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Railways are naturally odd places. They can cut through urban and rural areas. They're absolutely different than most of their surroundings at any given spot.

They sit and solemn silence half the time. The other half, they scream with unnatural sounds, wailing a dirge with a chorus of steam, steel and strife.

And without a doubt, they're dangerous.

The deceptive stillness of a railroad can lull a living being into a false sense of security.

For the railroad sole purpose is to convey that marvel of engineering, that paragon of ingenuity, that weapon of mass conduction, the train.

Take tons of metal and wood, mix in an enormous amount of power, and multiply it all by speed.

And tell me you don't have a menacing missile rocketing down the throat and tranquility.

That sense of security be damned. For if you're oblivious, out of it, or otherwise occupied, that missile of steel and energy has obliteration written all over it.

They're called iron horses, addleships, hot shots, rattlers, wind cutters. These are not names for safe machines.

And the operation of said machines is just about everything but safe. A slip can maim. Neglect can kill.

A distraction can lead to an engine jumping the tracks like a jackrabbit, and imagination will suffice for now for the aftermath.

These brutish behemoths crawl across country sides on webs of delicate peril. They eat fire and speak thunder.

They wear a crown of warning, breathed in city gloom.

For all the added convenience and efficiency they brought with their proliferation. The writhing underbelly of technology has been buried like a mountain tunnel cave in.

Countless lives were ruined as dull steel tendrils snaked over the landscape.

From builders constructing the extensive lines through treacherous terrain to workers doing their best to govern and bridle an instrument of such imposing power.

To passengers and bystanders, either unaware or irreverent of the force blazing down upon them.

A train accident is never an emotionless affair. In fact, they're almost always fraught and imbued with negativity, terror, agony, anguish, rage.

So it's no wonder tales of the supernatural and trains, couple like a locomotive in Tinder.

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