Happy Monday to All...

Visited the Gaithersburg show Sunday in my quest for vintage tourist railroad memerobilia and came away a few hundred dollars lighter.

I happened to pick up a postcard of the Middletown and Orange RR of New York state. The card showed 2-6-2 103, now at the Valley Railroad in Connecticut. The 103 was pulling a train of a DL&W Boonton combine, Boonton coach and a caboose of unknown origin.

Few questions here. When did this railroad start and finish operation? What factors were behind its demise? Was there additional equipment? I know where the 103 went, what about the rest of the train?

Some interesting trivia.

Dave Crosby

bing@epix.net

The 103 and the caboose are owned by RMNE both are stored at the Valley. The caboose is a SSW drovers caboose. As for the combine and coach:
Valley 409 1915; bge/cch, ex C&NW 7409, sold to Mid Continent RR Museum 1989

Valley 1102 1924; coach, ex CNJ, sold to Arkansas and Misssouri 1990

> The 103 and the caboose are owned by RMNE
> both are stored at the Valley. The caboose
> is a SSW drovers caboose. As for the combine
> and coach:
> Valley 409 1915; bge/cch, ex C&NW 7409,
> sold to Mid Continent RR Museum 1989

> Valley 1102 1924; coach, ex CNJ, sold to
> Arkansas and Misssouri 1990

Close, Mike. The M&O was the name given to the steam tourist operation over the Middletown & New Jersey RR, conducted by Empire State Rwy Museum between 1962 and 1966. The M&O name was applied to a DL&W Boonton coach and possibly applied to a CNJ coach owned by Steve Bogen. The two cars, along with other ESRM equipment, including the 103, the CNW 7409 combine and the SSW "branchline" 50-foot caboose, came to Essex in 1970-71. Much of that equipment later was transferred to RMNE. The DL&W Boonton car (DL&W 596, M&O 510) was cut up for parts about 1980.

1102 was always owned by CVRM (RMNE's original name) after purchase from CNJ about 1970; it was indeed sold to A&M in 1990. 1102 was never at Middletown.

The CNJ coach scrapped at Essex was 1072; it was owned by Bogen and was lettered "B&O RR" on the letterboard, for its role in "Funny Girl" with Barbra Streisand in 1967.

hpincus@mindspring.com

> I happened to pick up a postcard of the
> Middletown and Orange RR of New York state.
> The card showed 2-6-2 103, now at the Valley
> Railroad in Connecticut. The 103 was pulling
> a train of a DL&W Boonton combine,
> Boonton coach and a caboose of unknown
> origin.

Sounds like this post card... from the ABPR files at railfan.net

Regards,
Jim Robinson


Middletown & Orange postcard

Hello Jim et all...

Yep, thats the postcard! Thanks for all the info Howard and Mike... I don't know why I thought that combine was from the DL&W...

Dave Crosby

bing@epix.net

The ESRM's steam operation on the M&NJ RR started off (IIRC) with some (leased??) Erie RR Stillwell coaches as seen in this (see below link) additional early postcard view from the railfan.net ABPR file. I'm not sure what the car on siding is. 103 is looking sharp in these views!

Regards,
Jim Robinson


another postcard view

I have some very fond memories of the Middletown & Orange. I visited it in 1964, having spent the day before at the World's Fair in New York City. I rode the Erie out to Middletown. The train as pulled by an RS-3, and I remember seeing the rusting NYO&W FT's and a long line of Erie steam loco tenders over in the Jersey meadows. At the M&O, little 103 was steamed up and ready to go, and I rode down to Slate Hill over the weed-covered rails of the M&H. At Slate Hill, I asked the engine crew if I could ride the cab back to Middletown, thus scoring my very first steam locomotive cab ride at age 16. I wish I had a better camera than my Brownie, and I really wish I knew where the negatives and prints of that trip were today.


K4s1361@hotmail.com

> The ESRM's steam operation on the M&NJ
> RR started off (IIRC) with some (leased??)
> Erie RR Stillwell coaches as seen in this
> (see below link) additional early postcard
> view from the railfan.net ABPR file. I'm not
> sure what the car on siding is. 103 is
> looking sharp in these views!

> Regards,
> Jim Robinson

The Stillwells were used in the first season or so; as I was told, they were deadheaded out of Hoboken on the rear of a Friday night E-L train to Pt. Jervis, and simply uncoupled near the E. Main St. crossing, so the M&NJ 44-tonner could go out the interchange track and pick 'em up. The process was reversed on late Sunday night or early Monday morning.

The kid on the extreme right is crouching on the NYO&W right of way, which had been bare of track for only 5-6 years when that photo was taken.

I could never figure out what the "other" car was... ESRM owned a heavyweight Pullman, "Arsenal Tower" and an ex-NYC/D&H heavyweight diner, both of which lived at CNJ's E'port shops before going to Essex in 1969. The diner also ran on some 1967 High Iron trips. I doubt either car was ever in Middletown.


hpincus@mindspring.com