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Train for Flushing
They ought never to have hired that man. Even the most stupid of personnel managers should have seen at a glance that he was mad…
- GenresShort StoriesFantasy
Unknown Binding
About the author
Malcolm Jameson
251 books5 followersMalcolm Jameson began writing only seven years before his death. Yet in that short span he wrote and sold more than 70 novelettes and short stories.
Critic Groff Conklin calls Jameson's work "lively, ingenious and readable."
The majority of Jameson's work appeared in the magazines "Astounding Science Fiction" and "Unknown Worlds" but he was also published in a number of the other pulp magazines of the late 1930's and early 40's.
His novella "Blind Alley", first published in the June 1943 issue of Unknown, was the basis for the Twilight Zone episode "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" starring Albert Salmi, John Anderson, and Julie Newmar. The hour-long episode was broadcast on April 11, 1963.
Critic Groff Conklin calls Jameson's work "lively, ingenious and readable."
The majority of Jameson's work appeared in the magazines "Astounding Science Fiction" and "Unknown Worlds" but he was also published in a number of the other pulp magazines of the late 1930's and early 40's.
His novella "Blind Alley", first published in the June 1943 issue of Unknown, was the basis for the Twilight Zone episode "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" starring Albert Salmi, John Anderson, and Julie Newmar. The hour-long episode was broadcast on April 11, 1963.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 26, 2022
Thanks to Project Gutenberg Australia, 2018, you, too, can read a classic reprint from Weird Tales, March 1940–TRAIN FOR FLUSHING. Simply google the title (Train For Flushing) and it will appear on your phone or iPad. You can read it free on your phone while riding a subway (most appropriate), a train, or a bus. It will take no more than 15 minutes to finish.
It describes an elderly man and woman, who initially don’t know each other, but get stuck together on a subway train going back in time. Slowly they regress in age, from being old and infirm, through vigorous health, to childhood, then babyhood, and finally disappear. Initially they appear to be prisoners of a Dutch “captain” but near the end seem to realize that this Dutchman is also a captive—a phantom captive.
There is no explanation for the strange occurrence. A simple tale, but presented smoothly using few words.
It describes an elderly man and woman, who initially don’t know each other, but get stuck together on a subway train going back in time. Slowly they regress in age, from being old and infirm, through vigorous health, to childhood, then babyhood, and finally disappear. Initially they appear to be prisoners of a Dutch “captain” but near the end seem to realize that this Dutchman is also a captive—a phantom captive.
There is no explanation for the strange occurrence. A simple tale, but presented smoothly using few words.
October 16, 2022
"Train for Flushing" was first published in the March, 1940 issue of Weird Tales. I did not read it as an ebook but rather on the site Gutenberg of Australia. It is a story presented as a document found in an uncoupled car of a New York subway train. Three people are left on the car after it is separated from the rest of the train: an elderly man and woman, who had not known each other previously, and a surly and uncommunicative man with a red beard who the old people first think is part of the train crew. He is not; in fact, there us no crew. The car travels on, a phantom which can pass through other cars when it looks like they will collide. The aged man recounts what occurs.
The three passengers do not feel hunger and do not have any bodily functions other than sleeping. The ride goes on for years, with the old people getting ever younger. The red-bearded man, who they come to realize is Dutch, never changes at all. He tells them that his name is Van Der Dechen; they come to address him as "Captain." The older people had been heading for Flushing, New York, where the World's Fair was being held; Van Der Dechen is searching for Vlissingen, a location in Holland that, the internet states, is known in English as Flushing.
As decades go by, the train also gets newer; then it switches to older forms of transportation. The man recording this says that they come to realize that Van Der Dechen is himself a phantom, with no corporeal existence. The formerly old people keep getting younger and realize that they will eventually become babies, and then - who knows?
There have been many stories of people aging backwards. Such people are sometimes stated to come to life in graveyards. They must return to their mothers' wombs. I have usually found these tales foolish. Here this is somewhat more convincing, partly because no explanation is attempted.
The story does not identify Van Der Dechen. He is clearly the damned seaman whose name is usually given as Vander Decken - the captain of the ghost ship, the Flying Dutchman.
This is a short and simple story. I do not think that it is particularly moving or fascinating, but I do like it.
The three passengers do not feel hunger and do not have any bodily functions other than sleeping. The ride goes on for years, with the old people getting ever younger. The red-bearded man, who they come to realize is Dutch, never changes at all. He tells them that his name is Van Der Dechen; they come to address him as "Captain." The older people had been heading for Flushing, New York, where the World's Fair was being held; Van Der Dechen is searching for Vlissingen, a location in Holland that, the internet states, is known in English as Flushing.
As decades go by, the train also gets newer; then it switches to older forms of transportation. The man recording this says that they come to realize that Van Der Dechen is himself a phantom, with no corporeal existence. The formerly old people keep getting younger and realize that they will eventually become babies, and then - who knows?
There have been many stories of people aging backwards. Such people are sometimes stated to come to life in graveyards. They must return to their mothers' wombs. I have usually found these tales foolish. Here this is somewhat more convincing, partly because no explanation is attempted.
The story does not identify Van Der Dechen. He is clearly the damned seaman whose name is usually given as Vander Decken - the captain of the ghost ship, the Flying Dutchman.
This is a short and simple story. I do not think that it is particularly moving or fascinating, but I do like it.
January 4, 2020
An interesting update on the Flying Dutchman story. A pair of elderly New Yorkers get hijacked as they ride the subway, which never makes Flushing, but starts to travel backwards in time. The two of them start to de-age as well, and the ending is fairly obvious once all this is established. While nicely done, I felt that it missed something—not so much a moral, but something of a purpose.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews