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The Railroad Comes to Kimberton
In 1871 the Pickering Valley Railroad, a branch line of the Reading Rail Road from Phoenixville, was built through Kimberton, continuing 13 miles up the Pickering Valley to Byers, near Eagle. The tracks crossed Kimberton Road at Prizer Road, where the Kimberton Station still stands today.
The railroad transformed Kimberton, creating a new center of activity around the station away from the old crossroads. Passengers, milk and produce went to Philadelphia, and buildings sprang up on all sides in a mini-boom of development - including the Grange and a store/apartment block across the street, and brick houses east on Kimberton Road. Farm animals were brought in regularly to walk down the hill to the auction at the Kimberton Hotel. Pigs came in to the new Roberts slaughter house and meat packing business.The increase in automobile and truck transport gradually diminished the need for the railroad, until it ended service in 1949 and was abandoned.[Ref: Pickering Historical Society]