Two Historic Railway Scenes
(Photo., courtesy “Picture Post,” London.)
These interesting pictures show (above) the opening, at Christchurch, of the first railway in New Zealand, on 1st December, 1863, and (below—also in 1863) Mr. W. E. Gladstone in the first Metropolitan train in London. Mr. Gladstone is seen with his arm on the rail sitting between the gentlemen wearing the white top hats in the “carriage” on the right. “In 1863, William Ewart Gladstone was Chancellor of the Exchequer, and railway development, helped by his Railway Act of 1844, was at its height. The Act provided compulsory third-class accommodation in trains. And so it was appropriate that Mr. Chancellor Gladstone, with other Cabinet Ministers, should sit in an open carriage at the opening for traffic of the first section of the Metropolitan and Metropolitan District Railway, which linked Paddington and Holborn. The railway was at once a big success, and in the first six months of 1865 it carried more than seven million passengers.”