 Control of the company eventually came into the hands of Davis Knauer, a successful local entrepreneur in northern Chester County.In the spring of 1889, contracts were let for construction of a short portion of the route, between a connection with the Pickering Valley Railroad (a Reading subsidiary) near Kimberton, at a point called French Creek Junction, to St. Peters, where it connected with the Warwick Branch of the Wilmington and Northern Railroad.Track was laid in 1890 and the first train ran on November 10.