This correspondence shows the differences of opinion and conflicts of interest that arose during the period of consolidation of the railway between two factions on the committee represented here by Leonard Raisbeck and Edward Pease. The main area of disagreement was over plans to extend the railway to Middlesbrough. The letters between the two parties are frank, detailed, provide extraordinary insight into the modus operandi of the company, and expose the strains that the differences of opinion placed on their friendship.

Pease was of the opinion that the extension was only be good for business and the local economy; Raisbeck, as a representative of the town of Stockton-on-Tees, thought it will adversely affect the interests of his home town, and would furthermore hinder the operations of the Tees Navigation Company (TNC), which intended to modify the course of the river. Raisbeck was solicitor for both the railway and the TNC, and appears to have found the task of balancing the interests of both parties difficult.