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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

“Seven Years” by Daniel Legare

Submitted to Contest #168

Emmanuel remembered the first time she had ridden the train. Her nose pressed right up to the glass and a small smudge of fog would expand and contract with each excited breath. She held up Monsieur Toutou, her teddy bear, so that he too could see the rolling green hills and farmlands of the French countryside. Look for sheep Monsieur Toutou! But don’t count them unless you want to fall asleep! Emmanuel’s mother sat next to her wearing her best outfit, a dark blue dress covered in a pattern of white polka-dots with a high waist belt and a da...

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“Gate 12” by Flower Queens Adventures

Submitted to Contest #168

I love when it rains. As egotistical as it may sound I feel like the rain comes in acknowledgement of me and my feelings. The smell alone relaxes my nerves and release a feeling of peace that allows me to believe that it's okay to just let go. Although, what gets me the most about the rain is the color of the sky. The darkness. Usually it comes through constant waves of darkening gray that slowly swallows any color in the sky that dares to defy its arrival. As the sea reflects only what is above, the ocean begins to turn black. The absence o...

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“Evacuee” by Jenna Hudson

Submitted to Contest #168

This story contains graphic depictions of battlefield gore and disturbing images. Theo's breath fogged up the window. The frost that clung to the class sprawled along its surface in crystal patterns that resembled those stitched into the ornate rug on the floor of his father's bureau. It was cold on the train—a sort of chill that numbs, that seeps into one's bones and takes a firm grip. Theo's muscles felt tight. He huddled deeper into the embrace of his tweed jacket; it brought him little warmth, but he seized whatever respite from the c...

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“End of the Line” by Kasie Gilbert

Submitted to Contest #168

The train car glitters with rain silently descending across its cold, metal bolts. Tonya leans into the arm rest and presses her cheek against the window, filling each drop with heavy thoughts as they cycle through her mind over and over again. Her eyes reflect dimly in the icy pane of glass, glossed over with specs of empty detachment. The noise of the engine humming underneath stole the silence like the sadness that robbed Tonya of her joy. What was meant to be a joyous return home in celebration of her sister’s first born was now a fragil...

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“Unheard” by Ojaswi Singh

Submitted to Contest #168

The sun glinted violently, blinding her momentarily. The young girl covered her eyes, and after a few seconds, looked through the window once again. The train raced on the land, shaking her slightly. It was oddly relaxing. The viridescent hills chased her, and she saw a few children playing a game of soccer, all laughing as they tripped over each other’s feet. Suddenly, a bug flew onto the window, buzzing around wildly. She jumped, shaking her boyfriend, Ace, who was lying on her shoulder. “What’s wrong?” He asked, groaning at the su...

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“Kalka Mail” by Bhanu Vedantam

Submitted to Contest #168

There’s something about a train that inspires reflection, poignancy, romanticism. Maybe for some, claustrophobia. Imran gazed out the open window, watching distant lights through the darkness, feeling the biting December cold whizz across, as the vintage rumble of the train punctuated his thoughts. He drifted in and out of a dream-like state. “....oldest train still running in the country. When the British needed to move to their summer capital in Shimla, they used these very coaches!” The old man sitting next to him announced triumpha...

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“Man in the Corner” by Hailey Lynn

Submitted to Contest #168

After walking to the very end of the platform, to the very last car, Vera slides into the very last row of seats. The seats that faced backwards from the way the train was moving. Most people get sick from backwards motion, but really, Vera preferred it this way. She always does this because the last car is always empty, and Vera needed to be alone for this journey. Vera shoves her bag into the overhead, and plops down next to the window. She is clammy; she had to speed walk from the parking lot to catch the final train this evening, to a pl...

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“The Promise” by Teresa Renton

Submitted to Contest #168

The Promise “Think about it,” Alex said one day. “They have offered me the big promotion. And you can work from anywhere. You’re portable.” He stretched his arms in front of her, palms open, shoulders hunched, defeat already tensing his features. After two years of dating, it made sense to move in together, but first Hannah couldn’t leave her sick dad, then she couldn’t leave his house, and Alex continued to drive the 260 km to York every Friday. After a demanding week at work, he travelled to spend the weekend with her. She wondered wheth...

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“Green Paint” by Dakota Red

Submitted to Contest #168

My grandfather’s door was red, once. A deep burgundy sort of red, that he said made him think of an old horse he owned. Now, it’s mostly sun bleached, or peeled away to show a dull blue beneath. It’s been like that for years, but I hadn’t noticed how badly it needed a paint job until now. Finally, I turn the doorknob and walk in. The immediate smell beckons a thousand memories that had laid dormant for so long. I see the checkered tiles of the kitchen and think of sitting cross legged on them, trying to lure the cat. I remember tracin...

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“Everlong” by Leah Rantz

Submitted to Contest #168

And then, as it has since the Beginning of it all, Summer had come again. The sun burned bright and reassuring from the window in my apartment as it had before. But this time, the warmth couldn’t touch me from my empty bed. The rays stretched out across the apartment, searching for me. They beckoned me, but I didn’t budge from my side. I faced a gray wall. I wasn’t interested in a new season. Last summer had been different. I couldn’t wait to get out of bed, couldn’t wait to run outside to my car. I always seemed to be running la...

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“Train I Ride” by Abigail F. Taylor

Submitted to Contest #168

Shelley Glazen tapped her cigarette against a homemade ashtray. It was misshapen and cracked with age, but it had been her first attempt at art, the first time she fell in love with creating something with her own, rickety hands. Now, decades into her hobby, she found joy in teaching others at the community center. At seventy-three, Shelley was proof anyone could take up a skill and make something beautiful. She taught both throwing clay and Beginners' Drawing. “It's not about getting famous on the ticky-tock!” she said on the first day of c...

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“Affairs in Order” by George Georgerfrost@gmail.com

Submitted to Contest #168

Colin Tolbert was a man who kept his affairs in order. It was a lesson his father taught him as a boy. Constantly reminded of his father’s golden rule when he shadowed his father in the fields, the apple orchard and the barn. Amos, his father, told him to keep his affairs in order, because you never know when the good Lord will knock on your door. Be ready for that hour, because you never know when He will come for you. His father’s hour came after a long illness. In his final chapter, there were loose ends tha...

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“From NYC to Boston” by Sacha C.-V.

Submitted to Contest #168

Grand Central station. 12:02pm. Her train is in ten minutes. She’s waiting on the platform of her train to Boston. She’s worried and anxious. She’s biting her lips. She doesn’t see her lover. He should already be there. Her train is in nine minutes. Now in eight minutes. She’s passionately in love with him. She doesn’t know if their relationship will last long… She needed passion. Now she has it. It’s been two months the both of them. She’s feeling great. She loves the smell of his skin, the sensation when she touches him. She gets on the tr...

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“A Metaphor” by Nolan Pieper

Submitted to Contest #168

Leaves wisp by in a crescendo, swirling and dancing through the cool evening air. Far removed from any city or town sits a train station. This is the station at the end of the line. Countless tracks lead into its terminals, and only one leads out. No one knows how to get there or even how they got there, but everyone ends up there. The platform is empty except for a small boy sitting on a bench accompanied only by the dancing leaves. He is counting the bricks, one by one, that are interwoven amongst the platform. The leaves whirl around his ...

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“To Become A Brakeman” by Davie McGuinn

Submitted to Contest #168

Jaybird reached into his pocket and pulled out a pouch of Bugler tobacco. He then took out a folded section of yellowed newspaper, tore it into a quarter sheet, plucked out the last of the pouch's contents, gently rolled the tobacco in yesterday's farm foreclosure notices, and rolled a crude cigarette, licking the flap to make it all stick together. A man's land wasn't worth much more than that paper puffed into a hobo's lungs those days. The stationmaster already knew Jaybird would be bumming a dry match for his cigarette, so before Jaybird...

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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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