The Ghost Now Standing On Platform One

by Richard Peyton

Comprising:

Journey Into Fear by Arnold Ridley
The Ghost Train by Rod Serling
.007 by Rudyard Kipling
The Haunted Curve by Elliott O'Donnell
Pacific 421 by August Derleth
Midnight Express by Alfred Noyes
The Waiting Room by Robert Aickman
The Kill by Peter Fleming
The Town Where No One Got Off by Ray Bradbury
The Wrong Station by A.M. Burrage
Lost in the Fog by J.D. Beresford
Branch Line to Benceston by Sir Andrew Caldecott
The Night Train to Lost Valley by Stephen Grendon
Take the Z Train by Allison V. Harding
Confidence Trick by John Wyndham
The Signal-Man by Charles Dickens
The Garside Fell Disaster by L.T.C. Rolt
Locomotive by Richard Hughes
Mourning Train by John Newton Chance
That Hell-Bound Train by Robert Bloch
A Journey by Train by Henry L. Lawrence
The Astral Lady by Eden Phillpotts
Miss Slumbubble--and Claustrophobia by Algernon Blackwood
A Short Trip Home by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Lonely Train A'Comin' by William F. Nolan
Envoi: The Shortest Ghost Story in the World

Genres: Short Stories, Fantasy, Horror

322 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Ronald · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a yahoo discussion group devoted to horror/weird fiction, I expressed an interest in train stories. A member of that yahoo group suggested The Ghost Now Standing On Platform One.

The editor of this volume, Richard Peyton, prefaces each story with an alleged factual account of a railway haunting. I didn't really take much interest in that.

As to the short stories, they ranged from 3 stars to 4. It was not surprising to see some authors here, writers of speculative fiction such as Ray Bradbury and Robert Aickman. But I was surprised to see others who are not known for their fantastic fiction, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Peter Fleming (brother of Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond).

The goodreads page for this book gives the table of contents.
Stories I consider worthy of note: "That Hell Bound Train" by Robert Bloch, a Deal-With-The-Devil story which won an award; "The Signal-Man" by Charles Dickens, arguably a classic in the ghost-story genre; "The Waiting Room" by the maestro of uncanny fiction, Robert Aickman. An interesting discovery for me was "Midnight Express" by Alfred Noyes. Alfred Noyes was a poet of distinction in the first half of the twentieth century. "Midnight Express" seems somewhat Borgesian; in Noyes' story, the main character, when he was a child, read a book which terrified him; then as an adult, gets into a situation exactly like what he had read in that book. Another plot point in this story is Borgesian but I think revealing it here would basically be spoilerish.

So I recommend this book to those interested in supernatural short stories.

[Laura Chapman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book in a charity shop, and despite having no interest whatsoever in trains, I do love ghost and horror story anthologies and read a lot of them. This one was so much better than I expected, as I had only read two of the stories previously, and the stories on the whole were of a really high standard.

Three alone were worth the price of the book and were absolute standouts which I’ll read again;

The Wrong Station, A M Burrage: a very sad and affecting tale that I found quite moving.

Branch Line to Benceston, Andrew Caldecott: one of the most inventive and intriguing stories I’ve read. As someone who has extremely vivid dreams, I could relate to this one.

The Town Where No One Got Off, Ray Bradbury: I’m a huge fan of Bradbury anyway, and have worked my way through most of his short stories. This one is more than excellent, on par almost with Silent Snow, Secret Snow by Conrad Aiken, which is the best short story I’ve ever read, so praise indeed. I’m almost scared to watch the tv episode with Jeff Goldblum incase they’ve ruined it. Beautiful writing, a sense of deep longing, detachment from reality and a subtle, moving ending.

[Jameson]

I haven’t finished it yet but I wanted to point out that, like the anthology series Terror Tales of (Location in England), each story is separated by an italicized couple pages about supposedly true ghost stories. In the one about President Lincoln’s funeral train it ends by introducing the next story, The Ghost Train, by Rod Serling (and an uncredited Walter B. Gibson, I think) with these words:

This extraordinary ghost, witnessed by literally thousands of people, also inspired one of the best episodes in Rod Serling’s outstanding television series about the supernatural, The Twilight Zone. It was entitled “The Ghost Train,” and the adaptation which follows is as eerie and chilling as any I know on the theme…


End quote. Yeahbutwhat? There is no such episode. A Stop at Willoughby is as close as it gets, I think. But the story that follows is not like it at all. Just thought this was strange and couldn’t find mention of it online anywhere, so here is its honorable mention.

[David Ellery · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard to rate this book. A collection of railway-themed ghost stories that stretches the definition in more ways than one - from a Kipling romp in the vein of Thomas the Tank Engine to a couple of tales whose only connection to railways is one character telling another a story in a waiting room - and is of greatly varying quality. A few poor, many decent, a couple good, one really good, and one, courtesy of Robert Bloch, simply fantastic. It does, however, provide strong evidence that the first-person, relating a story told to them by someone else approach is one of the more overdone tropes out there.

Two bursts of brillance from Serling and Bloch, but otherwise nothing more than a solid distraction.

[Jo Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good stories