It was not until the year 1852 that the Madras Railway was incorporated. The object of the company was to construct a railway from Madras to the western coast. The difficulties of construction of this railway have not been great, the only ones that presented themselves being the way in which several rivers should be crossed. By means of this line, railway communication with the important military station of Bangalore is obtained. It also passes through the cotton fields of Combatoore, and it finds its way through a passage in the Ghauts to the Port of Beypoor, on the coast of Malabar. From Madras to Beypoor, the distance is 406 miles. The Bangalore Branch is 86 miles, and it attains a height of 3,000 feet on the Mysore Table-land. The north-west line, leaving the main line at Arconum, 42 miles from Madras, proceeds through Cudapah, crosses the River Pennar to Gooty, to which place the line is expected to be opened in January next. Near Gooty, a branch is given off to Bellary. The main line crosses the Toongabruda, and runs to Raichore, the point of union with the Great Indian Peninsular Railway from Bombay. This portion of the railway, when completed, will be 338 miles, thus making the distance from Bombay to Madras 821 miles, 160 miles more than by the ordinary road. The connection between the Bombay and Madras Railways is expected to be complete in 1869. When the whole main line and branches are completed, the length of the Madras Railway will be 825 miles. Of these, 645 are at present open. The traffic of the line has been injuriously affected in 1866 by the failure of the Monsoon rains, the consequent scarcity and famine, and the state of trade. But good service was rendered by it during the famine, in conveying to the districts so lamentably affected by it nearly 23,000 tons of food, an amount which Mr. Danvers says would have employed 17,000 carts every day for three months. The gross traffic receipts of 1866 were £438,787, showing an increase of £33,787 over 1865. The receipts per train mile in 1865 were 6s. 1d.; in 1866, 6s. 7¾d. The expenditure per train mile in 1865 was 2s. 10¾d.; in 1866, 3s. 2d. The train mileage for the year ending 30th June, 1866, was 1,306,998 miles.