"The Signalman" was first published in 1886 as part of the Mugby Junction set of stories published by Dickens and other collaborators in the magazine All the Year Round. The story follows an unnamed narrator who takes an interest in a railway worker whose duty is to keep people safe by controlling the movement of the trains that pass through the tunnel. The signalman confesses to the narrator that he is being haunted by a ghost who foretells death. The specter's ominous yet vague warnings result in the signalman being struck and killed by a train.
The story was likely influenced by the Staplehurst rail crash (of which Dickens was a passenger) as well as the infamous Clayton Tunnel rail...
