Chillagoe Railway &amp; Mining Co.
After a number of proposals had been made for the route of a railway to the Etheridge field, construction of the Etheridge Railway finally commenced in 1906 from Almaden to Mount Surprise on the Mareeba to Chillagoe line. The railway was opened to Mount Surprise in May 1908, and through to Einasleigh on 8 February 1909, a total of 101 miles. The final 41 miles from Einasleigh to Forsayth were not opened until 5 February 1911, construction having proceeded slowly due to union unrest and uncertainty within the mining industry generally.
South Eastern main line
In 1857, a new direct connection was put in at Tunbridge Junction, enabling trains to reach Hastings without reversing. The station at Tonbridge was rebuilt on a new site just west of the original. The LCDR built their line to Dover, which opened in 1861, providing a route to London that was shorter that the SER line via . In May 1862, authorisation was obtained to construct a new railway from , London to Tunbridge, which reduced the distance from London to Tonbridge and points east by about . Construction of the tunnels was well-supervised by the SER, for it had been discovered by this time that the contractors who had built the tunnels on the Hastings line had skimped on the construction by using an insufficient number of rings of bricks to line the tunnels. Rectification resulted in a restricted loading gauge on that line, a situation that was to last until 1986. This "cut-off" line, in length, reached on 1 July 1865. This station was replaced with a new one further south which opened on 2 March 1868 when the line was extended to and . The line between Sevenoaks and Tunbridge opened to freight in February 1868, and passengers on 1 May 1868. Sevenoaks Tunnel took five years to build, from 1863–68, It is long. On opening, it was the fifth longest railway tunnel in the United Kingdom. This new line meant that the old main line from Redhill was relegated to branch line status.