Synopsis

Scene 1
A mismatched group of travelers is stranded at a rural station late on a stormy evening because Teddy Deakin stopped the train to rescue his hat, losing everyone their connections. Saul Hodgkin the Station Master is adamant that his bedraggled guests cannot stay overnight in the waiting room, but there is no transportation and no other accommodation, and they see no alternative but to settle down for the night. Persuaded against his better judgment, Saul launches into an impassioned Monologue about the legend of a ghost train that will scream through the station at midnight, bringing death and destruction in its wake. The ghost of the engine driver will also haunt the station, swinging a lamp and singing Rock of Ages.

Scene 2
Although shaken, the travelers are resolute, and arrange their bedding for the night, as Saul heads for home in the storm. Elderly Miss Bourne worries about contacting her sister, who will be concerned for her. Peggy Martin muses about her fiancé, whom she claims to be meeting for an elopement. Teddy Deakin warns everyone not to be so gullible. Miss Bourne plies Peggy for personal information. Through the window Peggy sees a lamp swinging and despite the storm hears someone singing a hymn outside. A knock at the door brings everyone to their feet, and when Teddy cautiously opens the door a disfigured body falls into the room, apparently dead. They move the corpse into the Ticket Office.

Scene 3
Peggy is shaken by the events so far. Miss Bourne is plied with brandy, and she passes out. Richard and Elsie’s marriage continues to disintegrate.

Scene 4a
Another knock at the door announces Julia Price, intent on seeing the ghost train. She hides from her brother, who is pursuing her to return her to the mental facility whence she has escaped. He confirms the story; he had hospitalized her when she first saw the train, and she is profoundly unstable. Price tries to convince the travelers to leave, but the sleeping Miss Bourne now makes that impossible. They argue that if the train never comes, Julia will recover from her neurosis, and so Julia stays. Midnight is fast approaching, and as he leaves, Price asks after Hodgkin, but the body in the Ticket Office has disappeared.

Scene 4b
A train whistle is heard in the distance and all the lights begin to lower.  Engine noises increase as the waiting room lights go out completely and the ghost train passes across the back of the stage. Julia offers herself as sacrificial victim to the train, and tells the others not to look. She throws a shoe through one of the high windows, climbs up to see the train as it passes, screams, falls and dies.

Scene 5
Peggy sees a swinging lamp again outside the window and Teddy rushes to find a shaken Saul Hodgkin, who explains that he has found transportation to take them away.  He denies that he was the corpse in the Ticket Office and in turn heaps recrimination on the travelers, whom he blames for precipitating Julia’s death. He calls a doctor to attend to the body. The travelers make their way onto the awaiting bus. Julia (not dead after all) confronts Hodgkin with what she saw; she had been told specifically that an empty train would pass by, and that it was her job to divert attention away from it, but the train was in fact full of people, and she does not understand why she has been misled. Hodgkin reminds her she is part of a long chain of deception, and that her questions are futile because her work is over. Teddy Deakin, returning for his forgotten hat, escorts the newly awoken Miss Bourne onto the bus. She is delighted that there is transport away from this gloomy place and is glad that nothing exciting has happened.

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