schemes being promoted. Building on the positive public mood towards railway projects, a public meeting in Dundee in January 1845 determined that a railway to Perth was now necessary, and a Parliamentary Bill was presented for that session. The Dundee and Perth Railway received its authorising Act of Parliament on 31 July 1845. The line was to be a little under in length. The track gauge of was considered, in accordance with the two existing Arbroath lines, but standard gauge was actually adopted. The 1845 session saw many other Scottish railways authorised: the Caledonian Railway (Glasgow and Edinburgh to Carlisle) was authorised on the same day as the Dundee and Perth Railway; its share capital was to be £1.5 million. The Scottish Central Railway was one of the others authorised that day; it was to build from Castlecary, on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, to Perth. Other lines were to create a northward axis to Aberdeen. The Caledonian Railway was naturally the most significant railway in this spate of authorisations, and even before its Act of Parliament it saw its destiny as controlling large tracts of Scotland; but with no cash to spend, it set about concluding agreements with the other (as yet unauthorised) lines to lease them. This would need no money at first, and would simply incur a lease charge periodically once the lines had been built. During construction the Dundee and Perth company arranged to lease the Dundee and Newtyle Railway for 999 years for a lease charge of £1,400 per annum; this was authorised by an Act of 27 July 1846, and seems to have been done to prevent the Scottish Midland Junction Railway, then building from Perth to Forfar, from using the Newtyle line to gain access to Dundee. Construction and opening As well as renewed and serious opposition from landowners on the route, the new line experienced difficulty with the people of Perth. The proposed terminal was to be at South Inch, open parkland popular with the people of Perth once described as "the pride and ornament of Perth". The D&PR was not active in gaining positive public opinion, and the idea was unwelcome to the Burgh, and a proposed bridge across the Tay was objected to. To secure the passage of the Act the company agreed, for the time being, to terminate at Barnhill, on the east side of the River Tay and