Travel Films on the “Queen Mary.”

An outstanding event in the world of travel was the inauguration of the new “Queen Mary” steamship services across the Atlantic. All of us are rightly immensely proud of this stately Cunard-White Star liner which bears so honoured a name; and railwaymen, in particular, have played a big part in the building and despatch of our latest ocean greyhound.

Practically all the steelwork and other material required for construction passed by rail to the Clyde shipbuilding yard. It was in the Southern Railway dry-dock at Southampton that the final overhaul of the “Queen Mary's” hull was undertaken, while it is also the Southern Railway's Ocean Dock at Southampton which has been selected as the Home terminal of the new service.

With the general construction and equipment of the “Queen Mary” most readers will be already familiar. One interesting feature which has not been given special prominence, however, is the operation on board of a fullyequipped railway and travel information bureau, representing the four Home railway groups, the Irish railways, and the Travel Association of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The staff of this bureau, provided by the Home railways, issue tickets and make reservations in respect of steamship travel between Great Britain and Ireland, and between Home ports and the Continent, as well as reserving accommodation for tourists at any of the long chain of railway hotels scattered throughout the British Isles. One powerful publicity agent at their command takes the form of a complete film library of travel subjects, these films being regularly shown on board for the entertainment of passengers.