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.
Edmund Wragge
On his return from Costa Rica, Wragge’s letters indicate that he worked on a project in the English Midlands for some months until Sir Charles Fox secured for him the position of chief engineer of the Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway (TG&BR), and the Toronto and Nipissing Railway (T&NR) in July 1869. This placement must have been settled by telegram, because Douglas Fox left Toronto on 27 July 1869, promising to have an engineer sent out, and Edmund Wragge departed for Norway to see Pihl’s narrow gauge railways on 1 August 1869. Wragge arrived in Toronto in September 1869 and between that time and late 1874 he engineered and constructed over 280 route miles of the 3 ft 6 in gauge railways, at a total cost of £900,000. The railways were built economically as a practical means of opening up the interior of the Province of Ontario to settlement.