Cult-TV Theme Watch: The Train

A train is a vehicle that travels on rails, or a railway track, and which can transport both people and cargo.  Trains might be diesel, electric or steam-powered.

Although trains are not widely considered futuristic, they have nonetheless been featured frequently throughout cult-TV history.

One Step Beyond (1959 – 1961), a paranormal anthology hosted by John Newland features a memorable tale about a train. In the second season story “Goodbye Grandpa,” two poor children in the west mourn the loss of their grandfather, who used to regale them with tales of his days on the railroad.  Then, one day, their grandpa --- ensconced on a ghost train -- appears on the abandoned rails near their house for one last goodbye. 

One of the most famous trains in cult-tv history involves not the mode of transport, but the creepy destination. In a particularly dark episode of The Twilight Zone (1959 – 1964) called “A Stop at Willoughby,” an unhappy business man, Gart Williams (James Daly) dreams of an idyllic town called Willoughby while commuting on the train each day.

Each time he stops at Willoughby, he is more and more tempted to remain there permanently.  Finally, during one of his slumbers, he decides to remain, forsaking the unhappy real world for the fantasy world.

In the real world, however, the train’s conductor saw Gart jump from the train to his death. The name of the funeral home that takes care of his corpse…Willoughby and Son Funeral Home.

Amazing Stories (1985 – 1987), Steven Spielberg’s expensive NBC anthology, premiered with an episode called “Ghost Train” that for all intents and purposes plays like a high-budget remake of One Step Beyond’s “Goodbye Grandpa.”

In this tale, a dying old man and grandfather (Roberts Blossoms) believes that a train he once caused (accidentally) to crash will come back…to take him to Heaven. The old man tells this story to his young grandson, who believes him.

Sure enough, the ghost train appears -- pulps the family house -- and carries kindly old Grandpa away to the after-life.

An episode of Chris Carter's Millennium (1996 - 1999) also involves trains.  In "Borrowed Time," an Angel of Death seeks to take several souls, including those on a train that is destined to derail and sink into a river.

The first episode of Joss Whedon’s Firefly (2002) ever aired on FOX TV was called “The Train Job,” and it involved Serenity’s crew and the futuristic equivalent of a great train robbery.

In particular, Captain Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and his crew were hired to steal some crates right out from under a moving train and its garrison of Alliance soldiers.  The rogues succeeded, only to find that they had stolen much needed medicine from local farmers…

Trains can also be seen in crucial episodes of The X-Files (1993 – 2002) notably the fourth season two-parter “Nisei”/”731” and in the introductory imagery of Adventures of Superman (1951 – 1958).