trains also ran through Plymouth North Road. At this time, the GWR route from Exeter to Penzance was broad gauge, with mixed gauge provided where required for LSWR trains. However the broad gauge was to be abolished, and in a massive operation in May 1892 the gauge was converted. The first GWR narrow gauge Night Mail train from Paddington to Plymouth was passed over the LSWR Okehampton line and the PD&SWJR on the night of 20/21 May 1892; from the night of 23/24 May, the GWR was able to revert to its own route throughout on its newly relaid standard gauge. Plymouth suburban traffic The LSWR energetically developed suburban traffic in the greater Plymouth area, running a relatively frequent stopping service between Friary and St Budeaux. The rise of street-running passenger tramways in Plymouth from 1872 posed a competitive threat, and this accelerated when electric trams were introduced in 1899. The LSWR responded by introducing railmotors, single passenger coaches with an integrated steam power unit, on 26 September 1906, with additional halts opened on 1 November that year. The service proved popular, and in some cases the railmotors themselves were replaced by conventional trains because of capacity problems. Nonetheless street-running public passenger transport achieved gradual dominance, and the LSWR found that outer suburban services were more beneficial. Lydford link removed In 1915, the connection from the LSWR line to the GWR line was removed; exchange facilities through the sidings remained. The Callington branch The East Cornwall Mineral Railway (ECMR) had opened a narrow gauge line from Kelly Bray to Calstock quay (on the River Tamar, concerned chiefly with mineral extraction. That short line lay about 4 miles (7 km) from the PD&SWJR line, and the PD&SWJR obtained powers as part of its 1884 Act to acquire the ECMR and to connect it with its main line. After some considerable delay it took active steps to do so, obtaining authorisation by the Bere Alston and Calstock Light Railway Order of 12 July 1900 to build the connecting line, and to operate the ECMR line (but not the incline to the Tamar quay) as a passenger line; the gauge was to be 3 ft 6in. The estimated cost was £74,014, because of the necessity to cross the River Tamar on a high viaduct. There was little interest in subscribing to this venture and after further inactivity the LSWR was persuaded to subscribe