The Signal Man - Charles Dickens - World's Greatest Short Stories

The story begins with the narrator calling "Halloa! Below there!" into a railway cutting. The signalman standing on the railway below does not look up, as the narrator expects, but rather turns about and stares into the railway tunnel that is his responsibility to monitor.

"The Signal-Man" is a first-person horror/mystery story by Charles Dickens, first published as part of the Mugby Junction collection in the 1866 Christmas edition of All the Year Round.

The railway signal-man of the title tells the narrator of an apparition that has been haunting him. Each spectral appearance precedes a tragic event on the railway on which the signalman works. The signalman's work is at a signal-box in a deep cutting near a tunnel entrance on a lonely stretch of the railway line, and he controls the movements of passing trains. When there is danger, his fellow signalmen alert him by telegraph and alarms. Three times, he receives phantom warnings of danger when his bell rings in a fashion that only he can hear. Each warning is followed by the appearance of the spectre, and then by a terrible accident.

The first accident involves a terrible collision between two trains in the tunnel. Dickens may have based this incident on the Clayton Tunnel crash that occurred in 1861, five years before he wrote the story. Readers in 1866 would have been familiar with this major disaster.

Originally Broadcast 1/5/1942

Chesterton Radio
Works of G.K. Chesterton and Friends
Plus Drama, Comedy, Mystery, Science Fiction, Big Bands and more
True - Good - Beautiful
The Soundtrack for your Chesterton Day!

Do you enjoy the variety on Chesterton Radio?
Like, Share and Subscribe to be notified of our new shows

All our shows in one Playlist!
http://Player.ChestertonRadio.com

Easy direct link to our Channel:
http://Listen.ChestertonRadio.com

Discover new Chesterton Radio shows in our other Playlists!
http://CBSRMT.ChestertonRadio.com
http://Plays.ChestertonRadio.com
http://Chesterton.ChestertonRadio.com
http://Orthodoxy.ChestertonRadio.com
http://EverlastingMan.ChestertonRadio...
http://Eugenics.ChestertonRadio.com
http://Distributism.ChestertonRadio.com
http://FatherBrown.ChestertonRadio.com
http://Freedom.ChestertonRadio.com
http://1984.ChestertonRadio.com
http://Jukebox.ChestertonRadio.com

Follow us on Social Media
https://mstdn.social/@ChestertonRadio
https://www.gab.com/chestertonradio

Please consider supporting us.
https://www.patreon.com/ChestertonRadio

Visit the Chesterton Radio Shop
http://Shop.ChestertonRadio.com