The Grand Junction Railway was an early railway company in the UK, which existed between 1833 and 1846. It was authorized by Parliament on May 6, 1833, and designed by George Stephenson and Joseph Locke. The line built by the company was one of the first railway lines to be built in England, and the world's first long-distance railway with steam traction. It ran from the Warrington and Newton at Warrington to Birmingham, 78 miles. It was not only the most ambitious railway scheme up to that time, but it was designed to interlink Liverpool, Manchester and Preston with Birmingham, and thence, by the London and Birmingham with the Metropolis. In 1841, the company appointed Captain Mark Huish as the secretary of the railway. He was ruthless in the development of the business and contributed significantly to the company's success. In 1846, the company was amalgamated with other railways to form the London and North Western Railway.

The Grand Trunk Railway Co. was incorporated in 1852-1853 to construct a railway in eastern Canada. Among the twenty-six incorporators of the railway were Peter McGill, Georges Etienne Cartier, L.H. Holton, D.L. Macpherson and A.T. Galt. The main line between Montréal and Toronto was opened in 1856; a line to Lévis had been opened in 1854. By 1859 the company had completed a large system of railways extending from Lake Huron to Rivière du Loup and to the Atlantic seaboard at Portland, Maine. Later the company went on to extend its lines in Ontario, as well as to acquire connections with the New England states. Finally, in 1905, the Canada Atlantic Railway was absorbed, connecting the main line with Ottawa. However, largely as a result of an unsuccessful venture to tap the growing traffic of the Prairies by which the company had incurred large liabilities in connection with its subsidiary, the Grand Trunk Pacific, the Grand Trunk was taken over by the Canadian government in 1919.

Bertha Alice Grant (? - 1974) and her sister Angelina (Dolly) Grant (1893-1975) cultivated from their school days a life-long interest in the history of their family and their home town, Grantville, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. This devotion survived the removal of many of the family to New England, including Bertha herself, who for most of her adult life worked for welfare agencies in Boston.