So did the Earl of Powis, still
apparently tinged with a North Western bias. With the result that after
much forensic oratory, closing appropriately on a reminder of "the
troubles and difficulties the companies had gone through," and a well
deserved "tribute to the energy and talent of their solicitor, Mr.
Abraham Howell," the Amalgamation Bill, excluding for the time being the
Welsh Coast line, was passed into law in July, 1864.

It set up a joint board, limited to a minimum of six and a maximum of
twelve, the first directors chosen being those who had similarly served
the several independent companies, some of whom, of course, had acted on
more than one of these concerns. The following year, some previous
difficulties being removed, the Welsh Coast Railway was brought into the
combine, and the Cambrian then assumed the organic shape in which it
remained until the further amalgamation with the Mid-Wales Railway in
1904.

Financially, however, the directors still swam in troubled waters.
Creditors became impatient and began to press their claims. More than
one suit was brought against the Company involving long and expensive
proceedings in the Court of Chancery, and very early in 1868 it was found
necessary to convene, at Oswestry, a meeting of the "mortgagees, holders
of certificates of indebtedness and other creditors, and of the
preference and ordinary proprietors for the consideration of the best
means of dealing with the conflicting and other claims and interests of
the company's creditors and proprietors and of passing such resolutions
in regard thereto, or any of them, as might at such meeting be deemed
expedient." To obtain some means of getting out of the financial morass
in which the undertaking was floundering was "expedient" indeed, and it
is hardly surprising to find that, in view of the many conflicts of
interest, the assembly is recorded to have been both "large and
influential." Mr. Bancroft presided in the absence of Earl Vane,
chairman of the Company, and he was supported by the directors and
officials who had done much to bring the Cambrian into existence and were
now struggling to put it on its feet. The scheme which was laid before
the meeting was long and complicated. More than one meeting was required
to thrash matters out, but in the end a readjustment was arrived at, and
a new scheme was adopted for constituting the board. From July 1st,
1868, until December 31st, 1878, it consisted of