Charles Easton Spooner was born at Maentwrog in 1818, third son of James Spooner (the surveyor, manager and later engineer of the Festiniog Railway). Charles is said to have helped in the surveying of the FR in 1830 at the age of 12. James gave his son two years practical training on the Festiniog Railway from 1834, two more followed with Joseph Locke building the Lancaster & Preston Railway and then another two with Isambard Kingdom Brunel on the Taff Vale Railway. Following two years as a partner in James Spooner & Sons, he set up on his own as a surveyor and engineering consultant.
Charles married Mary in 1848, moved from Morfa Lodge to Nant Gwynant, maintaining only a minor connection with the Festiniog Railway during this period. In 1856 he returned to Bron-y-garth, overlooking the harbour at Porthmadog, shortly before his father's death. Charles now became manager of the Festiniog Railway, acting as Manager, Secretary, Engineer and Clerk, working from home in the absence of proper accommodation at the railway.
The official titles he held on the Festiniog Railway were:
| 1856 - 1887 | Engineer |
| 1856 - 1887 | Company Secretary |
| 1880 - 1881 | Locomotive Superintendent for a short period following the disgrace of his son George Percival Spooner. |
| 1862 | Engineer to the Carnarvonshire Railway Co. |
| Early 1860s | Looking at various options for transporting slate from the quarries of the Croseor valley, Spooner was Engineer to the Rhosydd Quarry at this time. |
| 1861 | Costings for lines from Croesor to Tanygrisiau and Croesor to Porthmadog. |
| 1862 | Further calculations for traffic working on a line from Croesor to Porthmadog. |
| 1863 | Surveyed the route of the Croesor Tramway. |
| 1864 | Designed the New Rhosydd incline ('Jacobs Ladder') at the head of the Croesor valley. |
| 1865 | Engineer to the Croesor & Port Madoc Railway including the proposed extension to Borth-y-Gest. |
| 1871 | Awarded a gold medal by the Tsar of Russia following the 1870 locomotive trials on the FR demonstrating the effectiveness of the Double-Fairlie locomotive 'Little Wonder'. |
| 1872 | Chief Engineer to the grand plans of the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways. Charles owned quarries in the Cilgwyn district so becoming a customer of the Moel Tyrfan undertaking. |
| 1872 | The exchange sidings at Minffordd opened on the Festiniog Railway to Spooner's design. |
| 1872 | Introduced bogie carriages on the Festiniog Railway, the world's first iron-framed bogie carriages. |
| 1878 | Three masted Porthmadog built schooner named after Charles Spooner. |
His company Spooner & Co. Engineers of Porthmadog were involved in most of the narrow gauge railway plans of this period, some of the work carried out:
| Survey for a tramway from Cwm Eigiau to Dolgarrog, 1852 |
| Survey for the Croesor Tramway, c1862. |
| Promotion and engineering work for the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways. |
| A plan for a rack railway from Rhyd-Ddu to the summit of Snowdon and then down the other side to Llanberis. |
| Consultancy for the Darjeeling Himalaya Railway. |
| Work for the Welsh Slate Company. |
| Surveys for the Oakeley, Diphwys Casson, Maenofferen and Croesor United quarries. |
Spooner's house at Bron-y-garth was famed for its garden railway of 3.125 inches gauge, with double-headed rail in chairs, a replica of the Festiniog permanent way. On it ran 'Topsy', a model of the original England locomotives, which survives to this day on display in the 'Spooners' the bar at the Festiniog Harbour station.
Charles is said to have been in the habit of walking along one running rail and steadying himself with a walking stick upon the other rail. He was a well-respected man, a hard father but generous and kind when the need arose. He never overcame the stigma attached to the George Percival's affair with one of the domestic servants. Familiarity with the Festiniog led him to take risks that might have had serious consequences; on February 12th 1886 his private vehicle 'The Boat' was destroyed in a head-on collision with an up passenger train, Spooner not being in possession of the single-line staff.
Charles died on November 18th 1889; he had outlived his wife, two sons and a daughter. He is buried along with the rest of his immediate family in Beddgelert churchyard.
Charles Easton Spooner's legacy is not confined to the two-foot gauge railways of North Wales, the Festiniog's fame spread far and wide, and the two-foot gauge railways of South Africa and the Darjeeling Himalya Railway are perhaps two of the best examples of the Spooner ideal.
The variety of grand schemes to link North and South Caernarfonshire by narrow gauge railway were the manifestation of Spooner's dreams. Spooner appears as surveyor or engineer in the majority of these schemes, some more fanciful than others. The hand of Spooner is clear in the grandiose plans of the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways, and his regular appearance in the history of the Croesor Tramway illustrates its key position as the launch pad for the southern part of the scheme. Spooner's dream of a narrow gauge railway linking Porthmadog with Caernarfon is now nearer than at any time in the past, perhaps one of the South African locomotives might be named to commemorate him, both for his dreams of the North - South link and also his influence on railway building throughout the former British Empire and beyond.
Boyd J.I.C. - Narrow Gauge Railways In South Caernarvonshire, Volume 1, Oakwood Press 1988
Boyd J.I.C. - The Festiniog Railway, Volume 1, Oakwood Press 1975
Boyd J.I.C. - The Festiniog Railway, Volume 2, Oakwood Press 1975
Lewis M.J.T. - Article in Festiniog Heritage Group Journal No 52, Winter 1997/8