This site is an independent, informational guide to the Rutland Trail and, more broadly, to the rail-trails, abandoned railroads, and historic trolley lines of New York State. It began as a simple description of a single trail across the North Country and grew, over many years, into a wider reference for anyone who wants to travel — or simply understand — the state's railroad corridors.
What You Will Find Here
The guide combines two things that belong together: practical trail information and railroad history. On one hand, it describes trails you can ride and walk today, from the remote Rutland Trail to well-known routes in the rail-trails directory. On the other, it traces the railroads underneath those trails — the mainlines, branches, unfinished grades, and electric interurbans that shaped where people can walk now. Every trail is presented in the context of the corridor it came from, because the two stories are really one.
How the Guide Is Organized
The trail pages describe specific corridors and how to use them; the history pages explain how abandoned railroads become trails and why some corridors survived while others were lost; and the mapping page describes how these routes were traced onto modern maps. You can read straight through or jump to whatever brings you here — a weekend ride to plan, a local corridor to identify, or a railroad you remember and want to trace on the ground.
An Informational Project
This is a reference resource, not an official trail authority. It does not manage, own, or maintain any trail, and it is not affiliated with any trail association, government agency, or landowner. Trail conditions, ownership, and access change constantly; the descriptions here are a starting point for your own planning, not a guarantee of what you will find on the ground. Always respect posted and private sections, and defer to the agencies and volunteer groups that actually steward each corridor. Where a trail is managed by a public body or a friends group, those stewards are the authoritative source for current rules and conditions.
Further Reading
For the national story of how abandoned railroads become trails, the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy is the definitive source, and our own history of the rails-to-trails movement puts New York's trails in that wider frame. If you have information, corrections, or a corridor to suggest, please reach out through the contact page.