The majority of the Granite District was part of the Boston and Maine Railroad (B&M) system until 1926, when the Barre and Chelsea Railroad (Barre to Graniteville) and Montpelier and Wells River Railroad (Barre and Montpelier to Wells River) were sold to local interests. The latter was consolidated into the former in January 1945, but in 1957 the entire Barre and Chelsea Railroad was abandoned. The Montpelier and Barre Railroad took over operations of the Montpelier and Barre-area trackage, but the line east to Wells River was abandoned. In 1980 that company abandoned its trackage, and the state bought it in November and designated the new CSF Acquisition, Inc. subsidiary Washington County Railroad to operate it. The WACR assigned its lease to the New England Central Railroad in February 1999, but that company ceased operating the lines in September, and the Vermont Railway took over temporarily until its new affiliate began under the Washington County Railroad name.
In early May 2010, after having been mostly dormant for some time, an official from the Barre government said that a contract for shipments of scrap granite bound for Florida would begin late the same month. Ten-car trains were planned to operate twice a day between Berlin and Montpelier Junction, as well as separate five-car trains from the granite quarries and Barre. The trains were to operate for the three months it would take for the 54,000 tons of granite the contract requested to be moved south. Further traffic of scrap granite was also considered possible, as further contracts for the material, of which 40 million tons was accessible, were being sought, and industries along the line had expressed interest in having rail service if the line was upgraded for granite shipments.
