when tested, it exhibited very great deflection. Other defects included poor drainage in cuttings and a lack of mileposts. Captain Laffan's opinion was that it was therefore unsafe to allow the line to be opened. Lanyon and Dargan were keen to retrieve their reputations and there was a period of furious activity as they worked to correct deficiencies identified in the Board of Trade report. The directors carried out their own inspection of the line on 6 April and felt sufficiently confident about what they had seen to ask Captain Laffan to make a second inspection. This he did and his report of 8 April was more encouraging than the previous one. Although there were some strictures, Captain Henry Drury Harness RE, secretary to the Railway Department of the Board of Trade formally advised the directors of the B&BR on 14 April that the railway could be opened for public service. However, authorisation had been sent previously by telegraph and the railway was already at work. The line opens As soon as the Board of Trade's telegraphic authority had been received, advertisements were placed in the newspapers on 8 April 1848 to inform the public that the B&BR would be open for passenger traffic on 12 April. Because of the delay in starting operations, it was decided not to have an official opening ceremony. However, two special trains ran on 11 April to give members of the press and potential customers a foretaste of railway travel and the railway was in business. The normal train service was five trains each way with the Carrickfergus Junction (later renamed Greenisland)-Carrickfergus and Drumsough Junction-Randalstown lines being considered as branches. All main line trains had to reverse at Carrickfergus Junction because of the trailing connection there. This was to be an operating problem for years to come. Because the goods sheds were still incomplete, it was not possible to run goods trains at first but some articles were accepted for carriage by passenger train. Early accounts The financial results for the first year of operation were very poor due to depressed passenger traffic during the winter season and because of the Great Famine of Ireland with the result that no dividend was paid. Goods traffic increased once the goods sheds and other facilities had been completed and, in an attempt to obtain additional passenger traffic, the company reduced second and third class fares. However,