The line soon became the rural Wallkill Valley Branch of the West Shore Railroad, although the locals whose profits were wiped out during the previous bankruptcy did not agree with this.

An occasional scheme was hatched to extend it to the Pennsylvania coal mines to bring more money to the railroad, though it was never successful.

The New York Central then bought the West Shore Railroad in 1884 when passenger service was slowly declining, as with other rural branches.

[3] Conrail almost entirely abandoned the branch, though it was considered briefly as a new route to Allentown, Pennsylvania, via Kingston, Campbell Hall and the Lehigh and Hudson River Railway.

It was discovered in 1977 that the piers supporting the Rosendale Viaduct had shifted, and that repairs were not worth the money to keep the line open.

The physical plant was formally abandoned in 1982, and the infrastructure was torn out and sold for scrap, except for the Rosendale trestle; a little spur from Walden to Campbell Hall and a team track in Kingston.

The remaining spur from DeGroodt's Paving in downtown Walden to the Campbell Hall Metro-North station is used for freight service by Norfolk Southern.

The section of the rail bed north of Rte 208 to Birch Road is owned by the Town of Shawangunk but is unimproved.