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.
Dorridge
In 1852 the railway was built by the Great Western Railway, originally in Brunel's preferred 7-foot gauge track. Dorridge railway station, which was originally called "Knowle", and later "Knowle and Dorridge", created the focal point for a new community. The Muntz family granted the land for the railway on condition that a station was built – perhaps less surprising on discovering that the Chairman of the Birmingham & Oxford Railway Company was P. H. Muntz, a relative. There is some folklore about the agreement that suggests that the railway was obliged to stop at Dorridge; however, with the affluent residents of Knowle and Dorridge, it was certainly a commercial practicality. Evidence of the popularity of the railway can be seen in that a "bus" service from the Greswolde Hotel in Knowle was provided in the early days of the railway at the cost of 6d. In its heyday, the train service ran between Lapworth and Birmingham with four tracks, but by the mid-1960s two tracks had been removed and traffic was declining. The link with London was revived in the 1990s as part of the privatisation of British Rail, initially with a single track running south of Banbury. Dual track working was reinstated and today in spite of being a village, Dorridge is still one of the stops on the express service.