The Chevy Chase Lake & Kensington Railway (later, the Kensington Railway Company) was a streetcar company that operated in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, from 1895 to 1935. It connected the town of Kensington to the northern terminus of the Rock Creek Railway (later, the Capital Traction Company) at Chevy Chase Lake. At its peak, it operated on about 3.75 miles of track, including the associated Sandy Spring Railway.

The Chevy Chase Lake & Kensington Railway was chartered in September 1894 by Kensington founder Brainard Warner and others to connect the newly incorporated town to downtown Washington, D.C., some eight miles south, via the Rock Creek Railway streetcar line.

Its northern terminus sat just south of the Kensington railroad station, built in 1891 by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. It was also near a bank and "opposite Hopkins' store". The line wound southward along the Rock Creek tributary of Silver Creek, then through the neighborhood of Kenilworth (today called North Chevy Chase). The southern terminus was just southwest of the grade crossing of the B&O's Georgetown Branch over Connecticut Avenue at the Chevy Chase Lake amusement park (near today's 8400 Connecticut Avenue). The line was noted for its many curves laid to reduce grades, the company having decided that extra track was better than cuts and fills. A 200-foot through siding, dubbed Ray's Turnout after the former owner of the farm it sat on, was laid north of the Rock Creek bridge to allow streetcars to pass each other on the single-track line. There was also a stub-end siding at the southern terminus. Like most electric streetcars, it drew its power from overhead wires strung on posts.

Operations began on May 30, 1895, with two closed motor cars, Nos. 1 & 2, built by Jackson and Sharp Co. (A builder's photo shows No. 2 lettered "Chevy Chase, Kenilworth & Kensington".) Electrical power was purchased from the Rock Creek Railway's coal-fired generating station at Chevy Chase Lake. The RCR, which would within months be merged to create the Capital Traction Company, also handled the line's maintenance.

In 1899, the owners received a judge's permission to extend the line from Chevy Chase Lake eastward to Bethesda, where it was to connect with the Capital Traction line to the Tenleytown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Through service from Tenleytown to Kensington was envisioned, as Capital Traction had bought an option to open the new service, as was another extension to Garrett Park. Jubilant, the owners announced plans to rename their line Kensington Electric Railway, Light, and Power Company. But none of these plans would bear fruit. When company officers met for its annual meeting in July 1900, they did so under the original name of CCL&KRy.

By 1901, the line was carrying 400 to 800 passengers a day, generating annual revenues of about $5,000 ($194,000 today). But it was paying $1,400 for power to Capital Traction, and losing ridership to the B&O railroad, which carried increasing numbers of commuters on its Metropolitan Branch between Kensington and downtown Washington, D.C. The company found itself unable to repay its bank loans and unable to persuade its shareholders to supply more capital. In November 1901, the line was foreclosed upon and put up for auction.

The Chevy Chase Lake & Kensington Railway attracted no bidders for months, but was purchased at last in July 1902 by George E. Emmons of Washington, D.C. Emmons turned out to be acting on behalf of several of the officers of the CCL&K, and on August 14, 1902, they incorporated the Kensington Railway Company to try their hands again, announcing new plans to extend the line to Garrett Park and to Wheaton.

A year later, the Kensington line was operating 2.53 miles of track, according to a Baltimore Sun survey of the state's electric railways,