Peter Dearness, a railroader and businessman who had a hand in founding the Mass Central Railroad, approached the State of New Hampshire with a bid to operate the trackage with his newly formed New England Southern Railroad. The railroad was incorporated first in Nevada on December 22, 1981 (Dearness had been out of state) and then in Massachusetts by Ch. 32, Acts of 1981 on April 12, 1982. Dearness had originally imagined this new railroad as a shortline system with operations only in Massachusetts before learning of the White Mountain Branch situation, for which he bid.