Public Admitted “Behind the Scenes.”

Although innumerable experiments have been tried in the past with a view to encouraging passenger traffic by rail, there are still many promising means of attracting passenger business which remain untapped. A reminder of this fact is given by the recent action of the Great Western Railway in instituting “day” and “half-day” excursions from London and other points to the company's locomotive works at Swindon. Excursions of this kind are now regularly run, and they are proving immensely popular with the public.

Passengers by the Swindon excursion trains are requested by the conductors to divide themselves into parties each consisting of about twenty, and on arrival at Swindon each party is met by a guide wearing a distinctive rosette, and taken round the locomotive works of the line located at that point. From London to Swindon is a distance of 78 miles, and the fare for the round trip, including the conducted tour of the engine shops, is five shillings. Something like 700 passengers are conveyed by each train. The running of these excursions is proving of real worth in the betterment of public relations. They afford the public a rare opportunity of visualising the “behind the scenes” activities of a modern railway, and emphasise the care which is taken by the railway in the production and maintenance of the most efficient and safe equipment for the conveyance of the traveller and his possessions.