Why a Booktrail?
The wonders of train travel!
Off the Tracks
Why a Booktrail?
The wonders of train travel!
What you need to know before your trail
Train travel is having a renaissance. Grand old routes that had been cancelled, or were moldering in neglect, have been refurbished as destinations in themselves. The Rocky Mountaineer, the Orient Express, and the Trans-Siberian Railroad run again in all their glory. Pamela Mulloy has always loved train travel. Whether returning to the Maritimes every year with her daughter on the Ocean, or taking her family across Europe to Poland, trains have been a linchpin of her life. As COVID locked us down, Mulloy began an imaginary journey that recalled the trips she has taken, as well as those of others. Whether it was Mary Wollstonecraft traveling alone to Sweden in the late 1700s, or the incident that had Charles Dickens forever fearful of trains, or the famous actress Sarah Bernhardt trapped in her carriage in a midwestern blizzard in the 1890s, or Sir John A. Macdonald’s wife daring to cross the Rockies tied to the cowcatcher at the front of the train, the stories explore the odd mix of adventure and contemplation that travel permits.
Locations
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Canada
The journey starts here and there are lots of interesting facts about train travel and the advent of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Sir John Alexander Macdonald was the first prime minister of Canada, serving from 1867 to 1873 and from 1878 to 1891. The train journey covered in the book was the one made in July, 1886 – the maiden journey of the new Canadian Pacific Railway to Banff, Alberta. Crowds gathered all along the route to see and to honour Sir John A. Macdonald but it was the sight of lady Macdonald smiling and waving to the crowds from the top of the cowcatcher that made the news!
Sweden
Wollstonecraft travelled first to Gothenburg then she headed to Strömstad before going on to Larvik, Norway. From there she travelled to Tønsberg, Norway and also visited Helgeroa, Risør, and Kristiania (now Oslo) and returned by way of Strömstad and Gothenburg. She returned to England by way of Copenhagen and Hamburg, finally landing at Dover in September 1795, three months after she had left England.
Kent
The Staplehurst rail crash was a derailment at Staplehurst, Kent, on 9 June 1865 at 3:13 pm. The Folkestone to London boat train derailed while crossing a viaduct where a length of track had been removed during engineering works, killing ten passengers and injuring forty.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: Off the Tracks
Destination/Location: Worldwide Author: Pamela Mulloy Departure: Various
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