Meg and Jamie Bains are driven away from their Ottawa home by the Depression of the 1870s, riding the rails and looking for work to help feed their family. But with so many grown men and women out of work, nobody wants to hire two kids, no matter how desperate they seem.
When they reach London, Ontario, there's lots of construction work under way, but also a nasty feud between railwaymen and the stagecoach owners that the new railway threatens to put out of business. When a train suffers a horrible wreck nearby suspicions abound, and the railwaymen offer a $200 reward to anyone who can prove the cause of the wreck. Meg sees the reward as the answer to their difficulties, and figures out a sure-fire way to flush out the culprits.
Set against a historical background of great technological change, "Danger on the Tracks" is the story of one family's courage and adaptability in the face of great hardship. The book includes a photo section illustrating the contemporary history of the London area and its early railway development.
This is the sixth book in the Bains series of historical novels, well-researched, action-filled narratives following the travels of one family across Canada--from Newfoundland to Alberta-- in search of a better life during the hard times of the 1870s.