The Syracuse and Chenango Valley Railroad was formed on April 16, 1868, to meet the rail needs of the upland townships of Georgetown, Nelson, and Cazenovia after the New York and Oswego Midland Railroad altered its planned Syracuse-to-Earlville route eastward through Oneida. After four years of construction, the nearly 44-mile line opened on February 12, 1873, linking the New York Central Railroad at Syracuse with the Oswego Midland, later the New York Ontario and Western Railway, at Earlville. Its engineering features included the area's only tunnel near Oran, a large bridge over Chittenango Creek at Rippleton, deep cuts, high fills, and rural wood-frame depots. The line carried passengers and shipped milk, sand, explosive powder, and ice from Cazenovia Lake. Because of corporate failures, it was reorganized successively as the Syracuse and Chenango Railroad in 1873, the Syracuse, Chenango and New York Railroad in 1877, and the Syracuse, Ontario and New York Railway in 1883, then became part of the New York Central's West Shore Railroad in 1891 and operated as its Chenango Branch. Over time, highway transportation and changing public attitudes displaced its role, and the line was abandoned in stages from 1937 to 1977. Much of the line survived, including stations at Earlville, Lebanon, Georgetown, Erieville, Ballina, and Manlins, though not all remained in their original trackside locations, as well as the tunnel and the bridge at Rippleton. Erieville's water station stood here, where steam locomotives replenished water after climbing hard grades from both Syracuse and Earlville, near the line's highest point at 1,641 feet. On opening day, February 12, 1873, the first through train from Syracuse to Earlville passed with dignitaries and a band, and on its return one car derailed into the mill pond at Lebanon without injuries. On March 3, 1882, southbound train number 5 went on toward a head-on collision with northbound train number 6 at Baker's Cut between Earlville and Lebanon after the conductor failed to receive an order to hold at Cazenovia; two engineers and one fireman were killed and several passengers were injured in the deadliest wreck on the line. On October 24, 1900, Governor Theodore Roosevelt passed through Erieville on a northbound extra en route to Rippleton and then to the State Fair, during his vice presidential campaign on the William McKinley ticket. During peak immigration, including May 14, 1913, sections of the Wabash Flyer paused at the water tank after the climb from Earlville while carrying immigrants from Ellis Island westward over the Chenango Branch to Syracuse and onward toward Detroit and Chicago, creating heavy nighttime activity. Declining passenger traffic during the Depression led to gasoline-powered motor cars replacing steam passenger service, and on June 24, 1933, the last passenger train on the Chenango Branch ended 60 years of service on the line. On July 8, 1937, the last revenue train through Erieville, a northbound way freight, collected rolling stock before rail removal began on part of the route. Grade crossings on the line were numbered consecutively from Syracuse to Earlville, and in rural areas simple crossing signs usually sufficed, while busier roads near Syracuse could require watchmen, often injured railroad workers given duties the railroad could still provide.