Col Yolland of the Board of Trade inspected the Queen Street to St Davids connection on 27 January 1862 and passed it. Being informed that the LSWR proposed to operate narrow gauge trains to Crediton from the 3 February he objected, on the basis that there had been no inspection for narrow gauge running. The LSWR started their narrow gauge service notwithstanding, but Yolland inspected the line on 19 February. He found it satisfactory, but commented adversely on the curve at Cowley Bridge, which had been sharpened considerably when the first viaduct over the River Exe there had been reconstructed.