CHAPTER II.
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE UNDERTAKING.
Early history of the undertaking—1871.It has already been stated that the Great Western Railway Company had for many years been anxious to obtain a better access to South Wales. Their main line at first ran from London to Bristol. From this, in 1838, wishing to acquire the traffic from Gloucester to London, and probably fearing that any attempt to obtain powers from Parliament to bridge the Severn below that point would be defeated, they constructed the line passing by Kemble and Stroud to Gloucester. At Gloucester the South Wales Railway joined them.
The line through the Stroud Valley has very heavy gradients and many sharp curves.
Many schemes have been set on foot to avoid these curves and gradients, and the Bristol and South Wales Union Railway, with its ferry from New Passage to Portskewett, is one of them; but this line was only a single line, with one gradient of 1 in 60, and the fatal drawback of the steamboat-ferry.
