and Davis for the construction. Construction did not take long, and the line was opened to goods traffic on 25 August 1856, soon followed by passenger opening on 18 September 1856. There was one intermediate station, at Cam, and the junction station on the main line was named Dursley Junction at first. The line had previously been made available for free use by passengers in connection with Gloucester Music Festival; the Festival took place from 9 to 12 September 1856, although it is not clear whether the travel was available on all the dates of the festival. The Midland Railway placed advertisements in newspapers announcing the opening: "Midland Railway: Opening of the Dursley Branch. The public are informed that the above line of railway was opened for passenger traffic between Dursley and Dursley Junction on Wednesday 17th September... Five trains each way are shown in an appended timetable, of which four are "1 & 2 class" and the 5.5 pm from Dursley and 5.25 pm return are "1 2 & govt". In operation The Midland Railway took over the maintenance of the permanent way on the expiry of the maintenance period of the construction contractor, on 1 August 1857. The line was also worked by the Midland Railway, but it was loss-making from the outset, particularly because of the need to make heavy interest payments on debentures. The company was £1,000 in debt after a year. Fearing difficulty in avoiding bankruptcy, the company arranged to work the line itself from September 1857, using the construction contractor's 0-4-0T locomotive. They bought it for £434 10s and hired two Midland Railway four-wheel coaches, but they found that this hardly made any saving in outgoings. As early as September 1857 the suggestion was made that the company should sell its line to the Midland Railway, as the only way out of the financial difficulty. In 1859 there were four return trips on the branch Mondays to Saturdays. The matter was not immediately taken up, but at a meeting on 23 October 1860 the sale was agreed; the Midland Railway offered £10,500. This was accepted in principle, although the Company owed the Midland substantial sums of money, so that the net offered payment from the Midland was in fact £4,100. This arrangement was accepted by a special general meeting of the D&MJR shareholders on 21 May 1861. The matter needed Parliamentary authorisation, and this