contract to the Postmaster General. In 1842 the strained UK economy witnessed a massive fall in passenger carryings which continued in 1843. This cut or delayed B&GR outlay due to investor confidence. The Bristol and Gloucester Railway opened on 8 July 1844. The fact of a through rail route between Birmingham and Bristol, albeit for the time being with a break of gauge at Gloucester, heralded the decades of busy goods traffic. The Bristol and Gloucester Railway and the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway obviously had a mutual interest, and discussions took place over the amalgamation of the two companies. This was "agreed" on 14 January 1845 but Parliament made way for other Bills to be scheduled (it failed Standing Orders). The two worked in informal collaboration. Tewkesbury A contemporary description of the station mentions that "the front elevation is 38 feet wide, and at the back is a raised platform 133 feet by 12 feet 6 inches covered by a substantial roof with glass lights on each side. The roof measures 166 feet long by 32 feet wide". Bristol and Gloucester Railway In 1839 the Bristol and Gloucester Railway had been authorised. It was conceived as a narrow (standard) gauge railway between a terminal in Bristol and Standish Junction, where it would make use of the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway into Gloucester. The company noted as it would operate between the GWR at Bristol and at Standish (both crossing/ending on the broad gauge) it should make its line on the broad gauge, and this enabled it to use the GWR Temple Meads station at Bristol, and simplified the section between Standish and Gloucester, which otherwise would have needed to be built allowing mixed (dual) gauge. The Bristol and Gloucester Railway opened for passenger traffic on 6 July 1844; it used a platform, intended for the C&GWUR, on the north side of the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway station there; the two lines crossed on the immediate approach to the stations. Absorption by the Midland Railway On 24 January 1845 the Great Western Railway offered to buy the two companies; this would have resulted in the broad gauge being extended to Birmingham; and was declined. John Ellis of the Midland Railway encountered Edward Sturge and Joseph Gibbons while they were travelling to a second meeting with the GWR on 26 January. Ellis saw the opportunity and offered that his company