During this time the Richmond & Danville had not been standing still. It will be remembered that in 1883 the capitalists who dominated the East Tennessee and the Coast Lines had purchased a controlling interest in this company, with the purpose, according to Mr. Brice, of confining all their railroad and steamship lines under one management and of operating the system in the best possible manner. These gentlemen had found the earnings of the Richmond & Danville sufficiently unsatisfactory and the need for improvements sufficiently great to lead them to pass the interest on its debenture bonds in October, 1883. The net earnings for 1882, out of which this dividend would have been paid, they found had been fully taken up by the fixed charges and the expenses for new equipment and betterments. The net earnings for 1883 they believed sure to show large gains, but still not likely to be equal to necessary expenditures.[318] Strict economy was to be the order of the day. In the three previous years the company had accumulated a large floating debt. This the new management reduced more than one-half by the end of 1885. The funded debt it allowed to increase largely, but the earnings it managed somewhat to improve. In general, however, it secured no very striking gains. Union in interest with the East Tennessee and the Coast Lines modified the severity of competition, but the panic of 1884 checked business, and the real saving in operating cost was very slight.[319] In their search for means to reduce expenses the owners of the Richmond & Danville came across the Richmond & West Point Terminal Company. By 1884 this company was in peaceful possession of 1815.8 miles of railroad, which included all the important branches of the Richmond & Danville except the North Carolina Railroad, from Goldsboro to Charlotte, and the Atlanta & Charlotte Air Line, from Charlotte to Atlanta. It had been obliged to issue notes to retire its floating debt in 1883,[320] but had no earnings apart from dividends on the stock which it held, and no expenses other than its cost of administration and the interest on the notes above mentioned and on its floating debt. There was a possibility, nevertheless, that the maintenance of the company involved the Richmond & Danville in unnecessary outlay, and caused a certain loss of efficiency through indirectness of control. The Terminal Company had originally been necessary because the Richmond & Danville could by its charter hold stock in none but connecting lines. By 1885 this prohibition had been removed, and there was open an opportunity to consolidate the system.