The line was built in 1892 by
William Seward Webb, a Vanderbilt in-law, as the
Mohawk & Malone Railway and was purchased from him in 1893 by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. Its successor from 1913, the New York Central Railroad, ran passenger trains on the route until April 24, 1965. It passed to the
Penn Central Transportation Company on February 1, 1968, which abandoned freight operations north of Remsen in 1972. New York State bought the entire Utica-Lake Placid line from the bankrupt Penn Central in 1974, primarily to serve the
1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. The
Adirondack Railway then operated passenger services between Utica and Lake Placid from 1979 to 1981. Tracks were dormant from 1981 until 1992, when restoration began with a section from
Thendara to
Minnehaha, New York. The section was approved and demonstrated on July 4, 1992, and the line was given the name Adirondack Centennial Railroad. It was renamed Adirondack Scenic Railroad in 1994. The railroad had formerly planned to restore passenger operations over the entire length of the Utica–Lake Placid corridor, and did operate from 2000 to 2016 on the segment between Saranac Lake and Lake Placid. Other advocates in the area called for replacing the Tupper Lake–Lake Placid section with a
rail trail instead. Tracks were slated to be dismantled in late 2016, but their removal was delayed by legal battles between the railroad advocates, rail trail advocates, and the state. The
New York Supreme Court ultimately sided with the railroad on September 26, 2017, annulling the rail trail plan. However, in the subsequent Adirondack Park Act, the term "travel corridor" was redefined to include a trail in place of a rail line, reviving the option of a rail trail. The tracks on the Tupper Lake-Lake Placid section were removed in October 2020. Concurrently, New York State renovated the tracks from Big Moose to Tupper Lake. The first train ran over the entire Utica–Tupper Lake corridor in September 2022, and regular scheduled tourist excursion service began in late spring, 2023. The name was changed again to the Adirondack Railroad in 2020. ==Gallery==