Railway Relics.

Britain is rich in railway relics of one kind and another. For long there has been talk of the establishment of a central railway museum in London to house the many priceless exhibits of railway interest now scattered throughout the country. Up to the present, however, nothing has actually been accomplished in this direction, and for the time being the rich relics of the early days of British railway working remain cared for in the smaller museums maintained by the individual railways at various points. In South Kensington Museum, London, it is true, there are found a considerable number of fascinating railway exhibits, and this Museum is a place no New Zealand railwayman holiday-making in the Home land should fail to visit.

Probably the most extensive museum maintained in Britain by the railways is the York Museum of the London and North Eastern line. This Museum has recently been enriched by the acquisition of the famous “Gladstone” locomotive of 1883, and is in every way unique in its possession of the rarest of locomotive relics. The gem of the collection is George Stephenson's Hetton Colliery engine, built in 1822, while another enormously attractive exhibit is the earliest iron railway bridge ever built. One would give much to possess the fine series of original letters of George and Robert Stephenson, Burnel and other railway leaders of the past, that repose in the York collection, while the contemporary engravings, dating from 1820 to 1850, are alone worth a small fortune.

It is a commendable thing for every railway undertaking to guard preciously its relics of the past, and one can have nothing but praise for the admirable manner in which the London and North Eastern Railway is meeting its obligations in this direction. The establishment of a central railways museum in London, however, would be an immense boon to all, and it is to be hoped that ere long Britain may be able to boast of a vast railway museum equalling-if not exceeding-in interest, the far-famed collection adjoining the Lehrter Station of the German Railways Company in Berlin. This Museum is undoubtedly the most remarkable affair of its kind the world over, and incidentally includes within its walls many priceless exhibits covering to a considerable extent the early history of the British railways.

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