L.M.S. Station Commissionaire, or “Passenger's Friend,” on duty at Euston Station. London.

One of the pleasantest—though certainly not the easiest—of tasks that falls to the railwayman is that of providing travel facilities for the holiday-maker. In Britain the summer holiday season is now in full swing, and on all the principal routes to the sea, business is exceptionally heavy. While many holiday-makers find their way to their favourite beach resort by road, by far the bulk of the season's vacation traffic is handled by the railways. Every week-end the popular holiday expresses are run in duplicate and triplicate, and on famous trains, like the “Scarborough Flier” of the London & North Eastern line, and the Great Western “Cornish Riviera Limited,” the knowing traveller usually engages accommodation well in advance.

The modern holiday-maker has a wealth of facilities placed at his disposal by the railways. Fast streamlined trains; cheap fares; seat reservations; the helpful services of the “station commissionaire”; luggage in advance facilities; camping coaches; splendid dining car service; unlimited break-of-journey privileges; and travel literature of every kind; these are but a few of the many ways in which the present-day vacationist is helped by the railways.

Strewn on the table beside me as I write are copies of what are probably the four most remarkable travelguides in the world. Priced at six-pence each, these are the annual hand-books and hotels lists of the Home group systems. There is a “Holidays by L.M.S.” guide, of the largest group —a guide containing 1,072 pages, and 144 photographs. Then comes the L. & N.E. “Holiday Handbook,” with 824 pages of information for the vacationist, and more than 5,000 addresses of hotels and other accommodation. The Great Western “Holiday Haunts” runs to 1,000 pages, and contains a wealth of informative matter and nine maps. “Hints for Holidays” is the Southern Railway's publication, with 936 pages and over 1,000 illustrations. Many other smaller booklets are, of course, published by the Home railways for the guidance of the prospective holiday-maker. These four big books, however, form the main plank of Home railway travel publicity.

History of the Railway Ticket.

The average railway ticket is really a most unpretentious affair. Behind the grille of every railway booking-office, however, lies romance in abundance, and the story of the birth and evolution of the railway ticket is fascinating indeed. The modern railway ticket may be traced right back to the paper tickets issued to travellers in the old stage coach days. On these slips, or tickets, the booking-clerk had to enter by hand a host of details, such as the passenger's name; the coach in which accommodation was desired; whether inside or outside seats were preferred; and so on. One copy of the ticket was handed the passenger; the guard kept another; and a third was retained in the booking-office. The pioneer railways, in the main, followed out this complicated system. In 1832, however, the Leicester & Swannington Railway introduced, in place of paper tickets, brass octagonal checks engraved with the name of the company, destination station, and a serial number. The

The “Flying Cologner,” German National Railways.

checks were collected by the guard on completion of the journey, and conveyed back to issuing point for further use.

The railway ticket as we know it to-day first appeared about 1836. It was the invention of Thomas Edmondson, stationmaster at Milton (now Brampton) on the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway. Edmondson not only produced the first cardboard railway ticket, but it was also to his inventive genius we owe the ticket issuing and dating machine. To-day, Edmondson-type ticket issuers are employed on railways the world over, and the firm which Thomas Edmondson founded in Manchester for the construction of the early ticket presses now supplies ticket printing, dating and issuing machines of the most modern type to railways everywhere. Incidentally, the modern electrically-driven printing machine turns out 10,000 perfectly printed railway tickets per hour, as compared with the 1,000 tickets per hour of the old hand-operated presses.

Suburban Electrification in Britain.

Electrification of the Southern Railway main-lines between London and Brighton, and other south-coast resorts, is proving most helpful in the movement of the season's holiday business. The Southern Railway, it will be remembered, already operates the largest suburban electric system of any railway in the world, and one of page 26 page 27

Southern Railway all-Pullman “Southern Belle” London-Brighton Express.

the best-known of the electric expresses operated is the “Southern Belle” fast daily train between London and Brighton. Under its old title of the “Brighton Belle,” this rightly renowned service was actually one of the world's first “named” passenger trains.

Extensions of the Southern electrification are now proceeding with the utmost speed. The whole scheme is estimated to cost nearly £3,000,000, and involves the electrification of nearly 95 route-miles, corresponding to about 242 single track-miles. It is planned to complete the extensions by July, 1937. The new works cover the conversion to electricity of the London-Portsmouth main-line and branches. When completed, the throughout run from the metropolis to Portsmouth will cover 74 route-miles, and will be one of the longest stretches of electrified track in the country. Some 100 miles of high tension cable is being laid down, with about 10 ½ miles of low tension cable. Over 139,000 insulators and 150,000 copper bonds will be required. Forty-eight new four-coach motor units, nineteen of which will be provided with a kitchen-car, are being constructed in the railway shops to operate the new services. The stopping services will be operated by specially constructed new stock, consisting of thirty-eight two-coach units with lavatory accommodation, eight two-coach motor units, six three-coach motor units, and five two-coach trailer units. The total seating capacity of the new stock will be 17,804.

The Railways of the Rhineland.

Germany has been to the fore in the news of late, and the turn of events has directed particular attention to that portion of the country known as the Rhineland. The railways of the Rhineland form a most efficient transportation machine, with the working of which your correspondent is especially familiar. During the Armistice period following the Great War, it was my good fortune to serve as Railway Traffic Officer at Cologne, and other Rhineland points, and the efficiency of the German railway machine and its workers will ever be an outstanding memory.

The Rhineland is served by two principal railway routes, one on either side of the Rhine, as well as by important east and west routes crossing the river by massive bridges. The main-line between France, Belgium and Germany enters the zone at Herbesthal, and makes its way via Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen, as the Germans call it) to Cologne; crossing the Rhine by means of the famous Hohenzollern Bridge, completed immediately prior to the Great War as part and parcel of the work of preparation for that conflict. Cologne Central is one of the principal stations in the area, and it is between this point and Berlin that there is operated that unique fast daily passenger service, the “Flying Cologner.” This Diesel-electric train covers the Berlin-Hannover section of its run at a speed of 82 ½ m.p.h. There are, of course, many long-distance expresses routed via Cologne. Probably the “Nord Express” (Paris-Berlin) is the best known of all these daily travel links.

Signalling Developments.

Science can, and does, aid the railways to an enormous degree in many branches. Now and again, however, the practical railwayman is inclined to ask: “Are we becoming too scientific in certain directions?” Railway signalling is a case in point. In his recent presidential address to the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers. Mr. W. S. Roberts spoke feelingly of the danger of relying too much upon scientific machinery, and disregarding the natural gifts of the signalman.

One of the most important and difficult problems confronting the signal engineer, it was stated, was that of harmonising the growing application of irrevocable mechanisms with the flexibility of operation and the freedom and intelligence of action of the human element.

Bound for Holidayland—the “Scarborough Flier” daily express operating between King's Cross Station, London, and the Yorkshire Coast.

The Railways and Safety.

Safer travel than that provided by railways nowhere exists. It is interesting to note that the total deaths recorded on the Home railways since the days of George Stephenson are actually fewer than the death-roll on our roads in a single year. “Safety First” is ever the railwayman's watchword, and New Zealand is naturally especially proud of its magnificent record of railway safety.

Apart from caring for the safety of the passenger, the railwayman is particularly interested in his own safety, and this need for caution exists in all branches of the service, and not merely among traffic workers. The Home railways are at present running a big “Safety First” campaign for the benefit of shopmen. Safety notices are posted in all workshops, lectures on accident prevention are being given by experts, and weekly and monthly “Safety” bulletins are being circulated. On the L. & N.E. line, an interesting booklet has been issued entitled “Safety Precautions for Railway Shopmen.” It has a striking red linen cover, and the contents include hints regarding the right use of tools and machinery, the use of eye-protectors, saw-guards, and respirators, and other sage advice calculated to spare the worker from accident.