dropped from the 1860 Act. Work on the line started in December, the main contractor being D Baldwin, and the line was ready for Board of Trade inspection in February 1862. The inspector was again Yolland, now apparently a Lieutenant-Colonel. He observed that there was now a turntable at Shepton Mallet, in the middle of the line, but none at either terminus, and the signalling system was inadequate: he declined to pass the line as ready. The Board of Trade seems to have overruled him on receiving undertakings that one engine at a time would be in use on the line. A ceremonial opening of the line took place on 28 February 1862, and the public opening was next day, 1 March 1862. The electric telegraph was hastily installed in pursuance of an undertaking given to the Board of Trade, and was ready on 1 May 1862. ESR sold to the GWR The East Somerset Railway was not a success in financial terms, and after a few years the possibility of a sale to the wealthy Great Western Railway was being considered. The East Somerset valued its line at £87,138, but the GWR was unwilling to pay that price for an unsuccessful railway. The GWR was planning to convert the gauge of the former Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth line to standard gauge, and gave notice to the East Somerset in January 1874 that it would do so in May. The ESR directors could hardly have been surprised at this development, but it meant that they too would have to convert the gauge of their line. The cost of that would be £7,390, money that they did not have. The ESR now had no alternative to selling to the GWR, which they did for GWR preference stock valued at £67,442. The sale took effect on 2 December 1874. Somerset Central Railway As described above, the Somerset Central Railway (SCR) had opened its branch line from Glastonbury to Wells on 15 March 1859; the Somerset Central was a broad gauge line at this time, worked by the Bristol and Exeter Railway (B&ER), with which it joined at Highbridge. It was originally contemplated that the line would make a direct connection with the East Somerset line, but this did not take place. The SCR station was aligned towards the ESR station, but they stopped on opposite sides of Priory Road without connecting to