Starting in the 1840s, the Grand Trunk Railway became one of the most important railway lines in Canada and the New England states. It linked Montreal, Canada's metropolis, with the nearest ice-free port, in Portland, Maine, and provided rail transportation onward to Toronto. The first through train between Montreal and Portland rumbled across the border at Norton, Vermont on July 1st 1853. The line was heavily travelled and constantly upgraded, truly a first-class railway. However, even on first-class railways, events occur that everyone wishes had not. With the public nature of any rail system, its sheer size and dominant effect a busy rail line has on its surrounding community, means there are very few things about railways that are truly 'behind the scenes.' But when accidents and significant destruction occur, no enterprise goes out of the way to publicize such events, with their resultant damage to the corporate reputation.This book brings out some details of the most harrowing of events that can occur to any railroader: what happens to the train involved... to the rail line itself... to the vehicles, animals and trespassers who decide to duel with a fully-loaded train... and, most important, to the people who ride the rails, either as passengers or for their livelihood, who are aboard the ill-fated train when there's Trouble on the Tracks!

Jeff Holt wrote The Grand Trunk in New England, a general history, which was published by Railfare Enterprises Limited of Toronto, in 1987. A career science educator, he graduated from Gorham State College in Maine. Jeff obtained an MS degree in Biology from Concordia University and an EdM from McGill University. Since retiring from teaching in 2001, Jeff continues to do research in railway history. He is a life member of the Island Pond Historical Society of Island Pond, Vermont.

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