West Virginia businessman Henry G. Davis founded the Potomac and Piedmont Coal and Railroad Company in 1866.
In 1880 the company began to construct a rail line from a junction on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) near Bloomington, Maryland, south along the North Branch Potomac River.
In 1881 the line reached coal fields near Elk Garden, WV, and Davis obtained new charters from the states of West Virginia and Maryland, renaming the company as WVC&P.
A branch out of Elkins west and north along the Tygart Valley River was constructed and reached Belington in 1891.
The WVC&P and subsidiaries were sold to the Fuller Syndicate, led by George Gould, in 1902 and merged into the Western Maryland Railway (WM) in 1905.