Etheridge railway line
Although construction was delayed by strikes in mid-1908 over the pay rate for railway workers, in February 1909 the line was opened to Einasleigh from Almaden. The Einasleigh copper mine was originally discovered by Richard Daintree in the mid 1860s, but the cost of transporting ore from the site made it uneconomic and it soon closed. The location was lost until the 1890s and a renewed interest in copper on the Etheridge field. A township known as Copperfield was established on the banks of the Copperfield River to service 12 copper mining leases extant by 1899, and this was surveyed as Einasleigh in 1900. The mine was reopened that year by the Einasleigh Freehold Mining Company, in which John Moffat had acquired an interest. By 1901 copper matte from a smelter at Einasleigh was being transported to Almaden by camel train. The coming of the Etheridge Railway in 1909 allowed Einasleigh to boom, and it was the largest centre on the Etheridge between 1907 and 1910. By 1910 six ore trains a week were running from Einasleigh to the Chillagoe smelters, and in 1911 the mine was purchased by the Chillagoe Company. It closed in 1914, and was reopened by the Queensland Government between 1920 and 1922.
Forth Bridge approach railways
Striking south east was the new Edinburgh main line, which joined in to the Edinburgh and Glasgow line at Corstorphine; the junction was later named Saughton Junction. The line was six miles long. The other new main line ran south-west in a long curve to join the Edinburgh and Glasgow line in the direction of Falkirk and Glasgow line at Winchburgh; this line was four miles in length. The North British Railway came very late to the realisation that these lines were necessary; it was only in December 1887 the Company deposited plans for the two new lines.