of Rifles, who, by courtesy of the
contractors, were driven to Whitchurch on April 20th, a few other friends
accompanying them. The official trial trip was made shortly after, in a
train drawn by "two heavy engines," the "Montgomery" and the "Hero," and
in crossing Whixall Moss, we are told, "the deflection was almost
inappreciable." Captain Tyler was now able to pass the line as entirely
satisfactory, and, early in the morning on the first Monday in May, a
little group of Ellesmerians assembled at their new station to witness
the first regular train leave for Whitchurch. No doubt their hearts
swelled with pride, but beyond the usual exhibition of such emotion as so
notable an event inspired, there was no public acclaim.

Another twelve months were to elapse before the remaining section, from
Ellesmere to Oswestry, was ready for traffic. In July 1864, however,
this link was forged, and the event synchronizing with the completion of
the work at the other end of the chain, from Borth to Aberystwyth, it
threw open the whole length of what was about to become, under the
Consolidation Act, the main line of the Cambrian Railways.

[Picture: Advertisement for the Ceremony of Cutting the First Sod]

CHAPTER VII. THE COAST SECTION.

"_When they saw the Crimean Campaign they seemed about to be engaged
in against the sea, he thought it had been very much to the advantage
of the Welsh Coast line, if, on the formation of the Board the
Directors had been put through a series of questions in early English
history, and if their engineer had been directed to report to them on
the maritime events of the reign of Canute_."--EDWARD, THIRD EARL OF
POWIS.

No Chapter in the story of the Cambrian is more intimately touched with
the spirit of romance, none more prolific of pathetic humour, than that
which concerns what is to-day termed the Coast Section. For the moment,
however, all was sunshine and success. The continuation of the line from
Borth to Aberystwyth was completed for traffic, as we have just seen, in
the summer of 1864, and on that auspicious day when trains began to run
through from Whitchurch to the new terminus on the banks of the Rheidol
the rejoicings in Aberystwyth were such as to eclipse even those who had
marked earlier stages of the construction of the various railways now
linked in one long chain. Indeed, the triumphal procession which made
its way to the coast was ben