from the east) at Devonport, so that down LSWR passenger trains approaching the area ran east-to-west through the North Road station, via the Cornwall Loop to the Devonport terminus. A Plymouth goods station at Friary on the east side of the city was also built at this time. Relying on facilities provided by a competitor was always unsatisfactory: the SDR naturally gave precedence to its own trains; its Tavistock line had been laid out as a branch line only, with sharp curves and heavy gradients; and the SDR was to be paid 10½d in every shilling (87.5%) of LSWR income on the SDR line. Moreover, the LSWR was progressively doubling the track on its Devon lines, and the SDR section, remaining single with the SDR's own traffic as well as the LSWR's, was increasingly seen as an obstruction. Proposals for a connecting line Local interests promoted a Devon and Cornwall Central Railway which obtained an authorising Act of Parliament on 18 August 1882 to build a line from Lidford to Calstock, where it would join an existing short mineral line, the East Cornwall Mineral Railway (ECMR), and to purchase it and convert it to full railway standards. The D&CCR would therefore reach the Tamar at Calstock and get to Callington. In the 1883 session, the D&CCR sought powers to extend the authorised line from Gunnislake to run via Beer Alston (later spelt Bere Alston) and Tamerton Foliot to the Devonport terminus of the LSWR; that line would give the LSWR the independent access it required to Plymouth. In the same session, the Plymouth Devonport and South Western Junction Railway (PD&SWJR) sought powers for a line linking Lidford and Devonport via Tavistock and Beer Ferris (later spelt Bere Ferrers), as well as several branches connecting to other lines, including the D&CCR line authorised in 1882. The D&CCR proposal alienated many potential supporters: in particular, it was not to pass through the important town of Tavistock (to avoid generating Parliamentary opposition from the SDR, who were already serving the town). The PD&SWJR Bill was successful, receiving the Royal Assent on 25 August 1883; authorised capital was £750,000; the Act authorised a new independent line in Plymouth connecting Friary and Devonport stations, and with a large central Plymouth station east of Tavistock road; the connecting link from Devonport to Lidford; the branch to the D&CCR line authorised in 1882 near Calstock; and connections