Spanish Railway Progress.
(From Our London Correspondent.)

Marked success attended this year's gathering of the International Railway Congress Association at Madrid, and the meetings afforded delegates from every land an opportunity of seeing something of the progress that has in recent times been effected in the Spanish railway world. Spain's first railway was that linking Barcelona with Mataro, 28½ kilometres distant, opened in 1848. Almost all the early Spanish railways were financed by Britain, and the bulk of the locomotives and other equipment came from abroad. In 1924 the Spanish lines were put under State control, the numerous independent systems being amalgamated into a number of large units. The most important systems to-day operating are the Northern, the Madrid, Saragossa and Alicante, the Andalusian Railways, and the Western Spain National Railway. The largest system—the Northern—is 3,706 kilometres in length, and owns 1,169 steam locomotives, 23 electric locomotives, 1,888 passenger carriages, and 30,700 goods wagons.