port in Cobourg. Bethune was joined by E. Perry and George Strange Boulton, successful local businessmen. In 1831 the group hired F.P. Rubidge, also working on Bethune's lock system, to examine routes from Cobourg to Rice Lake. In 1832, Rubidge returned a proposed route running through several valleys from D'Arcy Street in Cobourg northward to the docks at Sully. On 6 March 1834 the Cobourg Rail Road Company was chartered to build the line within set times, and given an initial grant of £10,000 to start the work. Stock subscriptions were slow in coming, perhaps due to Bethune's bankruptcy around this time. Additionally, in 1833 the provincial government hired Nicol Hugh Baird to examine the Trent River with hopes for opening it for navigation. This route would also connect to Rice Lake and therefore bypass a railway link, but was also added 77 miles to the route to Toronto, and would take some time to open. In fact, this section was not fully opened until the 1880s. In 1835 the company once again hired Rubidge, this time accompanied by Baird, to re-survey the route. They returned three potential routes, ending in the towns of Bewdley, Claverton (today known as Gore's Landing) and Sully. The Panic of 1837 and following US recession caused by presidential meddling in the banking system made further subscriptions hard to come by. The Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837 added to the company's woes, and the efforts became moribund. Several attempts to restart construction through the Cobourg Rail Road Company were unsuccessful. The company secured an extension of three years on their building permit in 1836, but by the early 1840s work on the line had still not begun and the charter lapsed. Cobourg Plank Road and Ferry Company With the railway line abandoned, the town again hired Baird in 1842 to survey the route for a plank road to Rice Lake. The newly formed government of The Canadas formed a Board of Works for these sorts of local improvements, and both Cobourg and Port Hope applied for permission to build a route, with Port Hope's plan winning approval. The Peterborough & Port Hope Railway (P&PH) was duly chartered in 1846. Worried that business from north of the lake would bypass Cobourg, in the spring of 1846 the Cobourg Plank Road and Ferry Company was formed. With initial capital of £6,000, the company purchased 300,000 feet of