 With the railroad well underway in 1886, Blanchard secured Philadelphia investment to build a new iron furnace in Bellefonte.The Centre Iron Company began work on a hot blast furnace on Logan Branch, at the site of the former Bellefonte (charcoal) Furnace, in fall 1886.Blanchard and his associates also organized the Valentine Ore Land Association to mine ore, mostly from banks in the Nittany Valley to the east, and the Nittany Valley Railroad to transport it.