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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#168: Choo Choo!

The concept of train travel has always been a powerful motif in story telling. Train wagons can be a great setting for serendipitous love encounters, like for Jesse and Céline in Before Sunrise, or mysterious murders, like in Agatha Christie's classic Orient Express.

On a train, the mind wanders, time shifts, and life… unfolds. We hope that these train-inspired prompts will put you on the right track to writing some great stories.

This week's prompts

Start your story with someone looking out a train window.

Middle School – 98 stories

Write a story about a character who is moving on, literally or figuratively.

Narrative – 58 stories

Make a train station an important part of your story.

Narrative – 74 stories

Write a story about a character who misses a train, for better or worse.

Adults – 33 stories

Write a story that includes someone saying, “Bon voyage.”

Adults – 17 stories

Stories

“The Station” by Sue Hunter

Submitted to Contest #168

The Station was falling apart, and there was nothing Shyla could do about it. The battered walls did little to protect from the cold. It was an old train station, really only a rectangular box with one open wall. Even with her multiple warm layers, the chill would sneak its way through her shoes, freezing her toes until they went numb. More often than not, she and the other survivors would huddle in the corner least damaged, waiting out the night. The sun didn’t shine bright enough to pierce through the ever-present clouds, but with the day ...

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“Pool Boy” by Jim Firth

Submitted to Contest #168

CW: Mentions of adult filmsChris hears an unfamiliar sputtering in the driveway and pulls back the nicotine stained curtains of his family living room.‘Whoosat?’ His chain-smoking mother, Louise, shouts over The Perry Singer Show.‘It’s Dad!’Chris runs out to the driveway and watches his dad step out of a black van. ‘What’s with the surveillance vehicle? Is it ex-FBI?'‘Not quite,’ Dicky says. He slides the side door open and plastic tubes spill onto the driveway. ‘Awww, nuts.’‘So what’s all this gear for?’ Chris asks, picking up a tube and lo...

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“Moving On (Eddy and Tom - Part IV)” by Mustang Patty

Submitted to Contest #168

…from the last chapter ‘Can life get any better? And that’s when Tom grabbed him by the shoulders and kissed him passionately. The audible gasp from someone in the room reached Eddy’s burning ears. Why did he do that? And at what price?’ ** [STRONG LANGUAGE and VIOLENCE] Eddy felt his world crumbling under his feet. He didn’t want to look around the room. He especially didn’t want to look at his father’s face. It passed through his mind to slap Tom but then thought that would look even gayer than the kiss. He grabbed Tom’s upper arm –...

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“This Train Terminates...” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #168

“It should have been here by now!” This from an angry commuter stood at the very edge of the platform as though breaking the rules and taking an unnecessary risk by standing well beyond the line would prompt the late train to make its arrival now challenged to an unequal game of chicken, or perhaps the man fancied himself a matador. There were murmurs of agreement. People might not have liked the man standing there, puffed up with his own self-importance, a legend in his own lunchtime, but they agreed with the sentiment. The train was lo...

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“A Ripple in Time” by Stuart Lawrence

Submitted to Contest #168

Corey awoke to a bump as his train came to a stop, and his coach car settled against the cars on either end and glanced outside the cabin window. The sun was cresting, and the early morning frost still covered the ground. Wooden rail carts with steel wheels laden with steamer trunks sat on the platform, and domed lamps with opaque glass chimneys hung from the ceiling of a white clapboard station. “Shasta Springs station, Shasta Springs station,” the conductor announced, “Three hour water stop, the local time is Seven-fifteen and the temperat...

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“Time to Move On” by William Hogg

Submitted to Contest #168

Time to Move On. Fourteen is an awkward age for a boy. You're surrounded by life lessons. Sometimes you learn them by making mistakes, sometimes by making the right decisions, and sometimes from good mentoring. One of my most important lessons learned came from none of these. It was pure serendipity. I found myself headed to the Assistant Principal's office. That's not good, but even worse, being escorted by my favorite teacher of all time, Miss Taylor. So vivid to me even today was the trip. As a kid, you're usually in the hall before,...

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“The Journey Towards Self Love” by Audrey Harmon

Submitted to Contest #168

They call them patchwork hills. Rolling, misshapen, vibrant as the stock photo shown on my laptop’s background. Each time I take out my Iphone 4 to snap a photo, I’m disappointed. There is no way to capture this passing beauty but to look at it in wonder. That hardly seems fair. We’re on our way to Cornwall, England to sing and make music for the locals. Almost everyone on this train was a stranger up until one week ago, when this overseas program began. We’ve been in transit for over four hours, but I feel as though I could stay here ...

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“The Final Journey” by Susheela Narayanan

Submitted to Contest #168

Reedsy Prompt: Start your story with someone looking out a train windowThe Final Journey Raghavan strode through the compartment of the Vellore to Bangalore train, ticket in hand, looking for his allotted seat. Thankfully, it was by the window. He sat down with a sigh of relief. His escort Ramu, took charge of stowing his small suitcase in the berth above his head.“I will come back and check on you a little later, saami,” he said, folding his hands together. Raghavan nodded, and Ramu went back to his seat in the third class carriage...

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“The Missing Piece ” by Emily Phillips

Submitted to Contest #168

As I sit, filled with grief and despair, looking out the window of a train that is no longer moving, I can sense danger all around me. I feel the sudden urge to jump, jump out the window, jump off the train, jump anywhere and see where the wind takes me. Did I always feel this alone. I once had a loving husband, children, and a life that most would be envious of. But now, as I sit looking out of this train, I try to remember the exact moment my life changed. It was a warm afternoon in August, and I was outside waiting for my husband an...

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“The Maple Leaf Train” by Ellen Kommel

Submitted to Contest #168

The metal wheels were grinding against the tracks, shaking the cabin as Ava watched the snowcapped landscape race by through the frosty window. The further North the locomotive crept, the less color there was in the world. Within a few hours, she watched as though someone leached all the vibrancy out of the trees, giving way to a monochromatic panorama. There weren’t many people on the train at that time of year. It was a scenic route, and since the scenery had been completely smothered by a bright, white blanket, it was the perfect pla...

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“The Train” by Janis Cannon-Bowers

Submitted to Contest #168

Marilyn was looking out the window as the train began moving. She dropped back into the seat so hard that it hurt, so badly, in fact, that it momentarily made her forget about the panic attack she was having. “Owww,” she said to the little blond girl sitting next to her. The little girl responded, “Ouchy?” “Yes, darling, ouchy,” she replied. She couldn’t help but smile; it was the first in a long time. But they were finally on the train. She was sure that the train was their only hope of escape. ...

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“Danny Boy” by Mary Lehnert

Submitted to Contest #168

You shall be taken to a place henceforth and hanged by your neck till you are dead!The judge solemnly placed a black cap on his head to pronounce the awful words. My sentence was almost a blessed relief in comparison; Transportation for seven years.From my heavenly rest, cradled in a comfy hammock slung between cumulus clouds, this is my story.I’m Danny Boy, the Bastard son of a housemaid employed by a wealthy family, in Scotland. Delivering me in a hayloft on a soft day in the Spring of 1825, give or take a decade, I never heard of nor saw ...

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“Serenity” by Jamila Coleman

Submitted to Contest #168

I pained me to even look, but I on the contrary couldn’t help but to. I watched as my family waved their goodbyes to me through the train window that separated us. I can’t even believe that I was once upon a time excited about this, because right now, I was sick to my stomach. Would this be the feeling I’d be waking up to for the next year? Three months ago, my life flipped, changing everything. I had just started college and was trying to get a head start on my future career and studies. Choosing communications as my major, I enroll...

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“The Impulse” by Daniel Tress

Submitted to Contest #168

Dan’s an odd friend of mine. My only friend, actually. He always shows up when I need him most. Only I can never say exactly what I needed him for nor how he knew to find me. All I know is that grinning face of an old friend and his reassurance that everything will be A-OK. See, Dan takes me away and back again on his old black iron horse. And it costs me nothing. Nothing but my willingness to step up and go.I was nine years old when I first met Dan. One minute, I’d been tossing in bed, trying to sleep (something that’s never seemed to come ...

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“The Man at the Station” by Elizabeth Burrows

Submitted to Contest #168

By the time I stepped off the train that evening there were angry dark clouds hanging from the sky. They bathed the world in their dark color and dipped so close to the earth that I felt all I had to do was reach up to touch their silky smooth pummels. Clouds of dark colors that now are nothing more than a memory. A moment in time that will forever be engraved in my mind. A day that will never be forgotten, details that will eternally be remembered. It was the day I first saw him. He stood there hunched over with hands in his pocket...

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$250

Prize money

280

Contest entries

105

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Oct 21, 2022 EST

Won by David Sweet 🏆

Title: SOUTHBOUND

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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