Scheduled for Autumn, 2021
In the mid-1800s, ghosts and trains seemed to be headed in opposite directions. Some claimed ghosts were disappearing along with the superstitious past while trains were speeding into the future as a thundering example of mechanical progress. Yet it did not take long for old-fashioned ghosts to rise and ride on the modern railways. After the End of the Line: Railroad Hauntings in Literature and Lore brings together fiction and non-fiction sources — short stories, newspaper reports, poetry, memoir, and more — to reveal how their cross-influence created horrifying accounts of apparitions on the tracks, haunted train tunnels and switching stations, even phantom locomotives!
Railroad Hauntings You Can Still Visit
As I researched historical accounts of haunted tracks, creepy railway tunnels, phantom trains, and similar phenomena, I blogged about those sites that can still be explored. Maybe there’s a spectral switchman or a demonic depot near you! (Click on the haunted spot to read the post.)
The Engine House in Old Saybrook, Connecticut
Big Bull Tunnel in Virginia
Hempfield Tunnel in West Virginia
Sag Bridge in Illinois
Phantom Traditions Library
After the End of the Line will be the fifth volume in the Phantom Traditions Library, a series of anthologies featuring unusual and forgotten genres of fiction that flourished in the 1800s.
The other volumes are:
- Entranced by Eyes of Evil: Tales of Mesmerism and Mystery
- Echoing Ghost Stories: Literary Reflections of Oral Tradition
- Ghostly Clients & Demonic Culprits: The Roots of Occult Detective Fiction
- Imagining Life on the Moon During the Rise of the Telescope
Future anthologies will feature tales about polar journeys and more!
