British Railway Records.

Railways have now been serving the British public for more than one hundred years. Railway working at Home involves over £1,200,000,000 of capital, and the steel tracks seam the whole of Britain from end to end. The track, stations and rolling-stock of the British railways cost more than £1,000,000,000, and some £40,000,000 is spent annually on maintenance and renewals. The railway tracks of the British Isles would stretch twice round the world, and the number of passengers conveyed by the four big group lines each year is equivalent to twenty-seven journeys for every man, woman and child in the country. Each year passenger and freight trains run more than 400,000,000 miles, or approximately equivalent to two journeys from the earth to the sun and back. Three-quarters of the coal produced in Britain passes from pit to consumer by rail, while every year there are handled 65,000,000 tons of stone, iron and other minerals, and 60,000,000 tons of general merchandise. Immense quantities of fish, meat and fruit, are dealt with in train loads, and, annually, some 300,000,000 gallons of milk are conveyed over the Home railways.