History Main / AfterlifeExpress

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E30AStopAtWilloughby A Stop at Willoughby]]", a man is riding a commuter train home from work. It has an announced stop at Willoughby, and it looks like such a nice, quiet place like an 1800s public square with a gazebo, band concerts, picnics etc., but then finds there is no such stop on the railroad. He realizes that it's actually a portal to the afterlife, and decides to get off, discovering it's just as nice as he thought it would be. On the train, horrified passengers saw him get up, screaming "Willoughby!", then run and jump off the train. His body is shown being carried away in a hearse, and the rear door slams, noting the name of the undertaker: Willoughby and Sons.

* Used in the opening and closing of ''Redemption Cemetery: Salvation of the Lost''.

* ''Literature/NightOnTheGalacticRailroad'' by Kenji Miyazawa, which has been adapted into anime twice and some stage plays and musicals. The protagonist dreams of a spectral train in space, carrying him and a freind, through some adventures, before he awakes to find the freind is believed to have died in the night, trying to be a hero.

* This is the central conceit of ''Theatre/{{Hadestown}}'', which reimagines the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice on a Depression-era train line.

A recurring element in OralTradition and fiction. A sinister (or at least mysterious) phantom train beholden to no earthly schedule, often times in charge of transporting souls to the afterlife. A vehicular version of TheGrimReaper, then, minus the reaping (though that's not to say that the train that runs over people wouldn't be hilarious). [[{{Psychopomp}} Its conductor]]--if not the train itself--might [[ChessWithDeath play chess]], too. The choice of a train is interesting in that trains are a relatively young technology, as mythologies go, but they've fit into this role extremely well. Doubtless the spooky train whistle helps. The mode of conveyance need not be an actual train -- in fact, before the invention of trains, it was usually a ship -- but it surprisingly often is. Perhaps it's that most people get on trains as passengers, with no control, and that, even for those running the train, travel is restricted to a fixed route, both of which reflect a lack of control for the soul.

* ''Manga/ShimejiSimulation'': The train that Shijima enters at the end of Chapter 47 is extremely mysterious in nature and it brings passengers to some unknown destination. As an added bonus, it also floats in emptiness. It becomes the principal focus of Chapter 48 when Shijima travels across many worlds through it. And ironically enough, both Chito and Yuuri, the characters of Manga/GirlsLastTour, are in the train, who were presumably dead after reaching the highest layer of the megacity.

* ''Manga/ShimejiSimulation: The train that Shijima enters at the end of Chapter 47 is extremely mysterious in nature and it brings passengers to some unknown destination. As an added bonus, it also floats in emptiness. It becomes the principal focus of Chapter 48 when Shijima travels across many worlds through it. And ironically enough, both Chito and Yuuri, the characters of Manga/GirlsLastTour, are in the train, who were presumably dead after reaching the highest layer of the megacity.

* The penultimate episode of ''Series/ThisIsUs'' has an entirely benevolent variation. Rebecca Pearson is comatose and slowly dying, with her mind having been ravaged by Alzheimer's. As her family gathers to say goodbye to her, she experiences a luxury train ride in her mind. Unusually for this trope, while the train is moving forward, she traverses in in reverse, starting with the first passenger car and moving to the caboose. As she goes through each car, she encounters her loved ones, some living and some dead, who help her accept her death, while William acts as her guide. As her loved ones say their goodbyes in the living world, Rebecca hears them through the train's speakers. When she reaches the caboose, she finds it setup like her bedroom, and climes into bed. There she finds Jack, her first husband, who died decades previously, who welcomes her to the next stage of the afterlife.

'''As a DeathTrope, all Spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.'''

** The song "Downbound Train" features one of these headed to Hell and driven by Satan himself, whose passengers have all lived lives of vice. \\

(Not to be confused with the Music/BruceSpringsteen song of the same name, where the singer has had terrible luck and just ''feels'' like he's on one of these.)
** Berry's anthem/hymn [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBxJxYg3LuU "Land of Hope and Dreams"]] is a glorious takeoff on "Plenty of Room on the Glory Train". While that song warns that only those who "mind what they say and do" will be allowed, Springsteen's lyrics emphasize a Christian-like forgiveness of the sin, shame and loss often experienced by his working-class protagonists.

** Johnny Cash also recorded "Down There By The Train", a song Music/TomWaits wrote for him, about a train that takes the souls of the dead to heaven (the song ''heavily'' implies this involves DeliveranceFromDamnation by its examples of passengers, by how it describes the process of getting them ready to board, and the fact that the train explicitely waits for them to be able to get on). Waits later recorded his own version, which was eventually released on the album ''Music/OrphansBrawlersBawlersAndBastards''.

* The Music/ChuckBerry song "Downbound Train" features one of these headed to Hell and driven by Satan himself, whose passengers have all lived lives of vice.
** Not to be confused with the Music/BruceSpringsteen song of the same name, where the singer has had terrible luck and just ''feels'' like he's on one of these.
** But his anthem/hymn [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBxJxYg3LuU "Land of Hope and Dreams"]] is a glorious takeoff on "Plenty of Room on the Glory Train". While that song warns that only those who "mind what they say and do" will be allowed, Springsteen's lyrics emphasize a Christian-like forgiveness of the sin, shame and loss often experienced by his working-class protagonists.
* Music/JohnnyCash's "Redemption Day":

** Johnny Cash also recorded "Down There By The Train", a song Music/TomWaits wrote for him, about a train that takes the souls of the dead to heaven. Waits later recorded his own version, which was eventually released on the album ''Music/OrphansBrawlersBawlersAndBastards''.
-->There's a place I know\\
Where the train goes slow\\
Where sinners can be washed\\
In the blood of the lamb

-->--''Theatre/{{Hadestown}}''

** A less obvious example in the second outro for ''Manga/StardustCrusaders'': There's a shot of the main cast sitting together in a train compartment, and Joseph is holding three tickets.
** After [[spoiler:Leone Abbachio]] dies in ''Manga/GoldenWind'', there is a scene of him meeting [[DeathByOriginStory his dead partner]] and boarding a bus.
* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': When he's absorbed into the Dirac Sea, Shinji's mind ([[WildMassGuessing we think]]) conjurs up a phantasmal train that is already in motion when he appears on it, and never, in turn, arrives at a destination. While aboard, he speaks to a second, unseen presence who [[MindScrew claims to be himself]]. Whether this other him [[Fanfic/ShinjiAndWarhammer40K is in fact the God-Emperor of Mankind]] remains a subject of debate.\\
\\
Rei and Asuka both end up in the Hell Train. The real mindscrew is when, later, Touji visits the Hell Train...and sees Shinji and Rei in an adjacent car of the same train (but the train is a type that doesn't allow passengers to move from car to car). His only comment is wondering what they are talking about.

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* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' introduces the Barge of the Dead, from the episode of the same name, where the dishonored souls of Klingons are sent to Gre'thor, or hell.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': "A Stop At Willoughby": A man is riding a commuter train home from work and it has an announced stop at Willoughby, and it looks like such a nice, quiet place like an 1800s public square with a gazebo, band concerts, picnics etc., but then finds there is no such stop on the railroad. He realizes that it's actually a portal to the afterlife, and decides to get off, discovering it's just as nice as he thought it would be. On the train, horrified passengers saw him get up, screaming "Willoughby!", then run and jump off the train. His body is shown being carried away in a hearse, and the rear door slams, noting the name of the undertaker: Willoughby and Sons.