Growing up in Worcester, Massachusetts, Brad Blodget could often be found trackside along the Boston & Maine Railroad watching trains. After graduating from the Worcester public schools, he received a BA in biology from Clark University and an MS in wildlife biology from the University of Massachusetts/Amherst. He moved on to a career with the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife, most of it as State Ornithologist, before retiring in 2002. Soon after that, his long-suppressed passion for railroad history exploded. He acquired the train symbol nickname "WX-1" for his frequent research trips between Worcester, Keene, New Hampshire, and Bellows Falls, Vermont. An active member of the Boston & Maine Railroad Historical Society and the Railroad Locomotive and Historical Society, he resides in Holden, Massachusetts. His first book, Marium Foster's Boston & Maine Railroad, appeared in 2011.