Railing through reality: Trains and mobility in Victorian ghost stories.

This article examines the cultural history of ghost trains in Victorian fiction by analyzing three lesser-known nineteenth-century ghost stories within the social and publishing contexts of the era. It argues that ghost trains, characterized by their unnatural mobility, reflect contemporary anxieties about railway travel, including loss of passenger control, dislocation in space and time, and the trauma of railway accidents. The paper highlights how railways transformed perceptions of movement and time, influencing both reading habits and literary production, with ghost train narratives serving as a bridge between real and supernatural experiences. These stories illustrate the complex interplay between technological modernity, passenger vulnerability, and the Victorian literary marketplace, demonstrating the enduring cultural resonance of the ghost train trope.