to Highbridge. However, the volume of traffic was very disappointing, and five of the eight locomotives purchased for the workings were converted to broad gauge by 1871. In 1859 the B&ER took over from Bridgwater Corporation a short horse tramway between their station and the wharf. Having acquired the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal, the B&ER owned the canal dock, and the B&ER then converted the tramway for locomotive operation, and extended it to the dock. It was opened as mixed gauge in November 1867. An opening bridge across the River Parrett was commissioned in March 1871. At Dunball, a coal wharf had long existed, bringing in coal from South Wales and despatching it to Devon destinations. The B&ER extended the primitive wharf there and made a mixed gauge branch to it, opening in November 1869. If the broad gauge had originally been an asset, the reality by the 1870s was that the narrow gauge of had become the standard gauge, and beyond the Great Western Railway the vast majority of lines adopted it. As trade increased, this led to troublesome difficulties at the point of junction between lines—the break of gauge—where goods had to be physically transshipped between wagons for onward transit. In July 1874 the Somerset and Dorset Railway completed its Bath extension, and narrow gauge wagons could reach Exeter and beyond from the Midlands over that route and the LSWR. Responding to the reality, the B&ER started to lay narrow gauge rails—that is, it installed mixed gauge—on its main line. In February 1875 the shareholders were informed that the Company was undertaking the installation throughout the main line; this would involve a considerable investment in rolling stock. In 1875 an Act was obtained authorising this work and the raising of capital to pay for it; and to substitute a loop line at Weston-super-Mare for the branch line. Mixed gauge was installed from Bristol to Taunton by 1 June 1875, enabling the heavy goods and livestock traffic to be accommodated in narrow gauge trains, and the Weston-super-Mare branch had already been dealt with. The line on to Exeter was completed in November 1875. The Cheddar Valley line from Yatton to Wells was converted (as opposed to "mixed") by 18 November 1875. Plans were in hand to deal with the rest of the system. Amalgamation and after During this expensive upheaval, the Directors quickly determined that amalgamation with another Company