Synopsis
Come on board for a Gothic journey in a funicular railway in Victorian England, a freight train in the Carpathian mountains, a high tech sky train in Bangkok, an underground railway in Tokyo. Visit stations which lure with the promise of safe shelter but harbour unexpected dangers. Meet the people who work on the tracks – stationmasters, porters, signal-men – and those who travel – commuters, tourists, dead bodies, murderers and ghosts.
In this volume, editor Rayne Hall has collected twenty of the finest– and creepiest – railway tales. The book features the works of established writers, classic authors and fresh voices. Some stories are spooky, some downright scary, while others pose a puzzling mystery.
Some writers use American English, others British. At the end of their tales, they reveal the sources of their inspiration.
Are you prepared to come on board this train? Already, the steam engine is huffing in impatience. Listen to the chuff-chuff-chuff from the locomotive and tarattata-tarattata of the giant wheels. Press your face against the dust-streaked window, inhale the smells of coal smoke and old textiles, watch the landscape whoosh past as you leave the familiar behind and journey into the unknown.
But be careful: you can’t know the train’s real destination, nor your fellow travellers’ intentions. Once you’ve closed that door behind you and the wheels start rolling, you may not be able to get out.
Frederick Langridge: Beware of Tuesdays. Will the railway ghost still show herself?
Clint Spivey: The Drowned Subway. A commuter in Tokyo travels on a subway train filled with unusual passengers.
JD Beresford: Lost in the Fog. After taking the wrong train, I must spend a cold foggy night in remote railway station.
Nicole Tait: Why are Trains Always Late? A late-night trip, a woman alone.
Edith Wharton: The Journey. Will this journey take her to the freedom she craves?
Morgan A. Pryce: 11th Hour Ghost Train to Siam. When midnight approaches, a special kind of Bangkokians ride the Skytrain.
Rayne Hall: Funicular Fare. In Edwardian England, a werewolf takes the funicular railway.
Andrew M Seddon: Wolf Station.. A train engineer makes an unscheduled stop in the Carpathian mountains.
Petina Strohmer: Gallows Curve. A notorious accident blackspot has one last life to claim..
Amelia Edwards: The 4.15 Express. Was it really John Dwerrihouse who travelled with me on that train?
Pia Manning: Bon Appetit. A pledge candidate will do anything to join an elite fraternity.
Zoe Tasia: Better Late than Never. Can you keep a promise after you die?
RJ Meldrum: The Coffin Express. A young man in Victorian London takes a new job with a railway company…one that carries the dead.
Krystal Garrett: Unleashed at the Terminal. Confronted with a demonic force, a former stay-at-home digs deep to find the courage she needs.
Joseph S Walker: Between the Ties. With their fathers away at war, two boys come across an abandoned railcar that simply shouldn’t exist.
Arthur Conan Doyle: The Man with the Watches. Three passengers have disappeared, and a dead body is found. How could the vanished travellers leave the moving train, and how did the murdered man get on?
Cage Dunn: Blood Lake Train. A man, a memory, a sentient train – and blood spills on the tracks.
Michele Cacano: Seven Stations in Tokyo. Two people living in Tokyo choose the same day to face their ghosts; one is haunted by her past, the other, by his future.
Karen Heard: Out of Order. A girl stuck in a train toilet fears what may be lurking on the other side of the door.
Then the lights go out, and the screaming starts..
Charles Dickens: The Signal-Man. Whenever the signal-man receives a warning from the spectre, a terrible accident unfolds – and he is unable to prevent it.
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