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That Hell Bound Train
"That Hell-Bound Train" is a fantasy short story by American writer Robert Bloch. It was originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in September 1958.
Martin, an out-of-luck orphan, struggles to fulfill the American dream - but fate conspires against him at every turn. On the verge of giving up hope, our young protagonist is visited by a monstrous train, one whose conductor might just have a ticket to fame and riches... if Martin is willing to pay the price!
Martin, an out-of-luck orphan, struggles to fulfill the American dream - but fate conspires against him at every turn. On the verge of giving up hope, our young protagonist is visited by a monstrous train, one whose conductor might just have a ticket to fame and riches... if Martin is willing to pay the price!
Audiobook
First published September 1, 1958
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About the author
Robert Bloch
1,086 books1,270 followersRobert Albert Bloch was a prolific American writer. He was the son of Raphael "Ray" Bloch (1884, Chicago-1952, Chicago), a bank cashier, and his wife Stella Loeb (1880, Attica, Indiana-1944, Milwaukee, WI), a social worker, both of German-Jewish descent.
Bloch wrote hundreds of short stories and over twenty novels, usually crime fiction, science fiction, and, perhaps most influentially, horror fiction (Psycho). He was one of the youngest members of the Lovecraft Circle; Lovecraft was Bloch's mentor and one of the first to seriously encourage his talent.
He was a contributor to pulp magazines such as Weird Tales in his early career, and was also a prolific screenwriter. He was the recipient of the Hugo Award (for his story "That Hell-Bound Train"), the Bram Stoker Award, and the World Fantasy Award. He served a term as president of the Mystery Writers of America.
Robert Bloch was also a major contributor to science fiction fanzines and fandom in general. In the 1940s, he created the humorous character Lefty Feep in a story for Fantastic Adventures. He also worked for a time in local vaudeville, and tried to break into writing for nationally-known performers. He was a good friend of the science fiction writer Stanley G. Weinbaum. In the 1960's, he wrote 3 stories for Star Trek.
Bloch wrote hundreds of short stories and over twenty novels, usually crime fiction, science fiction, and, perhaps most influentially, horror fiction (Psycho). He was one of the youngest members of the Lovecraft Circle; Lovecraft was Bloch's mentor and one of the first to seriously encourage his talent.
He was a contributor to pulp magazines such as Weird Tales in his early career, and was also a prolific screenwriter. He was the recipient of the Hugo Award (for his story "That Hell-Bound Train"), the Bram Stoker Award, and the World Fantasy Award. He served a term as president of the Mystery Writers of America.
Robert Bloch was also a major contributor to science fiction fanzines and fandom in general. In the 1940s, he created the humorous character Lefty Feep in a story for Fantastic Adventures. He also worked for a time in local vaudeville, and tried to break into writing for nationally-known performers. He was a good friend of the science fiction writer Stanley G. Weinbaum. In the 1960's, he wrote 3 stories for Star Trek.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
September 21, 2020
"Las nubes colgaban espesas por encima, y las neblinas rodaban sobre los campos como una sábana fría en aquella noche de noviembre. Aún así, Martin debería haber sido capaz de ver el faro de la locomotora mientras el tren se le acercaba. Pero sólo escuchaba el silbato, chillando desde las oscuras fauces de la noche. Martin podía reconocer el equipo de casi todas las locomotoras jamás construidas, pero nunca había oído un silbato que sonase como ése. No estaba haciendo señales, estaba aullando como un alma perdida"
Martin es un joven huérfano, perdido en la vida. Que viaja como polizón en los trenes, por los cuales tiene cierta fascinación, o vaga por las vías.
Un día, planteándose su situación decide que debe hacer algo al respecto y enderezar su vida. En ese preciso momento se aparece un tren muy particular, diferente a todos los demás, con un maquinista (el de la estación TERMINAL-DE ABAJO). Este le ofrece un trato en relación a su vida y al tren. luego de negociar llegan a un trato, que incluirá un reloj, trato por el cual Martin en principio queda muy conforme ...
Es un muy buen relato fáustico. Ingenioso, que apela bastante a la ironía y al sentido del humor, y también posee cierta critica social.
Tiene giros y alguna sorpresa. Moraleja y una sonrisa.
Gano el premio Hugo a mejor relato corto en 1959
Martin es un joven huérfano, perdido en la vida. Que viaja como polizón en los trenes, por los cuales tiene cierta fascinación, o vaga por las vías.
Un día, planteándose su situación decide que debe hacer algo al respecto y enderezar su vida. En ese preciso momento se aparece un tren muy particular, diferente a todos los demás, con un maquinista (el de la estación TERMINAL-DE ABAJO). Este le ofrece un trato en relación a su vida y al tren. luego de negociar llegan a un trato, que incluirá un reloj, trato por el cual Martin en principio queda muy conforme ...
Es un muy buen relato fáustico. Ingenioso, que apela bastante a la ironía y al sentido del humor, y también posee cierta critica social.
Tiene giros y alguna sorpresa. Moraleja y una sonrisa.
Gano el premio Hugo a mejor relato corto en 1959
November 12, 2020
It's one of those stories where you see the twist coming from so far away that it's not really a twist at all... and then it goes and pulls another one out of its back pocket. I always like it when that happens.
Overall it's pretty short and sweet and I liked it.
Overall it's pretty short and sweet and I liked it.
January 5, 2020
3.5⭐
Read this short story several times in the 1970s as it was heavily anthologized. Pretty good riff on the old 'deal with the devil' schtick. It's not Shakespeare but it'll do just fine, on a lazy summer evening.
Read this short story several times in the 1970s as it was heavily anthologized. Pretty good riff on the old 'deal with the devil' schtick. It's not Shakespeare but it'll do just fine, on a lazy summer evening.
November 12, 2020
A pleasant short story about a deal with the devil, and a train whose destination is hell.
Of course I can't go too much in depth about the plot being a short story, but it has a good delivery in the end, just like the best short stories should be.
A nice read if you got a moment for yourself.
Of course I can't go too much in depth about the plot being a short story, but it has a good delivery in the end, just like the best short stories should be.
A nice read if you got a moment for yourself.
September 27, 2020
3.8 stars
This is a 14 page long fantasy short story.
That Hell-Bound Train won a Hugo in
1959 for Best Short Story.
This is a 14 page long fantasy short story.
That Hell-Bound Train won a Hugo in
1959 for Best Short Story.
August 27, 2024
I’m counting this short story as a full book because I read so many long ones recently lol.
I can see why people say this is the greatest horror short story of all time.
I enjoyed it.
I can see why people say this is the greatest horror short story of all time.
I enjoyed it.
March 15, 2019
Mindwebs audiobook 45. A classic deal with the Devil tail. Okay but nothing spectacular.
September 3, 2025
#Binge Reviewing my previous Reads #Horror Short Stories #Anthologies # Modern Psychological & Existential Horror
Robert Bloch’s “That Hell Bound Train” (1958) is a strange and haunting tale—one that wears the trappings of folklore but pulses with distinctly modern anxieties. It’s no surprise it won the Hugo Award; Bloch, best remembered for Psycho, had an uncanny ability to marry pulp energy with existential dread. This story in particular reads like a Faustian parable disguised as a tall tale, where a deal with the devil is not about riches or fame, but about control over time itself.
The story follows Martin, a poor drifter whose life seems to slip away too quickly. One night, he encounters a supernatural train, bound for hell, its passengers already damned. The conductor—devilish and smooth—offers Martin a bargain: a magical watch that can stop time at any moment he chooses, freezing him forever in the peak of his happiness. It’s a genius conceit, because it takes the familiar Faustian trope and retools it for the modern psyche, where our obsession isn’t with power or wealth, but with holding on to fleeting moments of joy.
Compared with Fritz Leiber’s “The Girl with the Hungry Eyes”, where the vampirism lies in endless desire, Bloch’s story addresses the fear of impermanence. Where Leiber critiques the draining effect of consumerism and images, Bloch digs into our desperate wish to halt the inevitable decline—ageing, disappointment, mortality. Both stories are about hunger, but Bloch’s hunger is for time itself, for permanence in a world that offers none.
What makes “That Hell Bound Train” so chilling is its irony. Martin carries the watch with him throughout his life, waiting for that perfect moment of happiness to freeze forever. Yet life, in Bloch’s grim view, never grants such clarity. There’s always something missing, some compromise, some nagging doubt.
Years slip by, and Martin’s chance never comes—or rather, he never recognises it. The tragedy is not in the infernal bargain itself, but in his inability to seize joy in the moment, to accept imperfection. By the time the train’s whistle blows again, the reader understands what Martin does not: that happiness is not an eternal state, but a fleeting, fragile thread we either grasp in motion or lose forever.
Bloch’s prose is deceptively simple, almost folksy, but the images he conjures are sharp: the demonic train roaring through the night, the glinting watch, the weary face of a man chasing a perfection that doesn’t exist. The story’s structure mirrors a fable, but its resonance is deeply existential. It’s not just about one man’s fate; it’s about the human condition itself—the way we postpone living in pursuit of a perfect future that never arrives.
Placing it beside Bradbury’s “The Jar” or Jackson’s “The Summer People” reveals Bloch’s unique contribution to psychological horror. Bradbury’s tale reveals the grotesque in communal fascination, Jackson exposes the fragility of everyday normalcy, and Bloch mines terror from time and choice. If Bradbury asks what we see when we stare too long, and Jackson asks what rituals we trust without question, Bloch asks the most unsettling question of all: what happens if we spend our whole lives waiting for happiness, only to miss it entirely?
The brilliance of the ending is in its inevitability. The hell-bound train doesn’t punish Martin for his greed or his hubris, but for his hesitation. Horror here is not external evil, but internal blindness—the human tendency to delay joy until it’s too late. It’s a story as relevant today as it was in 1958, perhaps even more so in an age of endless distractions, where so many of us wait for the “right moment” to truly live.
For me, “That Hell Bound Train” endures as one of Bloch’s finest works, not just because it’s eerie, but because it feels like a mirror. It whispers a warning: happiness can’t be bottled, frozen, or postponed. If you try, you’ll end up on that train, too.
Robert Bloch’s “That Hell Bound Train” (1958) is a strange and haunting tale—one that wears the trappings of folklore but pulses with distinctly modern anxieties. It’s no surprise it won the Hugo Award; Bloch, best remembered for Psycho, had an uncanny ability to marry pulp energy with existential dread. This story in particular reads like a Faustian parable disguised as a tall tale, where a deal with the devil is not about riches or fame, but about control over time itself.
The story follows Martin, a poor drifter whose life seems to slip away too quickly. One night, he encounters a supernatural train, bound for hell, its passengers already damned. The conductor—devilish and smooth—offers Martin a bargain: a magical watch that can stop time at any moment he chooses, freezing him forever in the peak of his happiness. It’s a genius conceit, because it takes the familiar Faustian trope and retools it for the modern psyche, where our obsession isn’t with power or wealth, but with holding on to fleeting moments of joy.
Compared with Fritz Leiber’s “The Girl with the Hungry Eyes”, where the vampirism lies in endless desire, Bloch’s story addresses the fear of impermanence. Where Leiber critiques the draining effect of consumerism and images, Bloch digs into our desperate wish to halt the inevitable decline—ageing, disappointment, mortality. Both stories are about hunger, but Bloch’s hunger is for time itself, for permanence in a world that offers none.
What makes “That Hell Bound Train” so chilling is its irony. Martin carries the watch with him throughout his life, waiting for that perfect moment of happiness to freeze forever. Yet life, in Bloch’s grim view, never grants such clarity. There’s always something missing, some compromise, some nagging doubt.
Years slip by, and Martin’s chance never comes—or rather, he never recognises it. The tragedy is not in the infernal bargain itself, but in his inability to seize joy in the moment, to accept imperfection. By the time the train’s whistle blows again, the reader understands what Martin does not: that happiness is not an eternal state, but a fleeting, fragile thread we either grasp in motion or lose forever.
Bloch’s prose is deceptively simple, almost folksy, but the images he conjures are sharp: the demonic train roaring through the night, the glinting watch, the weary face of a man chasing a perfection that doesn’t exist. The story’s structure mirrors a fable, but its resonance is deeply existential. It’s not just about one man’s fate; it’s about the human condition itself—the way we postpone living in pursuit of a perfect future that never arrives.
Placing it beside Bradbury’s “The Jar” or Jackson’s “The Summer People” reveals Bloch’s unique contribution to psychological horror. Bradbury’s tale reveals the grotesque in communal fascination, Jackson exposes the fragility of everyday normalcy, and Bloch mines terror from time and choice. If Bradbury asks what we see when we stare too long, and Jackson asks what rituals we trust without question, Bloch asks the most unsettling question of all: what happens if we spend our whole lives waiting for happiness, only to miss it entirely?
The brilliance of the ending is in its inevitability. The hell-bound train doesn’t punish Martin for his greed or his hubris, but for his hesitation. Horror here is not external evil, but internal blindness—the human tendency to delay joy until it’s too late. It’s a story as relevant today as it was in 1958, perhaps even more so in an age of endless distractions, where so many of us wait for the “right moment” to truly live.
For me, “That Hell Bound Train” endures as one of Bloch’s finest works, not just because it’s eerie, but because it feels like a mirror. It whispers a warning: happiness can’t be bottled, frozen, or postponed. If you try, you’ll end up on that train, too.
March 31, 2019
“That Hell Bound Train” by Robert Bloch
A deal with the Devil!
“The clouds were thick overhead, and the field-mists rolled like a cold fog in a November midnight. Even so, Martin should have been able to see the headlight as the train rushed on. But there was only the whistle, screaming out of the black throat of the night. Martin could recognise the equipment of just about any locomotive ever built, but he’d never heard a whistle that sounded like this one. It wasn’t signalling; it was screaming like a lost soul.”
A deal with the Devil!
“The clouds were thick overhead, and the field-mists rolled like a cold fog in a November midnight. Even so, Martin should have been able to see the headlight as the train rushed on. But there was only the whistle, screaming out of the black throat of the night. Martin could recognise the equipment of just about any locomotive ever built, but he’d never heard a whistle that sounded like this one. It wasn’t signalling; it was screaming like a lost soul.”
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July 20, 2023"... he just wasn't cut out for petty larceny. It was worse than a sin - it was unprofitable, too."
Gotta love these old pulps. This is anthologized in The Hugo Winners 1955-1961 and that book is archived on openlibrary.org, where we can read it for free.
Fun short story. Cover irrelevant, must be for something else.
Gotta love these old pulps. This is anthologized in The Hugo Winners 1955-1961 and that book is archived on openlibrary.org, where we can read it for free.
Fun short story. Cover irrelevant, must be for something else.
December 13, 2019
The deal-with-the-devil story is a fantasy trope that never seems to get old. This is one of the best of that particular bent that I’ve ever come across, which includes classics like Fritz Leiber’s “Gonna Roll the Bones.” This predates that story by a decade, but I’m sure there were others before it, especially if we consider Marlowe’s Dr. Faust. Highly recommended.
March 4, 2024
If you could stop time in the happiest of moments, when would you do it? This intriguing question is the core idea of this pretty well written short story.
The premise perhaps a bit constructed, it still delievers a perfectly well written train of thought to arrive at its destination.
The premise perhaps a bit constructed, it still delievers a perfectly well written train of thought to arrive at its destination.
June 5, 2025
I've been listening to a lot of Robert Bloch short stories and this particular one is one I read about him winning a Hugo award for. It's among his best and the ending has a twist after a very important life lesson. Highly recommended.
March 9, 2022
It's okay, nothing to get excited about.
May 16, 2023
Fajne ale pewnie nie zapamiętam go na długo
September 11, 2024
Я поняла что Мартин будет работать на поезде ещё до того как персонаж его увидел в реальности, история ведёт к слишком ожидаемому финалу.
Но в целом неплохая основная мысль😁 о счастье
Но в целом неплохая основная мысль😁 о счастье
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 2, 2025
I read this story when I was thirteen. I had no idea it would become a template for my life.
November 1, 2025
Mikor jön el az igazi boldogság? Van-e értelme megállítani az időt, amikor úgy hisszük eljött?
February 26, 2021
Когда рассказ получился даже лучше панчлайна из названия.
Я прочитал эту книгу для обсуждения на подкасте про научную фантастику «Худо Не Было». Послушать можно тут: https://share.transistor.fm/s/dcd13a5f
Я прочитал эту книгу для обсуждения на подкасте про научную фантастику «Худо Не Было». Послушать можно тут: https://share.transistor.fm/s/dcd13a5f
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews