"Amazing Stories" Retro Recap: "Ghost Train"

Written by Scotty

As you get older, you start to remember things that have happened in the past that you were responsible for.  Even though there is nothing you can do about it now, if something bad happened, you still feel responsible. If someone lost their life, or even just lost their job over what you did so many years ago, it still sticks with you and you are left to wonder what you could have done to make things better.  Even if you might have done the wrong thing back then, is there a way that you will be able to make up for it going forward?  It is a question that many people will leave unanswered in life, but if you think about it before your final days, you might be able to make it right once again.

Old Pa is being taken to his son’s house in the country.  Although it seems like he is enjoying himself on the trip, when he arrives at his new home, he is less than pleased. Even with the house being something out of this world, Old Pa knows that there is something coming in the night that will make it less desirable to live in, even if his son will not believe him.  But Old Pa does know that there is someone that will listen to every word that he says, his grandson Brian. When Brian sees his grandfather, he is beyond ecstatic.  Without being able to have his friends come over to his house due to its location being so far out of town, Brian is in need of someone to talk too other than his parents.  With Old Pa in the house now, Brian can hear all of the old stories about Indians fighting on the land, but he then hears a story he did not expect.  Old Pa takes a moment in the quiet to listen to an old railroad track that has been dislodged when the old Highball Express derailed seventy-five years ago and he hears the train coming again after all this time.

Telling his grandson about what happened so many years ago, about how he fell asleep on the tracks and the train derailed because of him, Old Pa is finally ready to board the train.  But there is one problem, the trains tracks are leading right though the house.  Trying to warn the family that there will be problems when the old train comes through, Old Pa is sedated and left in his room that is right in the way of the oncoming train.  But Brian does not give up on his grandfather and listens to the tracks on his to train set to see what Old Pa has heard.  When hearing the train coming, Brian tries to get his parents attention, but they are less than willing to admit that an old man’s ramblings are valid.  But Old Pa is ready to take his train and when it arrives in the living room of the house, he is none the wiser and happy to see it once again.

This is a great opening to a new series, and although it happened in the eighties, it is new to me.  With a story that thinks outside of the box, I am happy to see it on my screen today.  I loved how this story came to life with Old Pa and his grandson Brian.  The two have a bond that only a grandfather and grandson can understand.  With Brian wanting a new play friend and Old Pa looking to take the train that he missed so many years ago, it is a story that will last you a lifetime.  Old Pa needs redemption for what he caused so many years ago and even though Brian does not understand the gravity of the situation, he will do everything in his power to make sure that his grandfather his happy and on his way.

Amazing Stories is just kicking off and one of the reasons I was willing to give it a chance is that Steven Spielberg is a producer.  I am not one to give in to a name like this, but when the series came out in the eighties and he was just starting to hit it big and after one episode, I don’t think I can pull back.  Everyone knows Spielberg as a huge Sci-Fi nut, but his stories can be darker and more out of this realm than you could ever imagine.  The kids that can actually remember the eighties should know this pretty well, but if you have not seen his shorts, or anything besides his Indiana Jones movies, you need to widen your horizon a little bit, for he has a mind that could blow yours away and some of the stories that he has been involved with are stranger than anything you could ever imagined. In the end, some stories are never what you expected.

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