TRAINS in works of fiction!!

• Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (GCN)
• Chapter 6 of Paper Mario: TTYD features the "Excess Express" luxury train chugging along to Poshley Heights, wherein Mario teams up with an aloof penguin detective who repeatedly mistakes him for Luigi. It's a very fun, charming, and memorable level inspired by Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. :>


• A Hat in Time (PC, PS4, Switch)
• In the Battle of the Birds chapter, there are two levels that take place on the Owl Express (also called the Science Express), one of which is a light-hearted parody of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, and the second of which is a fast-paced runaway train jumble-dash. They're a lot of fun, and it's remarkable to take a step back and appreciate how the developers used the same setting in two VASTLY different flavours and pacings, but both are very rewarding and enjoyable to play. I hope more train levels are in mind for Gears for Breakfast's future!!
• OH MY GOODNESS, MY WISH CAME TRUE! MORE TRAIN LEVELS HAPPENED! Technically, TEN OF THEM!! In the Nyakuza Metro DLC, ten new time pieces were added to an entire cat-themed subway system!! And I love cats even more than I love trains!! Ohhh, what a lucky bean I am. Anyway, the trains also have a cat-bus aesthetic going on, and it's a very fun DLC!


• Wuppo (PC/Many platforms)
• Wuppo features horizontal AND vertical trains! Neat.


• Pikuniku (PC/Switch)
• There's a subway train in Pikuniku you're tasked with restoring to operation. Once it's functioning again, you can... ride it!


• Persona 5 (PS3/PS4)
• Persona 5 features such an astonishingly accurate rendition of Tokyo's subway lines, you'll probably get lost in the crowds and interpasses, a lot! At least I did, but the map is pretty helpful and before long you'll get the hang of it, just as you would in real life I imagine. There are some pretty awesome videogame-to-real-life comparison videos out there that showcase how spot-on the developers at Atlus were in creating P5's environment. I'd love to do the same one day with my own local metro system as a reference. It probably seems super shoddy compared to Tokyo's transportation system though.
• Also in Persona 3 there is a train in the intro cutscene and not much else but it's fairly iconic.


• Quadrilateral Cowboy (PC)
• Quadrilateral Cowboy is an awesome and surreal 3D indie puzzle game about hackers in a alternate-universe cyberpunk 80's that begins with a train heist.


• Iconoclasts (PC, Switch, PS4)
• In the indie scifi 2D metroidvania puzzle-platformer, Iconoclasts, one boss fight takes place on top of a train transporting resources. Also, later in the game, you board a tram-like train to travel to a new location. In neither scenario do you get to see the inside of the train, BUT I still wanted to mention it because 1) there is some pretty great pixel art of purple sci-fi train cars and a public transport train station, respectively, and 2) I LOVE Iconoclasts. A lot.


• Off-Peak (PC)
• This is it. The game I've been waiting for--a surreal exploration game that takes place entirely inside a dream-like grand central-style train station. It's a 3D, first person indie adventure I won't soon forget. And when you get near the trains by going out onto the platform--that's the best part! The game creates a very magical experience without even boarding the trains--trust me, when you get onto the platform, the heavens will burst forth and the funk will seize you and your heart will be lifted. Thanks, Cosmo D!!


• Pokemon Black 2 & Pokemon White 2 (Nintendo DS)
• In Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 there is a new Battle Subway feature, similar to the Battle Tower in previous games and with similarly nonsensical dialogue from trainer NPCs. What's fresh about the Battle Subway, though, is the breadth of gameplay modes you can choose from (single, double, multi, etc.). There are subway bosses, too, but getting the chance to face them is difficult. And probably rewarding! But I never got that far...


• Kingdom Hearts 2 (PS2 or PS3 remake)
• My friend let me play the first 45 minutes of Kingdom Hearts 2 and in those 45 minutes I was delighted to discover there is a train, with the charming Kingdom Hearts art direction.


• Final Fantasy VI and VII
• Final Fantasy VI apparently involves a character suplexing a train after fighting it, and apparently Final Fantasy VII begins in a train station and makes frequent use of trains for fast travel.

movies

• Night on the Galactic Railroad (1985), animated by Group TAC and directed by Gisaburō Sugii, based on the book by Kenji Miyazawa
• The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), directed by Wes Anderson
• Kiki's Delivery Service
• Spirited Away has a VERY iconic train scene, where the main posse rides a train in beautiful silence across the water in an idyllic and otherworldly passing.
• The train Harry Potter takes to Hogwarts every year in the Harry Potter movies (and books) is quite famous indeed.

anime (tv series)

• Mawaru Penguindrum
• Okay so, Penguindrum sooorta counts because trains frequently appear, but few key scenes actually take place on the train (which is the Tokyo subway). It's more of a plot device in reference to the Tokyo subway sarin attack that happened in 1995, the year in which the (fictional) characters of Penguindrum were born, as well as used metaphorically, comparably to Night on the Galactic Railroad by Kenji Miyazawa. Basically, trains are thematically important to Mawaru Penguindrum as technically a work of historical fiction, and also serve as a philosophical representation of traveling, but the show isn't really about riding trains.


• Soul Eater, episode 30
• Death the Kid and the Thompson sisters catch a runaway train in the desert, in which Kid must defeat a one-time foe and reach the front of the train to discover an artifact tied to his father's past. The unmanned-train-in-the-desert aesthetic is pretty cool, plus the train shoots out of the sand into the air like a giant flying worm.

western animation (tv series)

• Infinity Train on Cartoon Network (2019-2020)
• Jems: There's a pink train that is almost certainly a toy you can buy bc Hasbro.

• Night on the Galactic Railroad by Kenji Miyazawa - (Also adapted into a well-known animated film.)
• Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
• Lionboy by Zizou Corder
• This YA fiction novel doesn't focus on trains entirely, but in the mid-to-final third of the book, the protagonist, Charlie, must travel on a train with a pack of lions through a snowstorm, during which he befriends the king of Bulgaria. It's a delightful book and the train scene makes for a charming closer. Definitely a memorable scenario (as is the sailing circus ship)!
• Harry Potter

• Runaway Train by Soul Asylum




• Devil's Train by The Lab Rats




• Galaxy Destiny by Switch (Ensemble Stars! - fictional idol unit)

okay so there's this really cool (and funny) blogger who reviews train stops in the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) metro system, and beyond! here's his original blog, and here's his new blog