It was chartered in 1870 to connect the Connecticut Western Railroad with the Hudson River to transport coal mined in Pennsylvania.

In the early 1890s, it was briefly part of an ambitious system assembled by Archibald Angus McLeod of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad.

McLeod's business empire collapsed in 1893; after several mergers, the H&CW (including the ex-R&C) became part of the Central New England Railway (CNE) in 1899.

[1]: 10  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.

[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.

[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.

In 1875, with a virtual monopoly on the coal business in Rhinebeck, Cornell raised his price $1 per ton (equivalent to $28 in 2023) higher than other dealers on the river.

[18]: 15  By 1878, the R&C operated two daily mixed train round trips, which took about three hours to cover the 41.6 miles (66.9 km) between Rhinecliff and State Line.

[1]: 10  In August 1889, the CNE&W leased the H&CW, creating a mainline running from Campbell Hall, New York, to Hartford, Connecticut.

[18]: 20 In 1890, P&R president Archibald Angus McLeod began an ambitious attempt to obtain control of the railroads that distributed the P&R's anthracite coal into New England.

[18]: 23  The following January, the P&R purchased the Delaware and New England Railway, a paper railroad that controlled the CNE&W and the Poughkeepsie Bridge.

[18]: 23 McLeod's feat was short-lived; with little actual capital to back the purchases, the lines successively fell into bankruptcy.

It was sold in October 1898, with New Haven steamboat tycoon Chester W. Chapin the controlling interest, and reorganized as the Central New England Railway (CNE) on January 23, 1899.

[28][29][30] 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.

[18]: 31 The final passenger service on the ex-R&C – a gasoline-powered railcar operating a single daily round trip between Poughkeepsie and Copake via Silvernails – ended on September 9, 1933.

[33]: 10  In April 1938, the Interstate Commerce Commission allowed the New Haven to abandon most of the remaining ex-CNE lines in New York.

It ran northeast from Rhinecliff to Elizaville, then followed the Roeliff Jansen Kill southeast to Silvernails, the junction (after 1889) with the Poughkeepsie and Connecticut Railroad.

The line continued northeast along the Roeliff Jansen Kill valley to Copake, where it turned southeast to reach the Poughkeepsie and Eastern Railway (P&E) and the New York and Harlem Railroad at Boston Corners.

[18]: 15 Except for a short section between Ancram and Copake, the Rhinebeck and Connecticut was completely uphill from Rhinecliff to Boston Corners.