The Silverton Tramway Company was formed in 1886 by a consortium led by J. S. Reid, to build and operate the Silverton Tramway, a 58 kilometers -long -gauge railway running from Cockburn on the New South Wales-South Australia state border to Broken Hill; after the Government of New South Wales enacted into legislation the Silverton Tramway Act of 1886 that granted the Silverton Tramway Company the rights to build and operate a railway.