Coventry Evening Telegraph Monday February 29th 1960.
A granite sleeper block weighing 5 cwt from the world's first public railway opened in 1803 will be sent to the Museum of Applied Science's in Melbourne. Mr. Henry E Bolte Premier of Victoria has accepted the granite block, part of the rail bed as a gift from Mr. Chalmers Kearney of Burgh Heath Surrey. Mr. Kearney who was at school in Victoria said traces of the old railway are still to be found in the Croydon area. He felt it appropriate that the block a relic of the earliest days of rail transport should go to Victoria now the most industrialised state in Australia where the first railway in Australia was built from his birthplace in Geelong to Melbourne.
The horse drawn trains of the Surrey Iron Railway and it's extension the Croydon Merstham and Goldstone railway were principally used for hauling coal and limestone. The cost of carrying goods in 1804 was 3d per ton per mile.
Mr. Kearney has also presented several publications from his library describing the Surrey Iron Railway.
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