This was in part facilitated by improved transportation in the area. The Crane and Thomas Iron Companies wanted a railroad to bring local ore to their furnaces, but faced strong local opposition when attempting to gain a charter. As a compromise, the Catasauqua and Fogelsville Plank Road corporation was chartered on July 2, 1853, to build a plank road from the ore pits to the furnaces. A short section of plank road was constructed, but the exceptional weight of the ore wagons quickly destroyed it. Renewed efforts to palliate the local farmers were successful, and the plank road was renamed and rechartered on April 20, 1854 as the Catasauqua and Fogelsville Railroad. The C&F began hauling ore from the mines near Fogelsville in 1857. In 1864, it was further extended to a connection with the East Pennsylvania Railroad at Alburtis and in 1865, to the magnetite mines at Rittenhouse Gap. Improvements to the physical plant also occurred, building No. 6 stack in 1868. The company survived the Panic of 1873 and the subsequent poor iron market, and No. 5 stack was rebuilt in 1877, introducing new firebrick heat exchangers (stoves) to heat the blast, rather than the iron pipes heretofore used. No. 3 stack collapsed in 1879 while out of blast, and Nos. 1 and 2 were subsequently demolished. A new No. 1 and 3 were built, and the site of No. 2 used for stoves for the new furnaces, which were built in 1880 and put in service in 1881. Joshua Hunt resigned the superintendency on January 1, 1882, six months before the death of his father-in-law, David Thomas.