of Lords. A Parliamentary Committee of Enquiry was established to consider the merits of all four schemes. The chairman of the committee moved that an Ordnance engineer should be appointed to survey all four routes. The proposal was agreed and a Captain Robert Alderson R.E. was engaged to do the work. He recommended the adoption of the Rennie direct route after Redhill. However, members of the Committee insisted that a stretch of the new route between Croydon and Redhill should be shared with the South Eastern Railway as part of its projected route to Dover, which had not been part of Rennie's plan. The final agreed route therefore consisted of a new line from a junction with the London and Croydon Railway (then under construction) at Norwood to Brighton with additional branches to Lewes and Shoreham. An Act for the construction of the line was passed in July 1837, with an authorised capital of £2.4 million. The new company was also permitted to buy the track of the Croydon, Merstham and Godstone Iron Railway. The expenditure associated with the Parliamentary contest in choosing the route was estimated to be more than £193,000. Construction The London and Croydon Railway line ran from London Bridge to West Croydon and was opened in 1839. The engineer for the Brighton extension was John Urpeth Rastrick, who began construction of the line in 1838. By July 1840, 6,206 men, 962 horses, five locomotives and seven stationary engines were employed. The new main line included substantial earthworks and five tunnels through the North Downs at Merstham, the Wealden ridge near Balcombe and at Haywards Heath, and the South Downs at Patcham and Clayton. The railway also had a long, high viaduct over the River Ouse near Balcombe. The Brighton - Shoreham branch was completed in May 1840, before the main line, as, aside from the deep cutting and short Belmont Tunnel and the embankment between Portslade and Southwick, there were no significant civil engineering works on this section. Locomotives and rolling stock had to be transshipped by road for what was, in the first year, an isolated stretch of railway. After the formation of the LBSCR the branch was successively extended to Portsmouth, becoming the Brighton to Portsmouth line. The main line was opened in two sections, since major earthworks delayed completion in one piece. The Norwood Junction – Haywards Heath section was opened on 12