Construction and early history The Rhinebeck and Connecticut Railroad (R&C) was chartered on June 29, 1870, to build a railroad from
Rhinecliff on the
Hudson River east to the
Connecticut state line, where it would join the
Connecticut Western Railroad. Its promoters also owned the
Rondout and Oswego Railroad, whose president was politician and businessman
Thomas Cornell. They intended to bridge the Hudson between
Rondout and Rhinecliff. This would complete an all-rail route between the
Great Lakes at
Oswego and the port of
Boston. The line was surveyed in December 1870; due to difficulties raising money, construction did not begin until October 1871, and the Hudson River bridge was never built. Construction began at Rhinecliff and proceeded east. Freight service began on the western portion of the line in 1873 even as construction continued eastward. Construction work reached
Jackson Corners that October,
Mount Ross in November,
Gallatinville in May 1874, and
Boston Corners in November 1874. The line fully opened between Slate Dock (on the Hudson River just north of Rhinecliff) and Boston Corners on April 4, 1875. Passenger service on the line initially ran only as far west as Rhinebeck. Passenger trains began using the extension in mid-August 1875. Later that year, the R&C built a new spur to reach Slate Dock without crossing the Hudson River Railroad at grade. It split off from the mainline north of Rhinecliff, passed over the Hudson River Railroad on a trestle, and sloped down to reach the dock. The coal was brought to Rondout on the
Delaware and Hudson Canal and transferred across the Hudson River by Cornell's fleet of tugboats. In 1875, with a virtual monopoly on the coal business in Rhinebeck, Cornell raised his price $1 per ton () higher than other dealers on the river. Through their agent, Rhinebeck judge Conrad Marquardt, Rhinebeck merchants hired a
Newburgh coal dealer. Three times in October 1875, Cornell ordered his workers to cut the lines of a competing coal barge attempting to dock at Slate Dock. He was arrested on October 31 after defying a court order; Marquardt ordered him to stand trial. The charges were dismissed in March 1876 on the grounds that Slate Dock was privately owned and the competing dealer's barge did not have the right to dock there. By 1878, the R&C operated two daily
mixed train round trips, which took about three hours to cover the between Rhinecliff and State Line. Sunday service was a single round trip that ran only between Rhinecliff and
Ancram. Cornell purchased the railroad at auction that November for just $100,000 (equivalent to $ million in ) – less than the scrap value of the line. The following February, the
Hartford and Connecticut Western Railroad (H&CW), reorganized from the Connecticut Western in 1881, reached an agreement to purchase the R&C from Cornell. The purchase took place on May 25, 1882, for $800,000 (equivalent to $ million in ) in stock. The HC&W found the trackage rights over the PH&B to be less than ideal, as H&CW trains were at the mercy of the PH&B
dispatcher. In March 1883, the H&CW began routing its trains over the
Newburgh, Dutchess and Connecticut Railroad from State Line to
Millerton, and the New York and Harlem from Millerton to Boston Corners, to avoid the PH&B. This quickly resulted in better treatment for the HC&W trains. The purchase was effective April 1, 1884. The 1875-built freight trestle at Rhinecliff was removed around 1910. Service was similar in 1915; by 1920, Rhinecliff service was reduced to a single daily
mixed train round trip. Freight traffic on the CNE increased sharply during
World War I, as it was used as a bypass of the congested lines to the south, but the railroad's fortunes declined thereafter. The CNE was finally merged into the New Haven in 1927. The New Haven terminated passenger service on the CNE system in Connecticut in late 1927; passenger service between Silvernails and Rhinecliff ended the next year. Passenger and freight service between Copake and State Line ended on April 28, 1928. The New Haven applied for abandonment of that section in June 1932; the
Interstate Commerce Commission approved it that August. Abandonment of the long-unprofitable lines took place on August 1, 1938. The tracks were removed the next year. ==Route==