Ghost Trains

[lea_hazel]

I'm not sure this is exactly the right forum, since I'm asking kind of a broad discussion question, although it does relate to something specific I wrote, sort of. I would have posted it in fantasy, but it's more of a horror thing if it belongs to any genre, which is a bit alarming when I consider that horror is about as far from my genre pool as possible.

What do you think about ghost trains? Have you ever read or heard a ghost train story? Do you think they're interesting, and if so, what's the most interesting thing about them? Or do you prefer some other ghost method of transportation, like ghost ships (cf. the Flying Dutchman -- warning, TV Tropes time-eating sand-pit link)?

I am not usually one for ghosts, barring The Sims 3. For some reason, though, the phrase "ghost train" got stuck in my head a while back and I want to write something about it. I just can't figure out if it should be a story or a poem, or, heavens forbid, a novel.

Comments

[paganpaul]

I've heard of a few ghost train stories and I recall reading one back in the stone ages.

The subject has a fascination for me in that a ghost train can appear anywhere, disappear, and reappear anywhere else. It need not only be transport for ghosts, also the living can board a ghost train, either knowing of its state or being unknowing. The latter opens lots of options of course, shock, horror, fright and such.

Imagine getting on what looks like an ordinary train. More and more people leave the carriage until you are in it alone, or with only a few others, and then the train pulls into some eerie deserted station, on the verge of falling apart. Your fellow passengers might go as scared as you, or turn out to be ghosts.

Yes, it is a nice thing to write about, I'd say. The unpredictable goal of the voyage on a ghost train is what does it for me.

Good luck!

[rodo]

I haven't read any ghost train stories (that I remember), but I am intrigued and definitely interested in reading one.

[feuervogel]

I wrote a ghost train story, though I'm not sure it falls into the area you're looking at. It's the ghosts *of* trains, and a vignette set in Berlin in April 1989 in a U-bahn station. (Shameless plug: http://ravenelectrick.com/retrospec.html)

[ex_pippin880]

Trains for ghosts or ghosts of trains?

[lea_hazel]

I think it's both? Like ghost ships are the ghosts of shipwrecks, wrecked trains become ghosts with all the passengers aboard. When they don't go to Narnia, that is.

[ex_pippin880]

I dunno, they are different things in my head. Which is, admittedly, a very organised place. I have a story which is about a dead train trying to get a psychic to kill a train driver for it so that it can pass on, though, so at least there's a reason for the distinction.

Being a ghost tea lady on a ghost train would be the most pathetic thing ever. :(

[magycmyste]

I'm not sure I've read any ghost train stories. The closest I can think of it the anime series Final Fantasy Unlimited.

Stars two kids whose parents took a train to another world, and then disappeared, and the kids try to guess when the train will come by the deserted station (something like "at the stroke of midnight when such and such happens), so they can get on it and find their parents in the other world.

Frankly, I love the stories in the Final Fantasy game series, but the plot of the anime wasn't particularly memorable. I only really liked one character, and the closing song. But I was intrigued by the train and I wish they'd done more with it.

I don't know if that qualifies as a ghost train for what you're talking about, but I'm curious.

[scribblesinink]

The words "ghost train" do have a nice ring to them, don't they? I'm trying to remember if I've ever read a ghost train story, but nothing pops up....

I think the interesting thing about a ghost train, as compared to other types of ghostly transport like the Flying Dutchman, is that a train would be confined to its tracks?

[bindingthreads]

There was a fantastic 'ghost train' story by Garth Nix. It can be found in his anthology 'Across the Wall.' It's a supernatural western about a mysterious baby abandoned at a train depot and her strange steamer truck that remains locked until her 18th birthday.

[bindingthreads]

Oh, and the movie 'Spirited Away' has some truly lovely depictions of spiritual/ghostly transport (including a ghost train), as well as being an all-around kick-ass movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccMvH9BSZxc