In the early 1890s, a narrow gauge railroad called the Newport & Sherman's Valley Railroad brought a new era of travel to western Perry County. Its tracks were laid 29 miles from Newport to New Germantown, and after crossing a wooden bridge over Blain Run, the first train rolled into the Blain station on January 18, 1892. The railroad aided local businesses including a creamery, grain warehouse, planing mill, and for a short time a knitting mill. Stores and specialty shops received goods by freight car, mail arrived by rail instead of stagecoach, and forest and farm products were shipped to distant markets. In November 1918, the railroad carried the nearly one-ton brass bell for the belfry of Zion Reformed Church. The train also fascinated children, who gathered at the station in the evenings to watch the lights of the coal-burning locomotive and sometimes listened at the rails for its approach. For almost 30 years, the line carried passengers and freight to and from Blain twice a day. By 1920, financial difficulty, due in large part to the rise of motorized vehicles, hurt the railroad. In 1921, the Susquehanna River & Wester Railroad acquired the company. Passenger service ended on the last day of 1928, all freight shipments had ceased by the early 1930s, and the rails were removed in 1934. The former Blain depot later served several purposes, and after its acquisition and restoration by the Blain Lions Club in 1983, it was dedicated in 1985 as a historical site for the community. Today it remains the only depot among the seventeen stations of the railroad restored to its original condition.