In the 1840s, Railway Mania was gripping the country, with many speculative schemes being proposed. Rather than face steady demise as the new form of transport developed, a number of the proprietors formed the Manchester & Lincoln Union Railway company in October 1845. The intention was to build a line from Liverpool to Grimsby, and to convert part of the canal into a railway. Locally, this included a line from Staveley to Gainsborough, via Worksop, with a branch to Lincoln and another from Worksop to Beighton. The previous year, the Sheffield & Lincolnshire Junction Railway had been proposed, to build a line from Sheffield to Gainsborough, and was supported by the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne & Manchester Railway. The new scheme was in direct competition to the earlier one, but the two sets of proprietors met and agreed to amalgamate. Now arguing from a position of strength, the Manchester & Lincoln Union rescinded their plans for most of their lines, and obtained an Act of Parliament on 7 August 1846 allowing them to construct a line from the Midland Railway at Staveley to the canal at Worksop. The new company amalgamated with the Chesterfield Canal, to become the rather unwieldy Manchester & Lincoln Union Railway & Chesterfield & Gainsborough Canal, with powers to further amalgamate with the Sheffield & Lincolnshire Junction Railway. However, by the time they announced this, the Sheffield & Lincolnshire Junction Railway had already become part of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, and so they amalgamated with that company instead. The Act of Parliament stated that although the canal company was to be dissolved, the entire canal was to be retained, its water supplies maintained, and tolls were to be fixed at a just level.