Britain led the world in railway technology. The first public railway, the first passenger trains, the first public steam line, the first inter-city and trunk railways, and although the Germans boasted the first commercial electric railway, it was a Scotsman who built the first electric locomotive, and it is the UK that has the oldest surviving electric railway in the world. This special publication looks at the way in which Britain led society into the modern world with the biggest innovations in transport since the invention of the wheel.