Rail Transport in Fiction - Literature

Literature

• 4.50 From Paddington (book; film and TV adaptations) – a Miss Marple story. A passenger on one train is witness to a murder being committed on another train.
• The Adventure of the Lost Locomotive - a Solar Pons story about a disappearing train on the Great Northern Railway.
• Anna Karenina (book) – by Leo Tolstoy. Train travel is arguably the most prominent motif of the story.
• "The Celestial Railroad" – Short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• The Dark Tower (book series) by Stephen King – The main character Roland of Gilead travels through a series of caves which were once part of an underground railroad system. The characters also ride on a monorail with artificial intelligence.
• The Devil's Horse, The Poison Tree and The Abyss in Cynthia Harrod-Eagles' The Morland Dynasty series feature the development of steam power and the first railways in Britain.
• Galaxy Express 999 – From the manga and anime of the same name by Leiji Matsumoto, this train travels the galaxy from planet to planet.
• Iron Council (China Mieville) – a fantasy book about the building of a cross-continental railway line.
• Jim Stringer: Steam Detective - series of mystery novels by Andrew Martin set on various British railway lines.
• La Bête humaine – (novel) by Émile Zola, filmed 5 times, e.g. as Cruel Train
• The Little Engine That Could – children's book. Also adapted as an animated film in 1991 (see The Little Engine That Could (film)).
• The Locomotive – dynamic poem for children by Julian Tuwim, filmed by Zbigniew Rybczyński
• The Lost Special - short story by Arthur Conan Doyle, about the investigation of a special train mysteriously disappearing.
• The Motion Demon – 1919 (book) horror stories by Stefan Grabiński- Engine Driver Grot; The Wandering Train; The Motion Demon; The Sloven; The Perpetual Passenger; In the Compartment; Signals; The Siding; Ultima Thule.
• Murder on the Orient Express (book, film) – describes a train journey from Paris to Istanbul aboard the Orient Express during which a murder takes place. Hercule Poirot, riding on the train solves the mystery and justice is served.
• The Mystery of the Blue Train (book, TV adaptation) – earlier Poirot story in which a murder takes place on a train.
• The Network (book) – by Laurence Staig. An Ancient prophecy is realised one Christmas Eve in the London Subway London Underground a dramatic race against time as 3 people are thrown together to prevent a terrifying catastrophe.
• Night on the Galactic Railroad (novel, film) - two boys travel on a magical train across the night sky - but there is a deeper meaning to the journey.
• Strangers on a Train (novel, film) – tells the story of how two strangers meet on a train and decide to exchange murders so they can't be tied to each other.
• Taggart Comet (Atlas Shrugged)
• The Thirty-Nine Steps – (book by John Buchan, films, one by Alfred Hitchcock) features a sequence where the character Richard Hannay escapes from the Police by jumping from a train. One version uses the Forth Bridge in Scotland, while another is filmed on the Severn Valley Railway.
• The Wind in the Willows - a large portion of the novel involves the flight of Mr. Toad by rail and a chase-scene with another train full of policemen.