Red Hill, much nearer Shrewsbury. No doubt reflecting on the impossibility of raising subscription capital for a railway with only one potential customer, France now extended the vision, and the scope of his proposed railway network, to include limekilns at Nantmawr and granite quarries at Criggion, and a branch to Great Ness. Moreover, the line would now carry passengers, and the company would be reincorporated as the Shrewsbury and North Wales Railway. An application was made for running powers into the main Shrewsbury station, but the running powers were opposed during the Parliamentary process, so that the S&NWR would have to build its own line alongside the Welshpool line, and construct its own station at Shrewsbury. This third Act was passed on 30 June 1864. Potteries, Shrewsbury and North Wales Railway The North Staffordshire Railway observed these developments and encouraged the projection of a subsidiary, the Shrewsbury and Potteries Junction Railway; this line got its authorising Act of 5 July 1865. The Potteries district around Stoke-on-Trent was the NSR's home, and a long line westward through Shrewsbury into north west Wales appeared attractive. The Shrewsbury and North Wales Railway would, it seemed, make an ideal partner in this venture that might stretch from Market Drayton. The alliance was agreed and progressed through Parliament, gaining authorisation on 16 July 1866, and the result was the Potteries, Shrewsbury and North Wales Railway, commonly abbreviated to "the Potts". The new company now contemplated extending to Porthmadog. The first part of the line, from Shrewsbury to Llanymynech, was opened without ceremony on 13 August 1866; there were four trains each way except Sunday, when there were two. The line was double track. The line had its own terminus in the grounds of the Shrewsbury Abbey; trains leaving faced a stiff climb at 1 in 47 to get out of the station, to gain sufficient height to pass over the existing main lines, but after that the line was generally level or nearly so. There was a connecting spur from the joint line from Wellington. The main line of the railway ran parallel to and alongside the Welshpool line on its south side as far as Redhill, where it crossed over the other route and struck northwest. The Abbey Foregate spur was opened at the same time, joining the Shrewsbury and Wellington Joint Railway to Wellington east of Shrewsbury, the only connection at Shrewsbury with