Lionville station
| Locale | Pennsylvania |
|---|---|
| Dates of operation | 1871–1906 |
| Successor | Reading Railroad |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
| Length | 11.3 miles (18.2 kilometres) |
| Headquarters |
Phoenixville, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
The Pickering Valley Railroad was a short line railroad in Chester County, Pennsylvania. It ran from Phoenixville to Byers, near Eagle, in Upper Uwchlan Township, a distance of approximately 11 miles (18 km), over which distance it gained 316 feet (96 m) in elevation. Operated as a unit of the Reading Railroad, the Pickering Valley was not a great success; passenger service was discontinued in 1934, and much of the line was abandoned in 1948. The remainder of the line was closed in the 1980s; little remains today.
The company was incorporated June 4, 1869, under the provisions of a special act of the Pennsylvania government approved April 3, 1869, and organized June 22, 1869, with the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company (Reading Railroad) subscribing to the bulk of the stock. In or about 1870, the still-unbuilt railroad was leased to the Philadelphia and Reading; it opened in September 1871.
The railroad's principal business was as a "milk run" line, transporting agricultural products from local farms to Phoenixville, for connections with other railroad lines and especially for shipment to Philadelphia; it also carried iron ore from nearby mines to the Phoenix Iron Company in Phoenixville. It played a role in the development of the area's graphite mining industry as well. The company was not a financial success: revenues barely covered operating costs, leaving nothing to pay to the investors (an 1882 newspaper editorial complained that the company's stock was "worthless"). When the lease expired in 1906, the line was more formally merged into the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad system, becoming known as the Pickering Valley Branch of the Reading.
The Montgomery and Chester Electric Railway, opened in 1899, provided local trolley service between Phoenixville and Spring City, to the northwest. The original line met with the Pickering Valley's at Ironsides, just west of Phoenixville; the Pickering Valley refused to allow the M&C's track to cross its own, requiring passengers to ride one trolley to Ironsides, cross the Pickering Valley's tracks, and take another car to their destination. Not until 1908 was an arrangement made to permit building a trestle 517 feet long, bridging the railroad's right of way and allowing through trolley service.
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