After the End of the Line: Railroad Hauntings in Literature and Lore

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 new 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!

Read the Introduction

To get a sense of After the End of the Line, here’s a .pdf version of the introduction:

After the End of the Line Introduction

(Scholars: despite appearances, the pagination here is different from the actual book, so cite this source as a .pdf retrieved online.)

Railroad Hauntings
You Can Still Visit

My research into historical accounts of haunted tracks, creepy railway tunnels, phantom trains, and similar phenomena is ongoing. When I discover a location that can still be explored, I blog about it. 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
The Tracks Near West Trenton Station, New Jersey
Big Bull Tunnel in Virginia
Port Kennedy Station, Pennsylvania
Hempfield Tunnel, 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!