QUICK FACTS

Model: 44-ton locomotive
Built: February 1947
Builder: General Electric, Erie, PA
Past Railroad Owners: American Cyanamid, Middletown & New Jersey
Current Owner: TOYX, Inc.

Locomotive No. 2 was built by General Electric of Erie, Pennsylvania in February of 1947 (serial No. 28342) and was rebuilt by GE in July of 1956. It features a pair of Caterpillar D-17000 diesel engines (380 combined horsepower) that power two electric generators. These power four GE-733 traction motors, giving the locomotive a top speed of 35 mph.

This locomotive was originally American Cyanamid No. 5 and was painted green with a light gray cab. It was assigned to the company’s Calco Chemical Division in Bridgewater, New Jersey. The site contained an internal network of rail lines, which necessitated the company to roster its own fleet of small switching locomotives. The No. 5 handled switching cars throughout the facility and handling inbound and outbound cars with the connecting Central Railroad of New Jersey, Reading Railroad, and Lehigh Valley Railroad.

The locomotive was sold in October of 1963 to the Middletown & New Jersey Railroad of Middletown, New York to supplement the existing 44-tonner No. 1, the railroad’s only locomotive. The new locomotive, renumbered to No. 2, entered M&NJ service in patched American Cyanamid green and gray before being repainted in a solid red paint scheme around 1964. The locomotive was again repainted to a striking blue-and-yellow scheme around 1975, which remains as the M&NJ’s corporate image today.

The No. 2 served on the entire length of the 15-mile line from Middletown to Unionville, which was gradually cut back in the late 1960s and early 1970s to a shorter Middletown-to-Slate Hill run. After No. 1 was taken out of service in 1981, the No. 2 became the M&NJ’s sole operating locomotive for 26 years until additional locomotives were acquired in 2007.

After the railroad itself was acquired by Regional Rail, LLC in 2009, the No. 2 was moved to the East Penn Railroad’s contract switching operation in Manheim, Pennsylvania. With the scrapping of M&NJ No. 1 in early 2021, the No. 2 is now the sole surviving piece of pre-2007 M&NJ equipment, and the only piece of M&NJ equipment to be preserved.

Using funding graciously donated by Liberty Historic Railway, the M&NJ No. 2 was purchased from Regional Rail in November of 2021 as an incredible example of railroad equipment from an important local railroad. With the help of the Tri-State Railway Historical Society, the No. 2 was moved from Manheim, Pennsylvania to Port Jervis, New York on December 21-22, 2021. It will be restored to its M&NJ scheme and displayed as an example of regional railroad history.