the E&BR Company was opposing NBR Bills for direct access to certain mineral sites, which would reduce NBR dependency on the E&BR. The NBR board set about a scheme to purchase the E&BR company outright, and agreed terms of 5% on capital for seven years, then rising to 5.5%, as well as accepting all of the E&BR's debenture debt. However a shareholders' meeting threw out the scheme. At the E&BR half-yearly meeting on 10 August 1866 the E&BR chairman regretted the loss of the arrangement, blaming factions within the NBR. In 1869 the NBR built a branch to Pumpherston Oil Works and Camps brickworks (from Houston) and in 1875 to Seafield Oil Works (from West Calder Branch Junction). In 1897 the NBR opened the chord at Bathgate allowing through running from north (Blackstone) to east (towards Edinburgh). Passenger services In 1895 there were seven passenger trains daily on the line, with two more on Saturdays; some of these were semi-fast, running through from Edinburgh to Glasgow. Bangour Private Railway In June 1904 the first patients were admitted to Bangour Village Hospital, a mental hospital near Dechmont. The road network in the district was inadequate, and the large premises would require a considerable volume of general stores as well as coal. A private branch railway was opened to the public on 19 June 1905 from the E&BR line, authorised by the Edinburgh and District Lunacy Board Act, 30 July 1900. (The line may have been used before the official opening date in connection with construction of the hospital.) It was worked by the North British Railway, and there was an intermediate station at Dechmont, available to the general public, and many of the staff lived at Dechmont and used the railway for travel to the hospital. Bangour station was considered private, and tickets issued to and from it were marked "Bangour (Private)". The terms of operation by the NBR required the hospital to guarantee an income of £1,500 annually to the NBR. It was estimated that the actual income was £300 a year, so that the subsidy amounted to £1,200. The hospital was extensively used during World War I for treatment of wounded soldiers, and the road network was correspondingly improved. After the war, the necessity for the railway was diminished and it was closed on 1 August 1921, although passenger services probably ceased on 4 May 1921. The twentieth century