In 1879 Booth, with William G. Perley of Ottawa and J. Gregory Smith of St. Albans, Vermont, purchased the lines from the Macdonald group as part of an aggressive railway expansion plan. By this time Booth's mills were hampered by a lack of markets, and the lines would connect the mill with the US eastern seaboard markets, either for regional consumption or for export to Europe from year-round Atlantic coast ports. On 15 March 1879 the two lines were amalgamated into the newly chartered Canada Atlantic Railway.