City without spoilage. This development provided the area's dairy farmers, who had hitherto been limited to the shipment of butter, with a far more profitable business opportunity. Furthermore, by greatly accelerating the expansion of Orange County's dairy industry, this development helped foster the creation of a number of small railroads in southeast New York State including the predecessor of the Middletown and New Jersey, the Middletown, Unionville and Water Gap Railroad. The NY&E was reorganized as the Erie Railroad on April 30, 1861.
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