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On this day, Oct. 26, in 1856, a wood-fed locomotive with a huge sparkcatcher hauled 7 yellow passenger coaches at 50 km/h between Montreal and Toronto. It made 64 stops along the way. The Grand Trunk was Canada’s first mainline railway. Five months later, sleeping cars were introduced.

(Feel free to add sarcastic comments about today’s service in the Corridor; I’m biting my lip…)

Sorry to say you are off by one day. October 26, 1856 was a Sunday. The inaugural Grand Trunk Railway through trains between Toronto and Montreal ran the next day, Monday, October 27.

Huh! And I got that Oct. 26 date from GR Stevens authoritative History of the Canadian National Railways. He claims the crowds were in their "Sunday best."

Rule number one of Canadian railway history: even if a "master" wrote it, always confirm with primary sources. Actually, that's a good rule to follow in general. Nobody is immune to errors, not even (especially not) this account.

It would have caused a minor scandal had the Grand Trunk chosen to begin running its trains on a Sunday, given the religious mores of the time.

Wow! I wonder what else Stevens fabricated. (His low of opinion of Maritimers on the Intercolonial is full of undocumented anecdotes.)

That's not really a fabrication so much as just a bit of sloppy research, most likely relying on another secondary source. Can't speak to the anecdotes about Maritimers, though.