Rutland Railway

The earliest predecessor of the Rutland Railroad was the Rutland & Burlington Railroad (R&B), chartered in 1843 by the state of Vermont to construct a line between Rutland and Burlington. In 1855, when the Vermont legislature established the office of state railroad commissioner to oversee railway construction, maintenance, and operations, the first appointee was Charles Linsley, who served as counsel to R&B and was a member of its board of directors. Several other railroads were formed in the region during this period, and by 1867 R&B had been renamed the Rutland Railroad.

From 1871 to 1896, the Rutland Railroad was leased to the Central Vermont Railway (CV), regaining its independence after CV entered receivership. The New York Central Railroad (NYCRR) acquired a controlling interest in the Rutland in 1904 but sold half of its shares to the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad in 1911.

In 1901, the Rutland completed construction of a series of causeways and trestles across Lake Champlain through the Champlain Islands of South Hero and North Hero, creating a direct connection between Burlington and Rouses Point, New York. This project provided the railroad with independent access to Canada, avoiding reliance on CV trackage. Both railroads shared the bridge over the Richelieu River at Rouses Point by means of a gauntlet track, which allowed alternating use by trains without switches and limited occupancy to one train at a time.

The Rutland Railroad also operated a line from Rutland southeast to Bellows Falls on the Connecticut River, opposite North Walpole, New Hampshire. This line remains in operation under the Vermont Railway (VTR). Another line extended south from Rutland to North Bennington and onward to Chatham, New York. Chatham served as a significant junction, providing connections via NYCRR to New York City and via the Boston & Albany Railroad (B&A) to Massachusetts. The branch between North Bennington and Chatham was abandoned in 1953 and had been the first Rutland division to lose passenger service, in 1931.

The railroad operated a daytime passenger train known as the Green Mountain Flyer and a nighttime counterpart, the Mount Royal, which ran between Montreal and New York City via Burlington and Rutland.

Freight traffic on the Rutland Railroad was dominated by dairy products, particularly milk. At its maximum extent, the system comprised approximately 400 miles (640 km) of route, forming an inverted L-shape extending from Chatham north to Alburgh, Vermont, and west to Ogdensburg, New York on the St. Lawrence River. The northernmost terminus was located at Noyan, Quebec. In 1925, the railroad reported 259 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 38 million passenger-miles over 413 miles (665 km) of road and 559 miles (900 km) of track. By 1960, traffic levels had declined to 182 million ton-miles over 391 route-miles and 476 track-miles.