Kilkewydd bridge, amidst a fusillade of fog signals, and thus the last
and most formidable of the engineering exploits on the new length of line
was accomplished. The bridge had been constructed in remarkably short
time, and a contemporary record of this auspicious incident duly mentions
that "the speedy completion of so complicated and troublesome a task is
mainly due to the indefatigable exertions of Mr. John Ward, one of the
contractors, and Mr. James Marshall, the resident superintendent." Early
the next month Colonel Yolland inspected the whole length from Welshpool
to Newtown, pausing to express his special approbation of the Kilkewydd
bridge {51} as "the best constructed on the line," and it was now open to
the Company publicly to announce that from June 10th a through service of
trains would run from Oswestry to Newtown and on to Llanidloes.

No further formal opening seems to have been arranged, but, though the
day was, like so many that had so proceeded it, very wet, rapidly
organised celebrations took place at some spots. Montgomery had already
taken its share in the opening to Welshpool, but it was now to have a
festival of its own, as was only fitting, since that ancient borough may,
in no small sense, be regarded as one of the ancestral homes of the
"Cambrian." It was here, as we have seen, that Mr. Piercy had largely
acquired his interest and skill in railway engineering, while at the
office of Mr. Charles Mickleburgh. A committee, with Mr. W. Mickleburgh
as hon. secretary, and treasurer, had little difficulty in getting
together some 150 pounds as a celebration fund. A programme was as
quickly organised, including, of course, a procession and a dinner, but
to this was added another little ceremony,--the presentation by Mrs. Owen
of Glansevern, now a familiar central figure on these occasions, of a
silver bugle to Captain Johns and his gallant men of the Railway
Volunteers. The instrument bore the inscription,--"Presented by Anne
Warburton Owen, of Glansevern, to the Third Montgomeryshire (Railway)
Rifles, 1861." Above was an appropriate design, on the dexter side a
representation of the locomotive engine "Glansevern," and on the sinister
a railway viaduct with a train passing over.

The occasion was singularly appropriate, for no small part in the
initiation and maintenance of the Corps belongs to the little group of
railway men who were associated with Montgomery, the Mickleburghs, Mr.
George