This branch line was built in 1835 by the Philadelphia and Chester Valley Railroad. It connected to the Trenton Cut-off of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Downington, PA, and to the Reading Division of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad at Bridgeport, PA. Its total length was 21 miles.
About midway along the route, a short spur known as The Phoenixville Branch branched from the line at Cedar Hollow Station and proceeded north. At another point along this line, a second spur proceeded northwards, parallel and immediately to the west of PA Route 100 (Pottstown Pike Road), and served the West Whiteland Silica Mine; the mine no longer exists, and the area today is known as the Whiteland West apartment complex today.
Conrail abandoned the line in 1989, and removed the tracks in the early part of the 1990s; it was last used to deliver a power transformer to Peco. Today, portions of the line have been converted to the Chester Valley rail-trail.
