The railroad was constructed between 1888 and 1892, predominantly to ship peaches from orchards that were abundant along the southern part of the line, but it also carried passengers and other freight along the entire route.

Indeed, from the beginning the RVRR suffered from a number of problems that sooner or later would seal its doom: namely, it was poorly financed; it served no large cities, and only ran to the outskirts of one medium-sized town; it had no significant industry located along its route; it relied heavily on a seasonal and unpredictable crop for revenue; it interchanged with only one railroad, which held it "captive"; it was built as cheaply as possible; and it was poorly maintained.

By February, 1888, Melick had obtained sufficient money, $60,000 from sales of stock, to begin building the southernmost 4 miles from White House to New Germantown (Oldwick, New Jersey).

Much of this funding came from local peach growers who stood to gain from a rail connection to transport their perishable crop to market.

Although the line to Watnong would not be fully completed until August 1892, revenue started flowing into the railroad's coffers in 1888, as gross income for that year amounted to a modest $992.46.

This section would feature an L-shaped climb up a 2%-3.5% grade, with a 4% drop on the other side of the hill, and a 400-foot-long (120 m), 25-foot-high (7.6 m) wooden trestle, the only significant structure on the mainline of the railroad.

The RVRR located its Watnong depot on the northern bank of the Whippany River on the east side of Lake Valley Road.

For most railroads this would have required that extra fill material and ballast be placed in order to build up the right-of-way well above the surrounding water table.

The speed limit along the line was never documented, but it is unlikely that given the track condition, and the small locomotives that the railroad used, that trains ever exceeded 30–35 miles per hour.

Apparently, the allure of running a railroad was greater to Melick than any desire to master the key financial aspects of rail operations.

These proposals were unrealistic given the railroad's financial position, but it didn't stop the RVRR from starting construction on the final segment to Morristown in October 1910.

Had the railroad managed to delay abandonment and expanded to Morristown, inroads by trucks during the 1920s would have eventually killed it anyway even if Melick's construction practices hadn't already effectively done the same thing.

This was a severe blow to whatever financial stability was left, as the annual peach crop, although never truly dependable, was the railroad's raison d'être.

For example, although the railroad never quite reached Morristown, New Jersey, it offered free freight shipping from its depot in Watnong, which was about 2 miles outside of town.

Miss Blackford also helped dispel the notion that the moniker "Rock-A-Bye Baby" meant that passengers were gently rocked to sleep aboard the RVRR.

The "last" train to Watnong would run on October 18, 1913, which picked up any freight cars that remained on the railroad, returning them to White House.

The major issue would be the Jersey Central's requirement of a $30,000 bond to cover the interchange of cars, the CNJ claiming that the RVRR still owed it $15,000 from its previous operation.

Over the subsequent two years, more than $65,000 would be spent to rehabilitate the line: replacing ties, reinforcing bridges, and filling in most of the Peapack trestle.

The latter plan, however, was to have cost an estimated $1 million, and called for the complete abandonment of the RVRR right-of-way, with a new line to be built nearby.

The greatest irony, when it comes to the Rockaway Valley, is that the only person ever to make money from the RVRR was Frank B. Allen, the final owner of the line, and the one who sold the railroad for scrap in 1917.

A photo from the era (see New Jersey Skylands magazine link below) shows Allen, a man who was in his seventies at the time, standing in front of his Model T Ford, equipped with flanged wheels that enabled the automobile to ride on the rails, pulling a flat car that was being loaded with rail segments that were being pulled off the railbed.

Although the railroad was completely abandoned and all its rail removed in 1917 (the sole exception being a short section near White House that was retained into the 1920s in order to serve a creamery), most of the right-of-way remains intact, much of it publicly or quasi-publicly owned, comprising part of Patriots' Path, as well as a right-of-way carrying fiber-optic cable.