Set up in 1842 at Euston Station its immediate function was to allocate regulated fares for passengers and goods which crossed one or more of the pre grouping railway lines. These included the London and Birmingham Railway, those companies which would make up the Midland Railway in 1844 and the companies which would form the North Eastern Railway in 1854. In the December of 1845 they were joined by Birimgham and Glouscester Railway, Chester and Birmingham railway, Grand Juntion Railway and its affliates, Lancaster and Preston Railway, Manchester and Birmingham Railway and the Newcastle and Carlisle railway. It was regulated by the Railway Clearing Act of 1850 the same year that another 21 companies joined. Though mebership still lack the large southern and London based train companies. In 1859 its powers were extended once more.