In April of 1876, Power Brown Company petitioned the Jefferson County Court for and built a railroad line from a switch near the roundhouse on the Allegheny Valley Railroad at Falls Creek to their Soldier Run mine at Prescottville. Named the Soldier Run Railroad, the line was completed to the Hamilton mine (of the Hamilton Coal Company) in 1877, the Soldier Run mine in 1878, and ultimately the Sprague mine (part of the Big Soldier mine complex) in 1879.
In 1883, the BL&Y Mining Company (named for its three foundes the names of Bell, Lewis, and Yates) incorporated the Reynoldsville and Falls Creek Railroad in order to connect to the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburg Railroad, the Allgheny Railroad and the Ridgeway and Clearfield Railroad at Falls Creek with the Soldier Run Railroad at Reynoldsville. This line was completed by 1886; the Soldier Run Railroad was sold to BL&Y Mining the following year and was absorbed into the R&FC.
The next couple of years saw more expansion of the railroad infrastructure. In 1888, the small yard at Falls Creek was enlarged to a capacity of 500 cars; in addition, a short spur was completed to the newly-built Rochester mine, adjacent to the yard. A new line to Big Soldier mines proper was completed in 1890. In that same year, BL&Y Mining purchased a controlling interest in the BR&P through another subsidiary mining company, the Jefferson and Clearfield Coal and Iron Company; they also purchased the R&FC, along with a number of other mining operations in the area.
The extent of the R&FC included Soldier mine to the southeast and a line to Wishaw to the southwest (completed in 1902). In 1897, the R&FC assumed control of the nearby Falls Creek Railroad and its line to the mines at London; this line became known as the "London Branch", and was abandoned by the R&FC in 1905.
After the turn of the century, the R&FC came under the control of the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburg Railway, and the branch line became known as the "Reynoldsville & Falls Creek Branch". The BR&P was then purchased by the Baltimore & Ohio in 1932, which subsequently abandoned the entire former R&FC route in 1934.