Railway centenaries are keeping the historians busy these days. The present year is the one - hundredth anniversary of the opening of numerous lines that went to form England's immense railway network. First must be noted the centenary of the public opening of the first section of the Manchester & Leeds Railway, later part of the Lancashire & Yorkshire line and now part of the L. M. & S. The 14-mile section between Manchester and Littleborough was opened on 4th July, 1839, and at the opening of this pioneer link of George Stephenson's there were eight trains a day in each direction. To-day, about 150 trains pass through Littleborough every 24 hours and 200 during the summer holiday season. Another of George Stephenson's lines celebrating its centenary this year is the York & North Midland Railway (now L. & N. E. property), for just a hundred years ago there was run the first train on the northern section of this route. Further north, there was opened on 18th June, 1839, the Newcastle & North Shields Railway, the track of which consisted of flat-bottomed rails screwed page 26 page 27 to longitudinal timber sleepers. Newcastle and York to-day are two of our busiest passenger stations, and both are on the main Anglo-Scottish route out of King's Cross Station, London. In the metropolitan area, the L. & N. E. celebrated, this summer, another centenary—the opening, in 1839, of the first section of the Eastern Counties Railway, running from Devonshire Street Station, London, to Romford, a distance of 10 ½ miles. This system was later extended, at the London end, to Shoreditch, and outwards to Brentwood and Colchester. Joining forces with the Northern & Eastern Railway, the Eastern Counties in due time became the Great Eastern Railway, which eventually formed a component of the L. & N. E. Group.