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Post by dem on Jan 11, 2009 11:31:09 GMT
Ronald Holmes (ed) - Macabre Railway Stories (Star, 1983) Introduction - Ronald Holmes
Charles Dickens - The Signalman
L. T. C. Rolt - The Garside Fell Disaster
Amelia B. Edwards - The Engineer
Raymond Harvey - The Tunnel
Roy Vickers - The Eighth Lamp
Charles Collins - The Compensation House
John Edgell - All Change
A. Noyes - Midnight Express
Harry Harrison - The Last Train
Anon - The Tale Of A Gaslight Ghost
Alex Hamilton - The Attic Express
Joyce Marsh - The Woman In The Green Dress
Paul Tabori - The Very Silent Traveller
A. V. Harding - Take The Z Train
Jack Finney - The Third Level
Paul A. Carter - The Man Who Rode The TrainsBack cover blurb: "It is my most earnest request that readers do not read this book while travelling by rail. For when the train, screaming fearfully, hurtles into a dark noisome tunnel, horror comes ...'
Dark railway sidings and unlit carriages: abandoned waiting rooms and deserted platforms shrouded in steam: the solitary signalman: the scream of the steam whistle as it tears through the darkened countryside.
These are all the ingredients of Ronald Holmes's blood-curdling collection of MACABRE RAILWAY STORIES. After reading these spine-chilling tales, a railway journey spent in the company of a stranger, and those long, dark, winding tunnels will never be the same again... Top cover! Some of the selections are perhaps over familiar, but this is an excellent collection of spook and horror stories. My picks would be the exceptional L. T. C. Rolt's account of The Garside Fell Tragedy (really must give his Sleep No More collection a thread), Alex Hamilton's macabre tale of an overbearing father who gets his comeuppance when he finds himself trapped inside a carriage on a model railway, his bullied son at the controls and Joyce Marsh's almost-doppelgänger chiller The Woman In The Green Dress. Other high and low-lights include: Raymond Harvey - The Tunnel: Yes, our old favourite from Pan Book Of Horror 8. Night signalman George Wiggs arrives home unexpectedly to discover wife Veronica in bed with his friend Steve. He sneaks out unseen and returns to the box to plot his fiendish revenge. Two cups of drugged tea later and the lovers are bound hand and foot to the tracks. Dead grisly! Alfred Noyes - Midnight Express: ( This Week, 3 Nov, 1935}. As a twelve year old, Mortimer was terrified of an illustration in one of father’s books depicting a man standing under a dreary lamp on a desolate railway platform, staring into a pitch black tunnel. This makes such an impression on the boy that he pins it to the facing page so as never to see it again. Thirty eight years later, he finds himself on that same railway platform after dark, and there is that ominous figure stood before the tunnel mouth. He approaches, desperate to get a look at the man’s face … Anonymous - A Tale Of A Gaslight Ghost: ( New Christmas Annual 1867, 1866). Gregory Barnstake comes to live in the little farming village at Mappleton and is soon the subject of local gossip due to his refusal to talk to anyone bar the doctor, with whom he trades the occasional insult. Finally he’s forced into socialising with the herd when the village is scheduled for demolition to make way for a railway line. He surprises everyone at Seven Stars by bringing along a guest - a very odd chap with two fingers missing who professes to read the future. The strangest thing - nobody saw him enter the room! The discovery of a skeleton in a local lake at approximately the moment Barnstake dies of fright sheds some light on the mystery.
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Post by dem on Oct 14, 2019 5:38:26 GMT
John Edgell - All Change: ( John Edgell’s Ghosts, 1970). The last train from London theatre-land to Potters End. Nervy young Tammy has a carriage all to himself, until a guard and cleaning lady show up. Both have seen healthier days. Ghastly Graham Ingels would've had fun illustrating this one. Joyce Marsh - The Woman in the Green Dress: (Richard Davis [ed.], Spectre 3, 1976). Each morning Alison Temple, 36, watches from the kitchen as the 8.03 to Caitham Junction pauses at the bottom of her garden. All was well until this morning when she watched aghast as a woman in distinctive green dress came under attack from assailant unseen. Alison informs the police of what she's seen, but as there are no reports of a woman of her description boarding the train, nor any evidence of a struggle, the matter is dropped. Her husband, Ted, is likewise disinterested. The following day, the same again! Does the mystery woman make a habit of suffering attack in the same carriage each morning? Alison is moved to investigate. Tomorrow she will board the 8.03 at Sutton Road and take a seat in the sinister last-but-one carriage ..... The author's 'Greyfriars Bobby'-a-like, The Shepherd's Dog, seems deservedly well-regarded, but for this reader, ... Green Dress is even better. Alex Hamilton - The Attic Express: (Herbert van Thal [ed.] 4th Pan Book of Horror Stories, 1963). Selfish dad insists Brian feign enthusiasm for the model railway he bought for him . "Think of me being on it ... and run it accordingly," berates Mr. Coley. So Brian does. Allison V. Harding - Take The Z Train. ( Weird Tales, March 1950). A nerve-shredding commute home for luckless Henry Abernathy, fated to share a compartment peopled by multiple doppelgängers and every bastard he ever worked for.
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Post by Shrink Proof on Oct 14, 2019 9:01:05 GMT
An excellent compilation. An interestingly varied collection. Might dig it out for a re-read of some of the nasties within - thanks for reminding me of it.
My (second hand) copy had no cover so it's interesting to see the rat artwork too.
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Post by fritzmaitland on Oct 14, 2019 11:10:56 GMT
Hoo-hah! After reading (and watching) The Signal-Man last night, I'm musing whether to venture into Raymond Williams' The Tunnel - via Pan 8.
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Post by dem on Oct 14, 2019 16:14:00 GMT
An excellent compilation. An interestingly varied collection. Might dig it out for a re-read of some of the nasties within - thanks for reminding me of it. I far prefer this selection to the "William Pattrick" companion volume of the following year, Mysterious Railway Stories. My (second hand) copy had no cover so it's interesting to see the rat artwork too. As far as I'm aware, the cover artwork for the hardback edition was more in keeping with the rest of the series. There's a scan on isfdb |
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Post by Shrink Proof on Oct 14, 2019 19:14:43 GMT
I far prefer this selection to the "William Pattrick" companion volume of the following year, Mysterious Railway Stories. As far as I'm aware, the cover artwork for the hardback edition was more in keeping with the rest of the series. There's a scan on isfdbThe rat wins, hands down. And yes, you are right; a much better compilation than "Mysterious Railway Stories". |
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Post by dem on Oct 15, 2019 7:33:52 GMT
I far prefer this selection to the "William Pattrick" companion volume of the following year, Mysterious Railway Stories. As far as I'm aware, the cover artwork for the hardback edition was more in keeping with the rest of the series. There's a scan on isfdbThe rat wins, hands down. And yes, you are right; a much better compilation than "Mysterious Railway Stories". Having said that, the condensed version of The Ghost Train is a joy - anyone read the novel? Roy Vickers - The Eighth Lamp: ( The Novel Magazine, July 1916). Signalman George Raoul is terrified of working nights as his final duty is to extinguish the eight lamps in the tunnel at Cheyne Road Station. Ever since he transferred, the line has been haunted by a rogue Circle line train, and Raoul alone knows why. It's driven by the ghost of Pete Comber, the man he murdered and buried down a manhole at Baker Street, so he could make off with his wife. With their wedding arranged for tomorrow, Raoul is already heartily sick of Mabel, so perhaps what is about to happen tonight is a mercy. |
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Post by dem on Oct 16, 2019 3:28:20 GMT
Amelia B. Edwards - The Engineer: (All the Year Round Christmas, 1866). Mat Price and Benjamin Hardy, best friends since their childhood in Chadleigh village, fall out for love of an Italian beauty with with "no more heart than a marble statue." Gianetta Coneglia, the most glamorous shop assistant in Genoa, is a gold-digger who plays one against the other until their mutual hatred turns to violence. In the resulting brawl, Ben fatally stabs Mat. Tortured by guilt, the killer wanders from job to job, land to land, finally returning to Italy to drive a train on the Mantau to Venice line. Despite Mat's forgiveness, "the sin, and the shame and the sorrow" have turned him suicidally misanthropic. On learning that Gianetta and her elderly husband, the Duke Loredano, are aboard the express, he resolves to end his and their lives - along with scores of innocent passengers - by deliberately sending them all over an embankment. The ghost of Mat Price intervenes - but can the dead man avert disaster and save his friend's soul?
Paul Tabori - The Very Silent Traveller: (Lilliput, Sep-Oct 1953). To slash through red tape and avoid an excessive surcharge, three ranchers bundle the corpse of a colleague aboard a train bound for Buenos Ares for the dead man's uncle to collect on arrival. All is going to plan until fellow passenger General Grodeck, arms dealer, takes offence at being rudely ignored when he requests a light.
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Post by dem on Oct 16, 2019 13:56:01 GMT
L.T.C. Rolt - The Garside Fell Disaster: ( Sleep No More, 1948). Cumberland Moors. The vivid premonitions of three signalmen on the eve of a catastrophic tunnel collision between a night sleeper and a goods locomotive in the early hours of Valentines day, 1897. Commented upon in slightly more detail on Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories thread. Charles Collins - The Compensation House : ( All the Year Round Christmas, 1866). Should Mr. Oswald Strange chance upon a looking glass, he either freezes as though in cataleptic trance or smashes it to pieces. According to Dr. Garden, his patient is haunted: Strange cannot bear to consult a mirror because it ever reflects the face of another man. We learn via Strange's deathbed confession that some years ago, an Italian art teacher seduced his wife. In a fit of rage, Strange shot the fellow as he was sat at the dressing table admired his good looks. The slightest tweak to the last line and The Compensation House would have been properly bleak enough to ruin the ATYR readers' Christmas. Harry Harrison - The Last Train: (Herbert van Thal [ed.], The Second Bedside Book of Strange Stories, 1976). After a fierce evening's partying, a very drunk George Wolsey boards the last train at Gloucester Road for circle line train home to Kensington High Street (fare 5p) - and is thrown back in time to December 1941. Apparently based on a true event.
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Post by dem on Oct 16, 2019 20:16:22 GMT
Jack Finney - The Third Level : ( Colliers , 7 Oct. 1952). One summer night, Charley, 31, descends to an uncharted third level of Grand Central Station where it is forever 1894. Overjoyed, he asks for two tickets to Galesberg, Illinois, but his modern money is not worth the paper it's printed on. Returning to surface level, he invests in $200 worth of old currency. Crushingly, he's since been unable to locate the elusive stairwell , though, as a message enclosed inside a first day cover proves, the friend he confided in has met with success. For all it's merits, I'm not sure this famous story is especially "macabre." Charles Dickens - The Signalman: ( All the Year Round, Christmas, 1866). Had to dip into this one as , for the first time ever, I watched the BBC Ghost Story for Christmas version from 1976, with Denholm Elliott. (He's in the film, he didn't watch it with me). Top atmosphere, creeping dread, excellent locations, great performances, and in a complete reversal of my Roald Dahl The Landlady experience, I preferred the film version - Chas not getting down and dirty with the train crash and especially the weird bride sequence. Andrew Davies' adaptation was very good though - Dickensian dialogue abounding. The whole thing just felt ultra-spooky. NB the story is good as well, don't get me wrong, but I felt the Beeb enhanced it. Twice the signalman has seen the distressed spectre, and twice a disaster has occurred shortly afterwards. Now he confides in the narrator that recently he saw it a third time. Previously commented upon by several hands (by our standards, four people is several) on Complete Ghost stories of Charles Dickens thread. Paul A. Carter - The Man Who Rode the Trains: (August Derleth [ed.], Travellers By Night, 1967). He's been a railway enthusiast since his first train journey, aged ten. Over seventy years, he's travelled across America, visited Russia and, most recently, rode the Zimbabwe People's Railway at the height of Civil War. On each occasion he has noted among the passengers an impossibly old man, shunned by all but himself, a rail-road equivalent of the Wandering Jew. Repulsive of face, bloated, obese and putrid, seldom can The Grim Reaper have adopted such an unglamorous guise. These may well be the three "best" stories in the collection, which is probably why I got more of a thrill from Woman in the Green dress, The Attic Express, The Tunnel, All Change and The Garside Fell Disaster. Each to their own, innit?
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