Messrs. Edwards and Stokes of Hockerill. Places may be secured [to travel] by coaches meeting the train to Newmarket and back, at the Golden Cross, Charing-cross. Fares—Hockerill to Newmarket and back, inside £1 10s, outside £1 1s. These excursions were advertised to be run on 9 and 11 October 1843, and (after the lease of the N&ER to the ECR) on 15 and 28 October 1844. Leased to the Eastern Counties Railway On 25 October 1843 an agreement facilitated by G. P. Bidder was reached by the ECR and N&ER, and from 1 January 1844 the entire N&ER system was leased to the ECR for 999 years; the arrangement was formally ratified by Parliament in May 1844. The ECR was to pay the N&ER 5% annually on the £970,000 capital cost of building the line, and profits would be apportioned. The N&ER continued as a nominally independent company, receiving the lease charges but not operating any railway; eventually it merged into the Great Eastern Railway in 1902. Gauge change At the same time as the discussion about the lease took place, the two companies agreed that their uncommon track gauge of was a hindrance, and they decided to alter it to the British standard gauge of . The physical conversion was undertaken between 5 September and 7 October 1844; it was achieved without interruption to the running of trains, except on the Hertford branch. Engineering details Whishaw reported that the rails are "of the double parallel form" (that is, not fish-bellied and broadly similar to modern bullhead rail) in lengths of . "The upper and lower webs are not of similar section": Whishaw meant that the head and foot are not identical. The sleepers were of larch, in length, and in cross section. The ballasting was of gravel, of at least in thickness throughout. From 1844 From the first day of 1844, the N&ER was simply a financial shell company, receiving lease charges from the ECR but not having any rail operations of its own. The N&ER network extended from Stratford to Bishop's Stortford and from Broxbourne to Hertford, and it became the stem of the important main line to Cambridge, which was built and owned north of Stortford by the ECR. The approach to London was later altered to run through , but the Stratford to Copper Mill Junction () section was retained, and became a key link for