[7] Original plans called for the route to briefly parallel the Lexington Branch cutoff through North Cambridge and terminate at the Boston and Lowell Railroad (B&L) mainline at Willow Bridge.

The directors contracted with the B&L to operate trains over the Central Massachusetts route in the fall of 1885 with service resuming from Boston to Hudson on September 28 and to Jefferson on December 14.

[13] The B&L formally leased the Central Massachusetts on December 7, 1886,[14]: 296  resuming work on the route to Northampton but abandoning any plans for branches to Holyoke or West Deerfield.

[1]: 16–18 Although the Central Massachusetts Railroad never grew beyond Northampton as its early backers had hoped it nonetheless became an integral link for the B&M to points west and south.

The first change was in Oakdale where on March 30, 1902 the railroad shut down the accident-prone yard where the Central Massachusetts Branch crossed at grade over the Worcester, Nashua, and Portland Division (WN&P) main line.

The western portal of the tunnel opened onto a 917-foot viaduct near the site of the Wachusett Dam that passed over Route 70 and the Nashua River before connecting with the WN&P Division main line at Clinton Junction.

[1]: 29–38 In 1907 Charles Sanger Mellen, the president of the NYNH&H and protégé of J. P. Morgan, gained control of the B&M to form a near monopoly on all rail traffic in southern New England.

Just days before its grand opening operations were suspended indefinitely as Mellen faced a hearing before the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) regarding his questionable business practices.

[1]: 45  The line enjoyed a brief upswing in traffic between World War I and the early 1920s but the Great Depression and increased competition from automobiles and trucks began to take their toll in the latter half of the decade.

[1]: 48–49 The struggling economy and reduction in business forced the B&M to take austerity measures and cut back on less profitable lines including the Central Massachusetts Branch.

[1]: 52  Later that year on September 21 the Hurricane of 1938 badly damaged the tracks, particularly near the Quinapoxet, Ware, and Swift Rivers where washouts severed the line at Coldbrook and knocked out a bridge in Gilbertville.

The B&M could not justify the cost to make repairs to an area it was hardly using and so on January 30, 1939 the railroad formally submitted a request to the ICC to abandon the Central Massachusetts Branch tracks between Oakdale and Barre Junction, abandon the B&A Ware River tracks between Creamery and Gilbertville,[1]: 162  and discontinue operations on the B&A Ware River Branch between Creamery and Barre Junction.

Later that month the Massachusetts Central assumed responsibility for the customer in Bondsville but had to stop after about a year due to the poor condition of the tracks.

In 1942 the United States Government built the Fort Devens-Sudbury Training Annex which connected to the Central Massachusetts Branch at Mirror Lake Junction just east of Ordway station in Hudson.

The last of the steam locomotive operations for scheduled passenger revenue service on the B&M took place between Boston and Clinton on the Central Massachusetts Branch.

[22]: 330 In spite of the subsidies, ridership continued to decline on the Central Massachusetts Branch, and by 1969 the MBTA recommended an end to all service on the line.

After two months, the MBTA concluded that the modest increase in ridership was not sufficient to warrant continued funding; on November 26, all passenger service ended on the Central Massachusetts Branch.

On December 27, 1976 the B&M sold the Central Massachusetts Branch as well as its Budd RDC fleet and several other lines to the MBTA[22]: 334  but retained the rights to freight service.

The B&M officially took the track west of Bacon Street in Waltham out of service on September 11 and the United States District Court overseeing the B&M's bankruptcy instead approved a permanent discontinuance in October.

The Springfield Terminal took over operations on the last piece of the Central Massachusetts Branch between Clematis Brook and Bacon Street in Waltham in 1987 and continued them until the last customer shut down in 1994.

[1]: 137–138  In 1996 State Representative Nancy Evans of Wayland proposed restoring commuter service on the Central Massachusetts Branch between Interstate 495 in Berlin and Boston to alleviate traffic on Route 20 but was met with substantial backlash from residents of new homes built along the dormant line in the time since its operations had ceased.

In 1996 the towns along the eastern portion of the Central Massachusetts Branch requested permission to convert the route between Clematis Brook and Berlin into what was then proposed as the Wayside Rail Trail.

The MBTA agreed to lease the property for the project with the stipulation that it would retain the right to revert it to a commuter rail line and that the trail would be policed and maintained by the communities themselves.

[1]: 146–147  In 2010, the Massachusetts DCR executed a 99-year lease with the MBTA to build what was renamed the Mass Central Rail Trail—Wayside, 23 miles from Berlin to Waltham.

[27] A crushed stone continuation connects the fully paved portion with the shopping center at the intersection of US 20 and Andrew Ave in Wayland.

In Sudbury and Hudson, a 7.6 mile paved section is under construction in partnership between DCR and Eversource's buried power line project, with an estimated completion in 2026.

In March 1985 with support from the local governments and regional planning agency the state purchased 10 miles of the line between the west end of the Connecticut River Bridge in Northampton and Amherst with the intent to convert it into a rail trail.

Work began in 1992 and on July 29, 1993 the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management officially opened the Norwottuck Branch Rail Trail.

Individual stations were often tailored to their location, including additions such as attached or separate freight houses and milk sheds which were similarly decorated to appear presentable to the public.

The listings with grayed-out backgrounds are the stations between West Berlin Junction and Oakdale that the railroad abandoned during the construction of the Wachusett Reservoir.