Powers for the construction of a railway from Kintore to Bridge of Alford were first granted on 3 July 1846, one week after the Great North of Scotland Railway had been authorised to build a line between Aberdeen & Inverness. However, the financial panic of 1847 resulted in no progress being made on the line and the powers eventually lapsed. With the start of construction work during 1852 on the GNSR line from Kittybrewster to Huntly (the line on to Inverness being deferred at the time due to insufficiant funds) the proposals were revived and other routes were considered, including a steeply-graded line to Buchanstone on the GNSR mainline, and a shorter route linking Alford with Insch (with a junction facing away from Aberdeen).

However, before the schemes could be considered the Deeside Railway announced their plans to construct a railway from Drum to Alford (through Echt) and this prompted the GNSR to submit plans for a line from Kintore to Alford in 1856, the route being greatly different to that authorised before.

At the time rivalry between the Great North of Scotland Railway and the Deeside Railway was fierce, but it was the former scheme which was authorised by parliament on 23 June 1856, and the line was opened on 21 March 1859. Engineering works were light but the route involved steep gradients, especially around the summit at Tillyfourie where trains were subject to 1 in 70 and 1 in 75 gradients either side of the summit.

The Alford Valley Railway (as the authorised line was known) was not successful, resulting in the GNSR having to guarantee its debts until amalgamation. The line survived until 2 Jan 1950, when the passenger services were withdrawn by British Railways.
Goods services continued to use the line until 3 January 1966, after which the line was cut back to Paradise Siding (for a local quarry?) until 7 November 1966, when the line was closed completely. Some of the stations on the branch can still be seen, however there is no trace of Kemnay Station which has been completely demolished and built over.