"That Hell-Bound Train" is a fantasy short story by Robert Bloch from 1958 that won the Hugo Award in 1959. It was originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in September 1958.
In the beginning of the story, Martin is orphaned when his father, in a drunken stupor, is killed by a train, and his mother runs away with a traveling salesman. Martin escapes from an orphanage and drifts from job to job, once even stealing hubcap...
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"That Hell-Bound Train" is a fantasy short story by Robert Bloch from 1958 that won the Hugo Award in 1959. It was originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in September 1958.
In the beginning of the story, Martin is orphaned when his father, in a drunken stupor, is killed by a train, and his mother runs away with a traveling salesman. Martin escapes from an orphanage and drifts from job to job, once even stealing hubcaps for a living. He is oddly attracted to trains, and he rides them everywhere he goes, continually humming a tune his father use to sing, That Hell-Bound Train.
One night, after Martin decides he isn't cut out for a life of petty larceny and contemplates joining the Salvation Army, a large, black, and unmarked train he does not recognize stops near him. The train conductor gets off, bearing a lantern he lights by blowing on it, and offers Martin anything he wants, in return for which he will ride that Hell-Bound Train when he dies. Martin...
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