It was not until 21 July 1856 that the LSWR Coastal Scheme (reaching Exeter via Dorchester) was dropped. The first section of the S&YR opened from Salisbury to Gillingham on 2 May 1859. The Salisbury station was a new station at Fisherton Street, opened the same day, located immediately south of the GWR station that had opened on 20 June 1856, serving its line from Westbury. On the same day the LSWR opened connecting lines from the Bishopstoke and Basingstoke lines to Fisherton Street, and closed the Milford station to passengers. The Salisbury & Yeovil company extended its line to Sherborne on 7 May 1860 and from there to Yeovil on 1 June 1860 (to passengers; goods on 1 September). The Yeovil station was the Bristol and Exeter Railway station, Hendford, up until then the terminus of their line from Durston. The two companies planned a joint station—it became Yeovil Town, and the B&ER made a separate narrow gauge track from the point of junction to Hendford, providing mixed gauge track in their goods yard there. When the S&YR had been authorised and the Coastal Scheme abandoned, the course of the LSWR route to Exeter was clear, and they now easily got an Act for the line on 21 July 1856. Construction was swift, and the line opened throughout from Yeovil to Exeter Queen Street on 19 July 1860—seven weeks after the opening of the S&YR. The Bristol & Exeter Railway, a broad gauge company, had reached Exeter 16 years previously. The LSWR line made a junction with the S&YR—in reality simply a continuation of the main line—at Bradford Abbas, and built a station called Yeovil Junction, and a connecting line from the Hendford line, forming a triangle. The LSWR worked the S&YR line from the outset. The main line from Salisbury to Exeter Queen Street was single throughout, with intermediate crossing stations at Wilton, Dinton, Tisbury, Semley, Gillingham, Templecombe, Milborne Port, Sherborne, Yeovil Junction, Sutton Bingham, Crewkerne, Chard Road, Axminster, Colyton, Honiton, Feniton, Whimple, and Broad Clyst. The route traversed difficult terrain, with most river valleys running transverse to its direction, so that gradients were significant, 1 in 80 being typical.