The line to Basingstoke had originally been built by the Berks and Hants Railway as a broad-gauge route in an attempt to keep the standard gauge of the LSWR out of Great Western territory but, in 1857, the GWR and LSWR opened a shared line to Weymouth on the south coast, the GWR route being via Chippenham and a route initially started by the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway.[1] Further west, the LSWR took over the broad-gauge Exeter and Crediton Railway and North Devon Railway,[22] also the standard-gauge Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway.