The Charles River Railroad was chartered in Massachusetts to build a rail line from Brookline to the Rhode Island border in Bellingham, but had only been built as far as Needham at the time of the merger.
The line was leased for 999 years to the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad on December 1, 1864, and outright consolidated with it on January 4, 1865.
Reports of under-powered trains stalling due to a lack of steam abounded,[2] and in 1873 the Boston, Hartford, and Erie Railroad declared bankruptcy.
[4] Originally Needham Junction was the only stop on the cutoff; Bird's Hill opened as an infill station in 1917.
[4] The New York and New England Railroad faced many of the same problems as its predecessors, principally continued operation on lines that were otherwise not profitable.
A small section of track from a junction with the Providence and Worcester Railroad in Woonsocket to North Smithfield remained in place as-of 2014.