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Also referred to as simply "Grand Trunk" or "Grand Trunk Company".

The major clacks company in Ankh-Morpork and as such on the Disc. The semaphore technology of the clacks has been part of Discworld technology since The Fifth Elephant, but the company and the people behind it play a major part in Going Postal.

Rise

The company was founded by a group of people, with Robert Dearheart as chairman. His son John Dearheart also worked on the clacks. Robert "designed half of the mechanisms" according to his daughter Adora Belle Dearheart. The company was a great success, every city wanted to be connected to the Trunk. The people in charge were engineers, proud of the work they did and their technological achievements.

Fall

Before long, a consortium of bankers led by Reacher Gilt took over. They used complicated financial and legal methods to "steal" the Grand Trunk from the owners, effectively buying it with its own money. Their only concern was profit. Regular maintenance had kept the Clacks running smoothly, but it was cut so much the Grand Trunk was often out of service for days of "emergency repairs."

Prices remained very high though. (There is an interesting exchange in The Fifth Elephant that hints at trouble to come: when Reg Shoe and Buggy Swires are investigating the death of Wallace Sonky, the troll foreman at Sonky's factory complains bitterly to them about the high cost of sending a clacks to Überwald to alert Sonky's relatives to his death. Twenty dollars, it cost! Dat's murder, dat is! In fact, Moist von Lipwig uses a similar example in Going Postal, when arguing the superiority of the post over the clacks.)

Competition

A group of disgruntled engineers developed a new Trunk and gathered money to start a rival company led by John Dearheart. In an "unfortunate accident" John Dearheart fell off a clacks tower to his death. It was claimed he hadn't clipped his safety rope on. Other clacksmen continued to work on a new Trunk in secrecy as the Smoking Gnu.

Going Postal describes the events from John Dearheart's death, shortly after which Moist von Lipwig was induced to bring the Ankh-Morpork Post Office back to life. Thanks to his wild but effective actions the Post Office returned to operation and the Grand Trunk consortium was arrested.