John Furness Tone
John Furness Tone (1822-1881)
1882 Obituary [1]
. . . In the year 1838, he was articled to his uncle, the late Robert Nicholson, whom he assisted in various parliamentary and constructive works, and acted as Resident Engineer on the Newcastle and North Shields Railway, and the earliest portion of the Blyth and Tyne Railway, also on the works of the Whittle Dene Water Co, for the supply of Newcastle and district. After the death of Mr. Nicholson, he was appointed engineer of the Newcastle and Gateshead Waterworks, and other undertakings of which Mr. Nicholson had been engineer. . . .
In the years 1857-8, Mr. Tone was actively engaged on behalf of the North British Railway Company in their contest with the Caledonian, for the possession of the line of country lying between Hawick and Carlisle, which resulted in the former obtaining an Act for a railway from Hawick to Carlisle, with a branch to Langholm, under the title of the Border Union North British Railway, which now forms a portion of the Waverley route . . .
In the year 1860, Mr. Tone was commissioned by the Duke of Northumberland and the Duke of Bedford, to examine the district between Tavistock and Launceston, and to report as to the course for a proposed railway.. . .