Hamilton's train station, dating from 1870, was one of the oldest on the line and was not part of the railroad's original plan. When the Alexandria, Loudoun & Hampshire Railway, later the Washington & Old Dominion, was established in the 1840s, its owners intended to send the tracks west along present Route 9, across the Blue Ridge at Keyes Gap, and on to the Ohio Valley coal country. The railroad reached Leesburg by 1860, but construction and operations ceased during the Civil War. When service resumed, ownership and destination had changed. The new route through western Loudoun County ran slightly south of the original one toward Snicker's Gap, helping spur the growth of Hamilton, Purcellville, Round Hill, and Bluemont. Unlike those other towns, Hamilton developed along the automobile turnpike, Route 7, rather than along the railroad.