Rhinebeck and Connecticut Railroad

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 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.[1]^: 10 The line was surveyed in December 1870; due to difficulties raising money, construction did not begin until October 1871.[1]^: 10[2]^: 64

Freight service was operated beginning in 1873 even as construction continued eastward.[3] Construction work reached Jackson Corners that October, Mount Ross in November, Gallatinville in May 1874, and Boston Corners in November 1874.[4][5][6][7] The line fully opened between Slate Dock (on the Hudson River just north of Rhinecliff) and Boston Corners on April 4, 1875.[1]^: 10[2]^: 64 It connected to the Poughkeepsie, Hartford and Boston Railroad (PH&B) and the New York and Harlem Railroad at Boston Corners. Rather than build the remaining portion to the state line to meet the Connecticut Western, the R&C paid the PH&B some $10,000 annually (equivalent to $270,000 in 2022) for trackage rights on 6.4 miles (10.3 km) of its line.[1]^: 10[8]

Passenger service on the line initially ran only as far west as Rhinebeck.[9] In 1875, the railroad built a short extension south from Slate Dock along the east side of the Hudson River Railroad to the latter's Rhinecliff station.[10] Passenger trains began using the extension in mid-August 1875.[9] 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.[11][12][2]^: 67

The principal purpose of the R&C was to carry coal from the Coal Region of Northeastern Pennsylvania for destinations in Connecticut.[13]^: 39[14] 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.[13]^: 39 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.[15][16][13]^: 40 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.[17][13]^: 40

The following is a list of the owners and lessees of the line.

• 1882 - Hartford and Connecticut Western Railroad
• 1889 - Central New England and Western Railroad
• 1892 - Philadelphia, Reading and New England Railroad
• 1899 - Central New England Railway
• 1927 - New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad

Passenger service between Copake and State Line ended in 1927, between Silvernails and Rhinecliff in 1928, and between Copake and Silvernails in 1933.[18]