‘’Our love affair with trains - especially steam trains - is matched by our fear of them. Who amongst us has not, at one time or another, been ultra-cautious about standing too close to the edge of the platform as the train thunders in, or has hurried over a level-crossing just in case the train might appear at any second, or has found themselves alone in the labyrinth of the tunnels underground leading to a possibly deserted station. And who has not wondered who will sit next to them in a carriage, especially the older carriages where you could be trapped in a compartment.’’
Mike Ashley

When I saw the title in the catalogue of British Library Publishing, I knew that it was bound to offer an exciting edge to this daily commuter’s life. Commuting on a day-to-day basis is both a blessing and a curse (and trust me, I reacted much more vehemently during the early years…) and the idea of a ghost among the masses of commuters seems utterly illogical.

But is it really? Where else could a ghost appear in plain sight and pass (largely) unnoticed? Who is responsible for every single thing that turns our lives into a nightmare in the subway? Why do all these stupid people refuse to understand that the subway is not a place to make out, or to occupy 5,000 seats with shopping bags? Not to mention the zombies who walk like intoxicated Teletubbies on high heels, enjoying the non-existent sights on the platform while the rest of us are desperately trying to go to our jobs in safety.

Bottom line: Ghosts are always better than people.

The Strange Story of Engine Number 651 (Victor L. Whitechurch): A locomotive cursed with ill fortune and a tragic story of obsession.

The Conductor’s Story (Zoe Dana Underhill): The sad tale of a tragic accident that reveals the anger lurking in a problematic family, echoed in the sounds of a haunted bell…

A Desperate Run (Anonymous): A spectre is there to prevent an accident in the dark moors.

A Strange Night (L.G.Moberly): A pair of friends stumble upon a hamlet with no residents in sight, close to a railway that leads nowhere and trains that disappear. A haunting story that reminded me of the exceptional film Backtrack with Adrien Brody and Sam Neill.

The Tragedy in the Train (Huan Mee): A perplexing crime committed in a locked compartment occupied only by the victim. The structure of the story is outstanding.

The Man With the Cough (Mary Louisa Molesworth): A man carrying important documents finds himself in the centre of a strange nightly adventure, accompanied by ‘’the man with the cough’’.

Railhead (Perceval Landon): A message in the darkness coming from a disconnected instrument hides a terrible warning.

The Barford Snake (Edgar Wallace): An eerie tale about a junction where accidents take place, resulting in numerous casualties. Ιs it haunted? Cursed? The ending is astonishing!
A Ghost on the Train (Dinah Castle): A passenger on the last train to Brighton comes face-to-face with a murderer and a ghost in a story that is chilling and thrilling.

The Underground People (Rosemary Timperley): As a daily commuter I’ve always believed that public transport was created by Satan himself. This fascinating account of one of his minions confirms my conviction.

Really.

A Romance of the Piccadilly Tube (T.G.Jackson): A tragic accident in the Tube reveals the secret of a codicil and the unjust treatment of two brothers by their father. Don’t let the title mislead you…

In the Tube (E. F. Benson): A man witnesses a death that hasn’t happened yet in a complex story that defies the principles of Time and Place.

A Subway Named Mobius (A. J. Deutsch): A train disappears in the subway along with its passengers, possibly escaping to another dimension. A complicated tale that my mind refused to engage with on account of a character called Sweeney.

Don’t judge me.

The Last Train (Michael Vincent): Phantom lights glimpsed from dark windows. Phantom passengers eternally waiting for the one train. Spectres of people who committed suicide. Lines passing under cemeteries. Missing drivers. Spooks…

The Underground (R. Chetwynd - Hayes): In this memorable story, the spectre of a young soldier in the subway reveals a tragic loss to a woman who is trapped between her obnoxious father and a worthless suitor.

A Short Trip Home (F. Scott Fitzgerald): A young man, desperately in love, is willing to face a very persuasive rival to the end of the trip home…

The Companion (Ramsey Campbell): ‘’Stone closed his eyes. When he opened them he saw within the hood of an oval of white cloth upon which - black crosses for eyes and nose, a barred crescent for a moth - a grinning face was stitched.’’

This collection is absolutely precious! Brilliantly Introduced and edited by Mike Ashley.

‘’We are the Underground People. We dwell in that world of roaring trains and dark tunnels, moving staircases and bright platforms, crushing crowds and strange draughts that seem to come from nowhere.
You see us every day. You are familiar with many of our faces, for we have a set routine of movements and travel. We are always in the same places at the same time each day. Each one of us is governed by the will of Him. We do not know who or where He is. We know nothing. We act according to His will, having no will of our own.
We are not ghosts. We are solid. Very solid.’’

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/ ( )

Careening down the track we have The Platform Edge: Uncanny Tales of the Railways, yet another excellent volume in the British Library Tales of the Weird series. Fine selections as usual by editor Mike Ashley. This is one of those anthologies that you plan for one or two stories per sitting, and you end up devouring four or five.

The Strange Story of Engine Number 651 - Victor L. Whitechurch…. The titular engine seems to be chronically problematical. A fine though fairly rudimentary ghost story with nothing to really distinguish it from a multitude of others in the genre.

The Conductor’s Story - Zoe Dana Underhill…. The story of a train engineer beset by a strange haunting with catastrophic results.

A Desperate Run - Anonymous…. An apparition warns of an impending rail disaster. A very brief but powerful tale.

A Smoking Ghost - W.G. Kelly…. A uniquely clever and humorous ghost story, with a superb little kicker at the end.

A Strange Night - L.G. Moberly…. A deserted stretch of railway is nevertheless beholden to a dark past.

The Tragedy in the Train - Huan Mee…. Here we have a murder mystery rather than a tale of the supernatural, but as the murder takes place in a closed train compartment, it does fit nicely in with the theme of this anthology. It is essentially a locked room puzzle as the victim is shot through the skull at an angle that precludes suicide, and there is no sign of entry nor egress from the compartment, nor any gun. A good story, though the solution is not all that difficult to solve.

The Man with the Cough - Mary Louisa Molesworth…. Only the barest hint of anything supernatural, but plenty of intrigue and suspense in this tale, wherein a member of a German engineering firm must deliver, via rail (and boat), critical documents to a client in London. Who exactly is this mysterious man with the strange cough that keeps reappearing along the journey? Excellent storytelling here that truly feels like the confusion and maddening time dislocation we all experience when having a nightmare.

Railhead - Perceval Landon…. Eerie messages on the telegraph instrument at the Enderton station-house are at the center of this mysterious tale.

The Barford Snake - Edgar Wallace…. The Germott family has had a long-standing feud with the railway company. When a series of rail accidents occur at the Barford Snake, a treacherously tight series of curves, suspicions point toward the Germott granddaughter’s spiritualism as the root cause. Well written tale, with a nice plant/payoff climax that works beautifully.

A Ghost on the Train - Dinah Castle…. Published in 1968, this story is one of the more modern in the entire series, but the tone and style blends perfectly with those of earlier eras.

The Underground People - Rosemary Timperley…. A wry take on the masses who inhabit the London Underground.

A Romance of the Piccadilly Tube - T.G. Jackson…. On his deathbed Mr. Markham signs a codicil to his will that negates an even split of this vast estate to his sons George and James, and bequeaths nearly all to James, with merely £1,000 directed to George. Mr. Harvey, the confidential solicitor and friend of the dying man, after preparing and executing the codicil dies in a grisly accident at an underground station platform, and by enormous coincidence, George retrieves the codicil amidst the chaos. Intriguing tale of the resulting dilemma of whether to burn the codicil and receive half the estate, or turn over the codicil to the executor and receive the mere pittance stipulated therein. Jackson’s straightforward, precision writing is a pleasure to read.

In the Tube - E.F. Benson…. A beguiling mindbender of the first order, prefaced by a rather cogent treatise on the illusions of Time and Space embedded at the outset of the story. Benson’s descriptions of astral bodies and ghostly presences are the most chilling I’ve read, primarily for the atmosphere created and, dare I say, their utter believability.

A Subway Named Mobius - A.J. Deutsch…. A mindbender of a different kind, in this often anthologized 1950 tale the complex topology of the Boston subway system results in a train which has gone missing, and has presumably traveled to another dimension.

The Last Train - Michael Vincent… A London Underground motorman is shocked to see that the abandoned Museum station, a “ghost” station, suddenly lit up and vibrant with a crowd of people on the platform. This one reads much like a Twilight Zone episode.

The Underground - R. Chetwynd-Hayes…. A middle-aged woman sees a recurring vision of a soldier in World War II uniform on the platform of a particular tube station platform. The shock ending packs a pretty powerful punch.

A Short Trip Home - F. Scott Fitzgerald…. Surprising to find one of his stories here, but it fits in perfectly. One of my favorite authors, his prose is intoxicating, particularly the final sublime paragraph.

The Companion - Ramsey Campbell…. Nightmarish tale of a man’s holiday visit to a gloomy fairground, which culminates on the Ghost Train. An intense psychological journey, travelled with childlike trepidation, through a maze of fears and haunting memories; a dizzying story that leaves the reader constantly off-kilter. ( )