George Buck, who had been the engineer for the Eastern Branch since 1819, should become engineer and clerk and he was appointed to this post in December 1832 with a mandate to investigate the accounts. Buck presented his findings in November 1833 but the meeting took no action as Pugh was absent. Buck moved on the following month to assist Robert Stephenson on railway projects. Pugh then paid off both the capital and interest of most of the other creditors resulting in the company owing him £38,106 which was split into a mortgage for £25,000 and £13,000 in shares. He then obtained his own Act of Parliament to authorise his position and to allow the company to raise their tolls. By June 1835, the Western Branch declared that receipts were sufficient to pay the interest on all mortgages but there is no evidence that any dividends were ever paid on the shares. The two branches remained separate companies throughout their life. Shropshire Union takeover Major structural repairs to the Vyrnwy aqueduct had been required in 1823 when all of the arches were strengthened by iron bands under the supervision of Buck. Otherwise, the Eastern Branch continued to be relatively prosperous apart from a brief dip during a trade recession between 1840 and 1844. This was partly due to the late arrival of railways in the area. The Western Branch, in contrast, was hampered by the fact that nearly all of the traffic was in one direction towards Newtown with very little goods travelling in the opposite direction. The prospect of railway competition arrived in the 1840s and in 1845 the company was approached by the proposed Shrewsbury to Newtown Railway to work out a deal. The company responded by setting up a subcommittee in January 1845 to consider how best to protect themselves from such competition. Meanwhile, the London and Birmingham Railway were negotiating with the Ellesmere and Chester Canal who were planning to convert some of their canals into railways. They asked William Cubitt to investigate whether their own canal could also be converted but that plan was dropped soon afterwards as the Ellesmere and Chester offered to buy the canal for £110 per share and the offer was accepted. The Ellesmere and Chester Canal obtained an Act of Parliament to enable them to become the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company and to take over several canals including