For a period of thirty years, three decades that shaped the future of the valley, anthracite fueled furnaces throughout the Lehigh Valley produced greater quantities of iron than any other part of the nation.The application to the Pennsylvania General Assembly for a railroad charter, around 1853, was met with fierce resistance by local farmers, who feared that trains would frighten livestock, set fires, and destroy the local farming districts.

[2] While plank roads were a popular improvement in transportation at the time, the short stretch that was constructed was found wholly inadequate for the haulage of ore.

[1] The Crane Iron Company persevered, and on April 20, 1854, the plank road was issued a modified charter to operate as the Catasauqua and Fogelsville Railroad.

[3] The newly chartered Thomas Iron Company partnered with Crane in support of the railroad in March 1856, and construction began shortly thereafter.

[4] A shorter branch, originating at Crane, ran west and then turned sharply north to end at the Wallner iron mine near Haafsville.

A switchback was built from the main line between Red Lion and Rittenhouse Gap in the late 1880s, which served the hematite mines near Seisholtzville.

[3] The Catasauqua and Fogelsville was formally merged[5][6] into the Reading on August 10, 1944, probably to simplify the corporate structure of that railroad and to save on taxes, as with a series of other mergers the next year.

Leaving Guth, the railroad turned west, then south to climb across the shoulder of Huckleberry Ridge and reach Wulbert's station in Walbert, then ran southwestward into Upper Macungie Township.

Entering Lower Macungie Township, the Catasauqua and Foglesville made a connection with the East Pennsylvania Railroad, completed in 1859 in Alburtis.

It entered Red Lion from the northeast and passed on to Rittenhouse Gap and the Thomas Iron Company's magnetite mines there.

In addition to coal, ore, and lime traffic, the railroad also operated passenger service from Alburtis to West Catasauqua, which would continue until September 29, 1935.