 Goods would be conveyed in wagons drawn by horses, on the turnpike principle, in which all-comers might run their wagons on the railway on payment of a toll.He put forward proposals at Plymouth Chamber of Commerce in 1818 suggesting an 18% return on capital, and obtained subscribers, and a line was surveyed by William Shillabear of Walkhampton, a schoolmaster and surveyor.William Stuart was the engineer supervising the construction of the Plymouth Breakwater at the time, and this had a primitive internal tramway at the stoneyard.