Belen is a city in Valencia County , New Mexico , United States . Belen is Spanish for Bethlehem , and over time has gained the nickname "Hub City" because of the Belen Cutoff of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway . The Cutoff made it possible for many more trains to travel east and west across the United States. Prior to the Belen Cutoff, train traffic came through the steep Raton Pass on the Colorado and New Mexico border. To this day, an average of 110 trains travel through Belen in a 24-hour period on the Southern Transcon . Belen also has the only Harvey House Museum in the state of New Mexico. The population was 7,269 at the 2010 Census . Belen is part of the Albuquerque Metropolitan Statistical Area .
