Railway Fiction

[HonoriaBulstrode]

A blogger I follow was noting the bicentenary of the start of the Railway Age and remarked on how often railway journeys feature in books and films.

So, favourite fictional railway journeys?

Agatha Christie wote at least three books in which a railway journey is integral to the plot.
Lots of train travel in the Chalet School series. I think I like the wartime journeys best, they're the most realistic.
And if you include railway stations, Brief Encounter of course.
And in Casablanca, when Ilsa doesn't turn up to get the train out of Paris and Rick has to leave without her.

What else?

Strangers on A Train and The Lady Vanishes.

Stamboul Train - Graham Greene

I just read the Railway Children. It’s not a journey but still a good book (and I also watched the film - the 2000 re-make).

There’s a whole series of books by Edward Marston about the “Railway Detective”, set in early days of the railways.

Hogwarts Express

Strangers on A Train and The Lady Vanishes.

And Night Train to Munich. And Pimpernel Smith has a train journey.

There’s a whole series of books by Edward Marston about the “Railway Detective”, set in early days of the railways.

Andrew Martin also has a series about a railwayman who turned to detecting railway crime.

Travels with my Aunt by Graham Greene
4.50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie
I quite liked Girl on the Train as well.

Lots of Enid Blyton have the journeys to school on trains.

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins is a great book.

I always love how in Sherlock Holmes they can look up train times in a big published book and they're never delayed or on strike.

I always love how in Sherlock Holmes they can look up train times in a big published book

What we all did, pre-internet. I remember going to the library to look up train journeys when I was going on holiday.

The vocabulary of 'Bradshaw' is nervous and terse, but limited.

Not a journey, but set in the world of railways - La Bête Humaine, by Zola

The Railway Man, Lomax
The Railway Children, Nesbit
Murder on the Orient Express, Christie
The Wheel Spins, White
Five go off to Camp, Blyton (the spook trains!)

I also loved the three-day rail trip from the mid-west
To Connecticut in ‘What Katy did at School’.

The 39 steps. John Buchan

The Paris Express - new book by Emma Donohue - really detailed description of a 19th century train journey.

Victor Whitechurch’s “Thrilling Stories of the Railway” is on BBC Sounds right now:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b00fy3d2?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

These are ‘real’ not novels, but Monisha Rajesh has written books called Moonlight Express about her experiences on night trains around the world, and Around the World in 80 Trains. I love trains, night trains in particular.

As a train lover, I soothe anxiety by listening to train soundtracks on YouTube - the one I’ve linked below is a wintery, snowy one.

I was going to say this . The little station ‘set in the heart of a bog’ where Hannay gets off the train is based on Gatehouse of Fleet station. The line is long gone, but the landscape is very evocative and there’s a massive viaduct still standing.

Buchan is very good at landscapes, and not just in his native Scotland.

Gatehouse of Fleet also features in DLS's Five Red Herrings. Trains and train timetables play a large part in that.

there's the transcontinental train journey to California in The Painted Garden.

Some good recommendations, thanks. I recently read Tokyo Express by Seicho Matsumoto, an engaging little detective story, about the intricacies of the Japanese railway system.

When my kids were Primary age they had a great series called "Adventures on Trains" starting with the Highland Falcon Thief. By MG Leonard.

@HonoriaBulstrode Yes I agree about Buchan’s landscapes. Five Red Herrings is not one of my favourite DLSs. There’s an awful lot about railway timetables if I remember correctly.

It all went very wrong on the railways in for one family in the film Lion.

But what a film.

Fans of Antonia Forest ( of whom there are many on Mumsnet) will remember the opening of Autumn Term where Nicola drops her penknife out of the train window and pulls the communication cord so that she can stop the train and retrieve it.

It's years since I read it, but I remember enjoying Paul Theroux's The Kingdom by the Sea. It's mostly a journey by train, written in the Falklands war era (so would be very nostalgic to read now), and gives a gentle nod to other writers who made similar journeys to describe the country (John Betjeman, George Orwell, J.B. Priestley).

Edited to add: I just sneaked a peek at the Amazon reviews and quite a few people disliked the book ("couldn't finish it as it was by turns snobbish, judgemental, nasty and utterly depressing") 🤣 Maybe I'd hate it nowadays...