The Act specified that work on construction could not start until the estimated cost of construction was fully subscribed, and this forced a delay until mid-1836, and first contracts were not let until October. John Benjamin Macneill (later to be called "the Father of the Irish railway system") was appointed principal engineer and Thomas Telford Mitchell was Resident Engineer.Whishaw; he spells Macneill "M'Neill", the common orthography for "Mac" surnames at the time.
