Orphan Trains

By some estimates, the orphan trains transported a quarter of a million children from the cities of the eastern US to homes in the west, where they would be adopted by people they had never met. The idea is almost unthinkable today, but it continued for some 75 years, from the 1850s to the 1920s. In the hour to come, we’ll find out what the purpose of the orphan trains was and how successful they were. We’ll also hear some first-hand accounts from adults looking back at their experiences as children who rode the trains.