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Post by weirdmonger on Sept 17, 2015 14:01:54 GMT
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Post by franklinmarsh on Sept 17, 2015 22:05:20 GMT
A 'king cheek I know but if Lord P and Des can get away with it - might I suggest Le Jour De Saint Valentin by F Marsh Esq?
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Post by dem bones on Sept 18, 2015 11:31:18 GMT
A 'king cheek I know but if Lord P and Des can get away with it - might I suggest Le Jour De Saint Valentin by F Marsh Esq? The one compelling argument I've heard against the Eurotunnel. Thanks for the Addendum to a Confession synopsis, Dr. Proof. The Master Of The House, The Dark Companion, and The Long Retreating Day sound like collections I should seek out. Any Tartarus paperback editions available? If F. Tennyson Jesse's The Railway Carriage hasn't yet been mentioned on this thread, it ought to be. One of several mini-masterpieces resurrected in Jack Adrian's excellent Strange Tales From The Strand.
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Post by Shrink Proof on Sept 18, 2015 14:52:23 GMT
Thanks for the Addendum to a Confession synopsis, Dr. Proof. The Master Of The House, The Dark Companion, and The Long Retreating Day sound like collections I should seek out. Any Tartarus paperback editions available? No paperbacks, Dem, sorry. In order of publication:- The Dark Companion was only ever a hardback, but a few fairly-priced copies are still out there. The Long Retreating Day is an out-of-print hardback that you can find on Amazon for a mere £480+(!) The Master of the House is still available from Tartarus new in hardback. The good news is that the second and third books are both available as under a fiver e-books, as mobi files for Kindle - cheaper if you buy direct from Tartarus than from Amazon and not ideologically unsound either. Gaskin is very much one of the James Gang, but (sort of) brought up to date. So if you like that sort of thing, it's definitely the sort of thing you'll like.
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Post by weirdmonger on Sept 19, 2015 14:07:13 GMT
I have just discovered a weird story that, for me, is possibly the best train story ever written. THE CHOUCROUTE by Jean Ray.
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Post by ohthehorror on Sept 19, 2015 15:35:02 GMT
I have just discovered a weird story that, for me, is possibly the best train story ever written. THE CHOUCROUTE by Jean Ray. Google fails me on this one. Do you have any further info?
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Post by bobby on Sept 20, 2015 3:33:27 GMT
Manly Wade Wellman-"The Little Black Train" (a Silver John story) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, August 1954)
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Post by weirdmonger on Sept 21, 2015 5:40:29 GMT
I have just discovered a weird story that, for me, is possibly the best train story ever written. THE CHOUCROUTE by Jean Ray. Google fails me on this one. Do you have any further info? I recently read it in 'The Horrifying Presence & Other Tales' by Jean Ray. (Ex Occidente Press 2009)
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Post by bobby on Sept 23, 2015 3:11:11 GMT
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Post by Shrink Proof on Sept 23, 2015 10:07:19 GMT
We've already had model railways so no problem.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 12, 2015 18:43:17 GMT
Snagged this at market on Sunday while still under the influence (thought it was an anthology of horror & mystery fiction). Looks like it should be an interesting read, mind. Kenneth Westcott Jones - Rail Tales Of The Unexpected (BCA, 1992) Jacket illustration: Detail from 'Night Stop' by Don BreckonBlurb: A bomber that landed on top of a sturdy Midland dining car without derailing it, passengers en route from Inverness to Skye who were hijacked and taken on a 3,000-mile journey, a GWR express which took refuge under the Severn to escape the torment of a Nazi plane, a lady who regularly stepped into the dark from a branch-line train on the side the platform did not serve, soldiers attacking a late-running passenger train believing it a special on manoeuvres, the civic party hastily stepping back from the platform edge as the train they were meeting thundered through, a bullock that ate the Royal flowers on a Scottish express, an engine of the Furness Railway which sank into a black hole as it pottered about its shunting duties ... these are just a few of the tales of the unexpected in a collection.
There is nothing as big or as complicated as Britain's railways in the Western Hemisphere, and however well regulated most lines are most of the time, oddities are bound to happen . . . sometimes provoked by the railways themselves, sometimes caused by circumstances quite beyond their control. There is nothing profound here; just good fun.
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Post by Shrink Proof on Dec 16, 2015 16:41:01 GMT
Only just noticed this one.... Yes, Dem, it's a fun read. An undemanding canter through some of the weirder tales from the days when we had real railways - carriages with compartments, atmospheric steam and smoke swirling around gothic stations and none of those inane announcements telling us to memorise the safety notices, to report anything suspicious to the staff and thank us for travelling with Worst Great Western. Incredibly, all of the tales in the book are true. Yes, just as the blurb says, a Furness Railway loco did just sink into the ground in the 1890s, either due to a sink hole or mining subsidence, and it's still there, estimated to be somewhere between 60 and 200 feet below ground. More here. The ultimate challenge for railway preservationists I reckon...
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Post by dem bones on Dec 16, 2015 18:10:06 GMT
Only just noticed this one.... Yes, Dem, it's a fun read. An undemanding canter through some of the weirder tales from the days when we had real railways - carriages with compartments, atmospheric steam and smoke swirling around gothic stations and none of those inane announcements telling us to memorise the safety notices, to report anything suspicious to the staff and thank us for travelling with Worst Great Western. Incredibly, all of the tales in the book are true. Yes, just as the blurb says, a Furness Railway loco did just sink into the ground in the 1890s, either due to a sink hole or mining subsidence, and it's still there, estimated to be somewhere between 60 and 200 feet below ground. More here. The ultimate challenge for railway preservationists I reckon... It's among the titles stacking up on 'to read/ finish' pile #1, a wary glance at which suggests that every second of my leisure time between Dec 25th and next summer's Euro's is already accounted for. Was reading an account of the Harrow & Wealdstone station disaster (8th October 1952) on - where else - a football forum recently by a sadly late once neighbour of mine, who survived thanks to his bus arriving late. Not sure I could bring myself to watch the Pathe news reel.
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Post by Shrink Proof on Dec 16, 2015 20:18:00 GMT
It's among the titles stacking up on 'to read/ finish' pile #1, a wary glance at which suggests that every second of my leisure time between Dec 25th and next summer's Euro's is already accounted for. Was reading an account of the Harrow & Wealdstone station disaster (8th October 1952) on - where else - a football forum recently by a sadly late once neighbour of mine, who survived thanks to his bus arriving late. Not sure I could bring myself to watch the Pathe news reel. As Britain's second worst rail disaster with 112 dead, Harrow & Wealdstone was wretched certainly, but one good thing emerged from it. A large squad of US Air Force medics rushed there from RAF Northolt and, outnumbering the civilian medics, took control. Instead of using the then current British techniques, they treated the wounded in the same way as battlefield casualties, using military medicine for the first time in the setting of a major civilian disaster. This not only saved lives there but led to the emergency services completely revising their approach, undoubtedly saving more lives later.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 16, 2015 21:07:43 GMT
As Britain's second worst rail disaster with 112 dead, Harrow & Wealdstone was wretched certainly, but one good thing emerged from it. A large squad of US Air Force medics rushed there from RAF Northolt and, outnumbering the civilian medics, took control. Instead of using the then current British techniques, they treated the wounded in the same way as battlefield casualties, using military medicine for the first time in the setting of a major civilian disaster. This not only saved lives there but led to the emergency services completely revising their approach, undoubtedly saving more lives later. Thanks for that, Dr. Proof. That terrible crash is arguably the only thing Wealdstone is "famous" for, give or take The Railway Hotel (mysteriously burnt down, and is now a block of "luxury apartments" [tomorrow's slums]) and a football team who no longer actually play in the same borough. No surprise it affected the whole community for several years afterwards and I can still remember it being talked about in infant school. Never knew there was any good came out of it until this evening!
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