In 1876 the CRRLI, in conjuncture with other competing railroads on Long Island, was absorbed by the Long Island Rail Road and its president Conrad Poppenhausen. Poppenhausen, and his later successor Austin Corbin, would merge the Central into the LIRR system. The Central between Flushing and the National Rifle Range in Queens, later to become the Creedmoor Rifle Range and later Creedmoor State Hospital, was deemed redundant and abandoned after the railroads' merger in 1879, although its tracks remained in place until about World War I. The portion of rail between Creedmoor and Floral Park was eventually downgraded to a secondary freight track, known as the Creedmoor Branch, that for the most of the 20th century would service Creedmoor State Hospital with daily coal deliveries. The portion of trackage from Floral Park to Babylon became known as the Central Branch of the LIRR. A connection was made west of Floral Park, allowing the railroad to access the LIRR mainline, which would afford the branch its connection to Long Island City and the LIRR's connecting hub Jamaica station.
