| Rhinebeck and Connecticut Railroad | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Rhinecliff station, the western terminus of the line | |||
| Overview | |||
| Locale | Hudson Valley, New York | ||
| History | |||
| Opened | April 4, 1875 | ||
| Merged | June 16, 1882, into Hartford and Connecticut Western Railroad | ||
| Closed | August 1, 1938 | ||
| Technical | |||
| Line length | 35 mi (56 km) | ||
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge | ||
| |||
The Rhinebeck and Connecticut Railroad (R&C) was a railroad in Dutchess and Columbia counties in New York, United States. Its line ran 35 miles (56 km) east from the Hudson River at Rhinecliff to Boston Corners. It was chartered in 1870 to connect the Connecticut Western Railroad with the Hudson River to transport coal mined in Pennsylvania. Construction began in 1871, with the line opening in stages from 1873 to 1875. The railroad went bankrupt in 1881; it was purchased the next year by Connecticut Western successor Hartford and Connecticut Western Railroad (H&CW).
The Poughkeepsie Bridge and connecting railroads opened in 1889, making the eastern part of the R&C part of a mainline connecting the Pennsylvania Coal Region with New England. In the early 1890s, it was briefly part of an ambitious system assembled by Archibald Angus McLeod of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. McLeod's business empire collapsed in 1893; after several mergers, the H&CW (including the ex-R&C) became part of the Central New England Railway (CNE) in 1899.
The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (New Haven) acquired the CNE in 1904 principally to gain control of the Poughkeepsie Bridge and Maybrook Line. Passenger service began to decline in the 1910s; it was discontinued on the eastern and western ends of the line in 1928. The eastern end of the line was abandoned in 1932. The final passenger service on the middle portion of the ex-R&C was discontinued in 1933. The entire remaining portion of the ex-R&C was abandoned in 1938 along with the rest of the CNE system.