Enterprise of the Irish Railways.

At the present moment rail-air combination travel is being considered as a means of increasing the revenues of the railways of Ireland, and further popularising Erin's Isle as a summer tourist resort. The Irish railways of to-day are nothing if not enterprising. Until a few years ago, Ireland possessed four big railway systems—the Great Southern and Western, the Great Northern, the Midland Great Western, and the Dublin and South Eastern. Added to these were a large number of relatively small undertakings of local interest. To-day one big railway, known as the Great Southern, serves the whole of the Irish Free State. The Irish railways are all built to a gauge of 5ft. 3in., which enables especially roomy passenger carriages to be employed. Dublin is the railway centre of the land, and the Broadstone Station of the Great Southern line is an imposing structure, having a total page 20 platform length of 1,400 feet, with two main platforms served by six tracks. A feature of Irish railway activity in recent times is the development work undertaken in rural areas with a view to aiding the farmer. Ireland is essentially an agricultural country, and, to link the scattered farms with the railheads, the Irish railways are running large numbers of road motors. Collecting centres for produce, conducted on a co-operative basis, have also been set up at selected railway stations, while new branch routes of light steel are being planned to serve areas worthy of development.