Railways

An unsolved mystery with an intriguing possibility — On Sunday 24th September 1905, at eleven o’clock at night, a gang of workmen who were about to carry out repairs to Merstham tunnel in Surrey, on the railway line between London and Brighton, found a body lying by the track. It had been badly mutilated by a train, and…

Background Český Brod is a city of 7066 people (as of 2021) in the center of Czechia, located in the Kolín Region 30km/18.5mi east of Prague and 65km/40.5mi west of Pardubice (both measurements in linear distance).

Background The Newark Bay is a tidal bay measuring 8.9km/5.5mi by (average) 1.45km/0.9mi …

Existential terror on the Poughkeepsie Express — The train lurched into motion. My separation from the Poughkeepsie station grew along with my existential dread. The seats and layout didn’t look quite like the Amtrak local I rode three days earlier. The color was off. The seats were closer together. I held out my e-ticket to the conductor. …

Background Gramatneusiedl is a municipality of 3697 people (as of 2022) in the far east of Austria, located in the federal state of Lower Austria 17km/10.5mi southeast of Vienna and 42km/26mi west of the Slovakian border at Bratislava (both measurements in linear distance).

I was on a train in Tunisia earlier this week, and unexpectedly saw some English-language graffiti scrawled inside one of the carriages which somehow encapsulated the enduring significance of rail travel as a metaphor for the emotional trauma of unhealed heartbreak

Background Kellmünz an der Iller (Kellmünz on the Iller) is a town of 1483 people (as of 2021) in the far south of Germany, located in the federal state of Bavaria 32km/20mi south of Ulm and 63km/39mi southwest of Augsburg (both measurements in linear distance).

Background Tauberfeld is a town of 945 people (as of 2017) in southern Germany, located 14.5km/9mi northwest of Ingolstadt and 71km/44mi south of Nürnberg (both measurements in linear distance).

W. H. Roblee was making improvements to his hotel at North River. “The North River Hotel is one of the most popular hostelries in the Adirondacks, and a prosperous season is looked for,” the North Creek correspondent reported in The Morning Star on June 19, 1890. …