The Crum Creek Branch originally started out as a railroad spur built by the Leiper family in 1852. The Leipers owned a number of rock quarries in the area surrounding Ridley and Nether townships in Pennsylvania. The spur replaced a family-built water canal that transported quarried rocks and stone to Ridley Creek, which allowed access to the Delaware River and beyond. (The canal itself replaced the original Leiper Railroad, the oldest permanent railroad in the United States.) As canals were falling out of favor, the Leipers wanted to take advantage of railroads' gaining popularity, and built a 3-mile spur from the nearby Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad (a property of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad) to Crum Creek, where stones would be loaded onto awaiting rail cars.

It was not long before the B&P purchased the railroad spur outright in 1887, and began regular revenue service to the Leiper's quarries. The B&O continued servicing the Leiper quarries until the 1930s, when trucks began finding favor with shippers. Despite the request of the Leiper family to continue rail service, the B&O abandoned and removed a portion of the line (up to MacDade Boulevard) in 1943. The B&O continued using the remainder of the line until abandonment of the entire line in the 1950s.

Up until the 1980s, remnants of the railroad were easily visible, but a new highway, Interstate 476, was built alongside the right-of-way during the 1980s, obliterating most of it. Very little evidence remains of the railroad line today, and can only be found if one knows where to look.