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AT THE FORKS OF THE GRAND far as Braeside, and a trestle was being built over the Grand Trunk Railway line beyond Braeside. Moreover, a power station at the north end of the trestle was almost completed, and the roadbed of a spur line to a park at Blue Lake was being constructed. There was talk of continuing this spur to St. George. Finally, by November 17, cars were running to Galt. The roadbed of the Grand Valley line, according to people who remember it, was a thing of wonder. It wound across the country- side, up steep hills and down. It made turns so sharp that they were (according to the local wags) almost right-angle turns, and required hinges in the middle of the cars for the negotiating of them. It climbed so steep a grade from Willow Street to the Governor's Road that the electric lights along the line went dim, and a sound of monotonous grinding filled the neighborhood. Indeed when a car was heavily. loaded, men and boys were asked to walk to the top of the hill. Almost once a week, according to reports, a car would run off the tracks, particularly at a "right-angle" turn. And occasionally, accord- ing to The Star Transcript, one would run off even on a straight- away. For example, in January, 1908, "a Grand Valley Car, ploughing through snow, jumped from a trestle about a mile and a half south of Paris and fell about twenty feet. The motorman and the conductor were in the car. Conductor Bacon had his skull fractured and a leg broken. Motorman Longhurst escaped with a sprained ankle." In August, a car "jumped the track and ploughed along through the gravel and dirt beside the tracks. Nobody was seriously hurt. A few bowlers from Paris were shaken up". During the winter months when the snow was deep and drifting, the cars often did not run. In the early part of January, ig9o, for example, a car stalled in a snow drift between Paris and Galt, and the power failed. The passengers shivered for hours before help arrived. For some weeks afterwards no cars ran. Two years later, in February, 1912, the Paris Council protested that the line between Paris and Galt had been closed for a month, and demanded that the company should open it. The Grand Valley Line effected a number of small changes in the life of Paris. Parisians who could not afford to own or hire a horse and rig, were delighted with the service provided by the company: for the first time, they could enjoy excursions along the Grand. Groups such as Sunday School classes also enjoyed the service. They would go to Burt's Grove, Blue Lake Park or the Grand Valley Park (near Brantford) for picnics. A large number of Paris girls thought the cars were wonderful. In the early evening, young swains arrived from Brantford. They returned at eleven o'clock on a car that The Star Transcript and The Brantford Expositor agreed to call "The Sparker's Special". Some of the more aggressive young males of Paris objected to this 230