Situated two miles north of the junction of the West Valley Line to Davis and the East Valley Line to Sacramento via Chico and Marysville, facilities included steam locomotive fueling, repair and crew-change.

Following the 1955 completion of the railroad's phasing in of diesel locomotives as a replacement to steam, operations at Gerber were gradually curtailed over the following decade and eventually closed down.

[7] Passenger service continued until 1972 when Amtrak's Coast Starlight discontinued Gerber station as a stop.

[8] According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP covers an area of 0.9 square miles (2.4 km2), all of it land.

There were 420 housing units at an average density of 455.1 per square mile (175.7/km2), of which 222 (60.5%) were owner-occupied, and 145 (39.5%) were occupied by renters.