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?

I was going to say the 39 steps!

The riddle of the sands by Erskine Childers is mainly about sailing boats, but has a suspenseful train journey at the climax.

And Anna Karenina has some pivotal train moments, though not necessarily about a journey.

I also really like Laura Ingalls Wilder’s description of her first ever train ride on the American prairie. I think it is in By the shores of Silver Lake.

Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson is a fun read.

An early chapter in Antonia Forest's Autumn Term - A knife with 16 blades.

The train crash in an early Chalet School book was a highlight.

I see @pollyhemlock beat me to it...

But given your username, what about the train ride at the finale of Fire and Hemlock?

There was also an important train ride in Susan Cooper's Silver on the Tree.

@Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies Yes indeed to both those- and they’re actually quite similar in that neither train ride is entirely in this world and both lead to a cataclysmic conflict.

My favourite fictional railway journeys are

The 39 Steps
Murder on the Orient Express
The ABC Murders - less about the journeys, more about the published timetable.

And if we're having films, the train journey and Joan Webster's dream sequence in I Know Where I'm Going

Trains have always been hopelessly romantic to me in films and books. Sadly less so in real life.

edited to add films Arthur Askey in The Ghost Train and Will Hay in Oh Mr Porter!

I love to be scared and thrilled in a comedy film; especially in black & white.

NIght train to Lisbon

The moment in 4.50 from Paddington where Mrs McGillykuddy sees the murder in a passing train is one of my most thrilling moments in fiction.

John Rhode wrote an enormous number of 'Golden Age' detective mysteries and quite a few of those include plots set around trains, including Death on the Boat Train of 1940 (Kindle currently have a load of his books for only 99p each).

Travels with my Aunt was my first thought- it is one of my favourite books.

I love that book, and the old film (with Jenny Agutter), which I often watch when I go to see my mum. We always cry at the end!

I watched that when DS was the same age as the little boy and I found it tremendously upsetting. His poor mother.

But speaking of books with trains, what about Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter whose end section takes place on the trans-Siberian railway.

But speaking of books with trains, what about Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter whose end section takes place on the trans-Siberian railway.

Dr Zhivago

I used to really look forward to getting the new season's timetable in book format. Useful but also great for dreaming about future journeys.

Same!

@Alongthetowpath- I thought of On the Shores of Silver Lake too. I think Laura describes the journey to Mary. I found that part of the book upsetting as a child as the description of Mary losing her sight was such a shock.

There are lots of train journeys in The Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson (going to school and escaping from Nazis) - all of which are very funny.

@Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies& @pollyhemlock(love the user name) - there’s also train journeys in The Crown of Hemlock and (possibly) in A Tale of Time City. I think Diana Wynne Jones is excellent at describing travel generally as it’s a part of so many of her books. My favourites are horse & cart (Cart & Cwidder), boat (Drowned Ammet), walking (Howl) & electric bicycle (The Pinhoe Egg).

Most heroic train journey for me has to be Edek in The Silver Sword being frozen as he holds on underneath the train.

Semi-fictional: the train journey in When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit when Anna, Max and their mother are leaving Germany, their father having gone on ahead.

Crime: Shroud of Darkness by E.C.R Lorac. Trains, railway stations and fog!

There's also Nicola's train journey in the same book when she breaks bounds to see Giles, and a fair amount of train-themed content in The Ready Made Family (including obvious influence of The Railway Children!).

@Benvenuto I do love a DWJ name! Spellcoats is my favourite of the Dalemark books and that’s pretty much all journey. Water though, not train obviously.

@pollyhemlockSpellcoats is very atmospheric - there’s such a sense of the dampness, the danger and the sheer misery at times of being on that river - (& thanks for worrking out my username).

Back to trains - Edith Wharton opens The House of Mirth in Grand Central Station and this followed by the subsequent train journey reveal Lily Bart’s character and social predicament to the reader. It’s a bravura opening and persuaded me to read a lot more Edith Wharton.

This is non-fiction but I’m also going to mention How railways can fix the future by Gareth Dennis which is very readable on the current state of the railways.

Also excellent are Railhead by Philip Reeve and its sequels Black Light Express and Station Zero. Giant intergalactic trains - what more could one want?

Sarah Brooks, The Cautious Traveller's Guide to The Wastelands for a fantasy take on the Trans-Siberian.

More Antonia Forest train content in The Thuggery Affair.

I also love The 4.50 from Paddington. It's on iplayer right now with Joan Hickson.

Last Train to Istanbul by Ayse Kulin

The Signal Man by Charles Dickens