Rail transport in fiction
Examples of railways in fiction include:
Films
- 3:10 to Yuma (2007 film) the second adaptation of Elmore Leonard's short story, starred Russell Crowe and Christian Bale.
- Back to the Future Part III – the improvised method of propelling the time machine to 88 mph in 1885 was by using a steam locomotive, also Emmett Brown refitted a steam locomotive into a hovertrain as the basis of his new time machine.
- Brief Encounter (1945) – romantic meetings in a train station
- Boxcar Bertha (1972) Starred Barbara Hershey as a orphan who turns to robbing trains for survival. Martin Scorsese's first feature film.
- The Cassandra Crossing (1976) – passengers aboard a transcontinental train face a threat from carrier of plague virus.
- Closely Watched Trains – in which the story takes places at a railway station in World War II in Czechoslovakia under the Nazi occupation. The film is based on Bohumil Hrabal's novel, directed by Jiří Menzel.
- Death Line (1972) and Creep (2004) – both deal with killers on the London Underground.
- The First Great Train Robbery - based on the Great Gold Robbery of 1855.
- From Russia with Love – James Bond novel and film, confrontation on board of the Orient Express.
- Give My Regards to Broad Street – A day in the life of Paul McCartney. Master tapes to McCartney's new album are stolen. Featuring London Broad Street station.
- The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery (1969) - a group of train robbers are chased up and down a local railway line by a group of unruly students from a local school.
- The Great Train Robbery – feature film based on a true story, also title of a modern film.
- Horror Express – Anglo-Spanish horror film set aboard the Trans-Siberian Express, on which passengers are killed off one by one.
- The Lady Vanishes by Alfred Hitchcock – the majority of the plot takes place on a train heading for England.
- Men in Black and Men in Black II – starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, has aliens living in the subway.
- Mission: Impossible – sees a helicopter pursuing a TGV train into the Channel Tunnel which runs between Great Britain and France. In reality this type of train does not travel through the Channel Tunnel, and the tunnel shown in the film has double track whereas the real tunnel has two single bores.
- Miss Potter – Sequences for the film Miss Potter starring Ewan McGregor and Renée Zellweger were filmed at Horsted Keynes station on the Bluebell Railway.
- Murder on the Orient Express (1974) Based on novel by Agatha Christie, starring Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman.
- Murder, She Said – features extensive railway scenes. Based on the novel 4.50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie
- Night Train (1959) - Polish film by Jerzy Kawalerowicz
- North by Northwest (1959) Alfred Hitchcock thriller starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason
- North West Frontier (1959) – A British army officer transports a young prince to safety aboard an antiquated locomotive.
- Oh, Mr Porter! (1937) - Will Hay film about an incompetent station master in charge of a near-derelict railway station in Northern Ireland.
- Robbery (1967) - based loosely on the Great Train Robbery.
- Runaway (2009) – National Film Board of Canada animated comedy short about a runaway train.
- Runaway Train – Film about escaped inmates on a runaway train.
- School for Scoundrels – film opens at Yeovil station with a train hauled by locomotoive tank number 68500.
- Silver Streak - a passenger train is both the primary set and plays a pivotal part in bringing murderers to justice.
- Strangers on a Train (1951) Alfred Hitchcock classic thriller.
- Steamboy (2004) - featured extensive railway scenes (including a chase scene between a train, a "steam automotive" and a steam-powered monowheel) around London and Manchester.
- Terror Train (1980) Canadian horror movie starring Jamie Lee Curtis
- The Taking of Pelham One Two Three – 1974 film adapted from the John Godey novel of the same name about the hijacking of a New York Subway train.
- The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953) - set on a country railway threatened with closure and sabotage by a local bus service.
- The Train (1964) - French Resistance members try to stop a Nazi colonel from transporting priceless works of art aboard a train to Germany.
- Train of Events (1949) - revolves around the lives of several people involved in a train crash.
- Unstoppable (2010) - tells the story of a runaway freight train and two men who try to stop it. Inspired by the CSX 8888 incident.
- Volcano – An extension to the subway meets a lava flow.
- Von Ryan's Express is about World War II POW's escaping by hijacking their train.
- While You Were Sleeping – stars Sandra Bullock as a subway worker who is mistaken for the fiancee of an injured passenger.
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.
Television
Other
See also
External links