The Erie and Central New York Railroad was first graded in 1870 and was abandoned and the bridges rotted. Reconstruction was started in 1895, opened May 1, 1898, and sold to the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad in 1903. The railroad ran from Cortland Junction to Cincinnatus, and an extension to Hancock or Deposit was planned. The railroad ran through a "fruitful agricultural region," according to the 1895 New York Times article cited below, but evidently not fruitful enough to allow the company to avoid bankruptcy.