Towards the end of the construction period the PR gave consideration to the working arrangements. The G&SWR were "authorised" to work the line by the original Act, and had offered to do so for 72% of gross receipts. This charge was considered excessive and negotiations took place which the PPR board considered unsatisfactory. On 28 March 1860 they decided that "the board should retain the working of the line under their own management" Evidently this had been foreseen, and provisional arrangements for the supply of locomotives had already been made, and this was quickly followed by contracts for rolling stock and for signalling equipment. The G&SWR had been confident that its terms for working the line would have to be accepted, and it was now angry at the emerging decision. It had subscribed £60,000 to the PPR on the assumption that the little Company would effectively belong to it, and had promised a further £40,000: it now made that sum conditional on an impossible contribution by the Belfast and County Down Railway. The breach was irreconcilable, made more so by the fact that the acid correspondence between the two companies was published as a pamphlet. Dalrymple, as Chairman, told his shareholders that the loss of the £40,000, though "attended with great inconvenience" need not "make any material, or at least, permanent, financial embarrassment".