Stuff To Blow Your Mind From the Vault: Trains of Terror, Part 2
Oct 16, 2025
This dive into eerie train lore explores Victorian fears of railway madness and the phenomenon of ghost trains. Discover the moral dilemmas of haunted trains versus static locations and learn about the chilling parliamentary ghost trains in Britain. Tales of yokai and their encounters with trains intertwine folklore with modernity. Uncover the mystery of railroad ghost lights and the eerie legend surrounding Lincoln's funeral train. Plus, the concept of a Ghost Train Generator offers a fascinating glimpse into blending technology with the supernatural.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Train Duality Shapes Hauntings
- Trains occupy a dual symbolic role as both moving beings and inhabitable locations, blurring ghost and haunted-house tropes.
- That duality shifts how stories portray train hauntings, often making them plaintive rather than malicious.
Three Types Of Ghost-Train Encounters
- Ghost-train sightings cluster into three types: phantom lights/sounds, spectral trains, and empty moving cars.
- Each type evokes distinct fears: missed trains, processional dead, or eerie vacant vehicles in motion.
Tanuki Mimicry Of Trains
- Joe and Robert recount Japanese tanuki legends that mimic train lights and sounds to prank humans.
- Folklorist Michael Dylan Foster links these tales to anxiety about railways erasing traditional magic.
