 The mine branches remained in place, derelict, until the 1940s, when the three spurs and the main line south of Lock Ridge were abandoned.The Catasauqua and Fogelsville was formally merged 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.The line from Alburtis to the now-derelict furnaces at Lock Ridge remained in place to haul furnace slag until 1959, when it was abandoned.