This tiny index is a collection of any and all tropes related in any way to railroads, as well as any works featuring railroads.
Not to Be Confused with Railroading or Underground Railroad.
All Aboard!
Tropes:
- Afterlife Express: The main characters are being taken via train to a place after they die.
- Cars Without Tires Are Trains: Cars are able to drive on railroad tracks when they don't have their tires on.
- Chained to a Railway: A character (often a Damsel in Distress) is tied up to the tracks and left to die.
- The Chikan: Men on crowded trains act very inappropriate with women.
- Cool Train: A locomotive (fictional or real life) gives off an impressive appearance.
- Dingy Trainside Apartment: A character lives in a dilapidated apartment next to a railway line.
- Ghost Train: A train from beyond the afterlife (usually the ghost of a wrecked train from long ago) appears to haunt the tracks.
- Handcar Pursuit: The characters attempt to chase after their quarry using a handcar.
- High-Speed Train Reroute: A character is able to get a train to switch tracks to avoid danger at the last second.
- Hobos: Inextricably link to the US rail network and 'riding the rails'.
- Just Train Wrong: Writers with scenes involving trains get a fact about them inaccurate.
- Locomotive Level: A video game level involving a train of some sort.
- Multi-Track Drifting: Trains somehow end up on multiple tracks at once.
- Off Bridge, onto Vehicle: Someone who's on the run jumps off a bridge at the right time so that they land on a passing vehicle, in this case a train, and escape.
- Orient Express: The famed European passenger train that is often used in fictional works.
- Painted Tunnel, Real Train: A character paints a tunnel to trick their target, but a vehicle (often a train) randomly appears as if it was a real tunnel.
- Racing the Train: A character attempts to catch up with (or beat) a train.
- Rail Enthusiast: A person who loves trains.
- Rail-Car Separation: A train's carriages are uncoupled in mid-transit.
- Railroad Baron: The often unscrupulous and morally shady head of a railroad empire.
- Railroad Employee Roundhouse: The various characters behind the scenes of day-to-day railroad operations.
- Railroad Plot: A story where a railroad tries to use its influence to expand, only to get blocked by something and use dirty means to get their way.
- Railroad to Horizon: The tracks lead over the horizon to end a scene or story.
- Railroad Tracks of Doom: Any time the characters approach train tracks, a train appears to ram them down.
- Runaway Train: A train loses its brakes and barrels out of control.
- Sinister Subway: The subway system looks rather creepy and often nightmarish.
- Steam Never Dies: Despite the plot being set in the modern era, steam locomotives are still in everyday use.
- "Strangers on a Train"-Plot Murder: Random characters who don't know each other get caught up in a murder mystery.
- Subways Suck: Subway systems are depicted as grimy, dirty, vandalism-heavy rats nests.
- Thriller on the Express: A luxury train suddenly becomes a hot-spot for an intriguing thriller.
- Track Trouble: A train derails thanks to the tracks being sabotaged or damaged.
- Train Escape: Characters use trains to disappear and avoid pursuit.
- Train Job: The characters attempt to rob a train of high-value contents.
- Train Problem: A common math question where a character is forced to determine where two trains operating at opposite speeds will pass each other.
- Train Song: A song involving a train, railroad, locomotive, or other aspect of railroads.
- Train-Station Goodbye: A romantic couple (typically) says their goodbyes as one of them boards a departing train.
- Trainstopping: A character forcibly brings a train to a stop with their own strength.
- Traintop Battle: The characters come to blows on the top of a train.
- Vehicle-Roof Body Disposal (a train is often used for this)
- Wagon Train to the Stars: Trains that flies through space!
Works in which trains and/or railroads are important or featured:
Anime And Manga
- The Brave Express Might Gaine
- Doraemon: Nobita and the Galaxy Super-express
- Final Fantasy: Unlimited
- Fullmetal Alchemist (2003)
- Galactic Whirlwind Sasuraiger
- Galaxy Express 999 And sequels
- The Galaxy Railways
- Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress
- Night on the Galactic Railroad
- Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion
- Undersea Super Train: Marine Express
- Yuritetsu - Shiritsu Yurigasaki Joshikou Tetsudoubu
Board Games
Fan Fiction
Film — Animation
Film — Live-Action
- The 15:17 to Paris
- 2046
- Atomic Train
- Back to the Future Part III
- La Bęte Humaine
- The Brain (1969)
- Breakheart Pass
- The Bridge on the River Kwai
- Bullet Train
- The Bullet Train
- The Cassandra Crossing
- Closely Watched Trains
- Convoy 48
- The Darjeeling Limited
- Derailed (2002)
- Disaster on the Coastliner
- Dr. Terror's House of Horrors
- Emperor of the North
- The Finishing Line
- From Russia with Love
- The General
- The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery
- The Great Train Robbery (1903)
- The Great Train Robbery (1978)
- The Grey Fox
- Horror Express
- Howl (2015)
- Hugo
- Illusive Tracks
- The Incident
- The Iron Horse
- Jack the Reaper
- Krai
- Lady on a Train
- The Lady Vanishes
- Last Clear Chance
- Last Train from Gun Hill
- Last Train Home
- Der letzte Zug
- Millionaires' Express
- Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
- Murder on the Orient Express (2017)
- Night Train to Lisbon
- Night Train to Munich
- North By Northwest
- North West Frontier
- Olsen-Banden på sporet
- Once Upon a Texas Train
- Once Upon a Time in the West
- The Phantom Express (1932)
- The Railrodder
- Runaway Train
- Shanghai Express
- Silver Streak
- Snowpiercer
- The Station Agent
- Strangers on a Train
- The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
- Terminus
- Terror By Night
- Terror Train
- Throw Momma from the Train
- The Titfield Thunderbolt
- Train
- The Train
- Train to Busan
- Transsiberian
- Twentieth Century
- Under Siege 2: Dark Territory
- Union Pacific
- Unstoppable
- Von Ryan's Express
- Wild Wild West
Literature
- Adventures On Trains
- Anna Karenina
- Atlas Shrugged
- Baccano!
- The Boundless
- Choo Choo (1937)
- Dreadnaught
- Forest of Boland Light Railway
- The Great Train Robbery
- Harry Potter
- The Huffin Puff Express
- Hurray for the Dorchester!
- Iron Council
- The Little Engine That Could
- Murder on the Ballarat Train
- Murder on the Orient Express
- The Mystery of the Blue Train
- Night on the Galactic Railroad
- The Polar Express
- The Quadrail Series
- Railhead
- Railsea
- Rail Wars!
- The Railway Children
- The Railway Series
- Raising Steam
- Taro And Jiro The Sibling Locomotives
- Train Man (2010)
- Victoria: A Novel of 4th Generation War features a post-apocalyptic setting where rail, rather than cars is the main means of transportation in the US. The story lavishes quite a bit of loving description on the railways, trains and mainly steam and diesel locomotives.
Live Action TV
- Casey Jones
- The Choo Choo Bob Show
- The Day of the Roses
- The Gilded Age
- Hell on Wheels
- I Love Toy Trains
- Junior Express
- Kamen Rider Den-O
- Oh, Doctor Beeching!
- Petticoat Junction
- Ressha Sentai ToQger
- Shining Time Station
- Supertrain
- Wild West Tech
- The Wild Wild West
Theatre
Theme Parks
Video Games
- 3-D Ultra Lionel Traintown
- A-Train
- Chase the Express
- Choo-Choo Charles
- Dark Train
- Densha de Go!
- Factorio
- Fear Equation
- Final Fantasy XV note
- The Final Station
- Gadget: Past as Future
- Honkai: Star Rail
- The Last Express
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel note
- The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
- Lionel Trains On Track
- Locomotion
- Nancy Drew: Last Train To Blue Moon Canyon
- Railroad Rampage
- Rail Works
- Rise Of Industry
- Trainyard
- Transarctica
- Transport Tycoon
- Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic
- Numerous railroad operating simulation programs:
- Mini Metro
- Microsoft Train Simulator
- Pocket Trains
- Railroad Tycoon
- Trainz
- P I Engineering's Rail Driver
- Xtreme Express
Web Animation
- Over The Hills
- Shed 17
- Sodor: Dark Times
- Sodorthe Early Years
- The Stories of Sodor
- Tobias and the Half-Pariah
- TOMICA Thomas & Friends
Web Comics
- Girl Genius: Act Two, Books 1 & 2 (Vols. 14 & 15)
- Stand Still, Stay Silent
- When Heaven Spits You Out
Web Videos
Western Animation
- Big Tim
- Chuggington
- Dinosaur Train
- Fuji
- Home on the Rails
- Infinity Train
- Ivor the Engine
- John Henry and the Inky-Poo
- Mighty Express
- Porky's Railroad
- Thomas & Friends
- Trunk Train
- Underground Ernie
- The Wrong Trousers: Plot relevant model train.
Subways
- Creep (2004)
- Death Line
- The Incident
- Kontroll
- Metro 2033 Both the book and the video game.
- The Midnight Meat Train
- Mini Metro
- Miracle Train
- Money Train
- Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion
- Subway, a transparently-titled early film by Luc Besson, which takes place almost entirely inside the Parisian subway network.
- The Stalin Subway
- Subway Surfers
- The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
Real Life
- Amtrak
- Deutsche Bahn
- High Speed Rail
- Long Island Railroad
- New Jersey Transit
- National Rail
- Tokyo Train Lines
- World Subways