DAY 24 — GHOST TRAINS
A train is a ghost story with machinery already installed.
The whistle travels for miles. Tracks disappear into darkness. Stations get abandoned while the rails remain. And because trains once connected nearly every important chapter of American life, they also collected accidents, farewells and tragedies along the way.
Enter the phantom locomotive: lights with no train, whistles on dead lines, passengers who never reached the station. Whether a particular tale is history, folklore or somebody hearing a modern train carry strangely through the night, the imagery is nearly perfect.
Just don’t go standing on active tracks trying to improve the experience. A real locomotive is considerably less romantic at close range.
NEXT TRANSMISSION — DAY 25: MAD SCIENTISTS