severe gradients. Its junction with the main line at North Dean (later Greetland) faced Wakefield. The Halifax station was at Shaw Syke, and the branch opened on 1 July 1844. Bolton and Bury 1846 Through the Act of 1791, the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal Company had been created. In 1832, it decided to build a railway beside its canal, changing the company name to the Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal Navigation and Railway. It never reached Bury, and its "Manchester" terminal was in fact in Salford, and its title is usually shortened to the Manchester and Bolton Railway. The railway opened for public traffic as far as Bolton on 29 May 1838; there were six trains each way on weekdays and two on Sundays. From May 1844, the MB&BR reached Victoria station over the rails of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway. The Manchester and Bolton Railway saw that an ally in Manchester was necessary, and after failed talks in 1844, more favourable terms were offered by the M&LR at a meeting on 30 January 1846. An operating agreement came into force on 1 July, and by the Manchester, Leeds, Bolton and Bury Act of 18 August 1846, the Bolton company was absorbed by the M&LR. Liverpool and Bury Railway 1846 Industrialists in Bolton and Wigan were dissatisfied at the service offered by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and they formed what became the Liverpool and Bury Railway. It was authorised on 31 July 1845 to make a 28-mile line from a junction at Sandhills, near Liverpool Exchange station, to Bury. The L&BR directors continued to fear coercion by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and sought the protection of the Manchester and Leeds Railway; the M&LR was delighted to be gifted a route to Liverpool and amalgamation was quickly agreed. The Manchester and Leeds Railway absorbed it on 1 October 1846 (by Act of 27 July 1846) before it had been completed. It opened for traffic on 20 November 1848, by which time the M&LR had been retitled the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. Huddersfield & Sheffield Junction Railway 1846 This thirteen mile line was authorised on 30 June 1845 to connect Huddersfield with the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway near Penistone. There was to be a branch to Holmfirth. Amid considerable political tactics, the unbuilt Huddersfield and Sheffield Junction Railway was absorbed into the Manchester and Leeds Railway on 27