The railroad was saved by the entrance of J. Wesley Gephart, a prominent Bellefonte businessman and president of the Valentine Iron Company. At the time, the only railroad outlet for the iron company's Valentine Furnace was via the Pennsylvania Railroad, whose rates Gephart found excessive. After lengthy and fruitless negotiations, Gephart convinced the financial backers of Valentine Iron that the company could not remain profitable without an independent railroad outlet to break the PRR's monopoly on freight traffic. They chose the Central Railroad as their instrument. Although contemporary reports indicate that local subscriptions of $75,000 towards construction were received, the principal financing for the railroad was arranged by the sale of $600,000 in fifteen-year bonds of the railroad to Drexel and Company.