The Signal-Man
"The Signal-Man" is a horror mystery story by Charles Dickens, first published as part of the Mugby Junction collection in the 1866 Christmas edition of All the Year Round.
The signalman's work is at a signal-box in a deep cutting near a tunnel entrance on a lonely stretch of the railway line, and he controls the movements of passing trains.
In the first instance, the signalman heard the same words which the narrator said and saw a figure with its left arm across its face, while waving the other in desperate warning; he questioned it, but it vanished.
During its second appearance, the figure was silent, with both hands before the face in an attitude of mourning; then, a beautiful young woman died in a train passing through.
The signalman is sure that these supernatural incidents are presaging a third tragic event waiting to happen, and is sick with fear and frustration: he does not understand why he should be burdened with knowledge of an incipient tragedy when he, a minor railway functionary, has neither the authority nor the ability to prevent it.
Moreover, the driver waved his arm in warning even as he covered his face to avoid seeing the train strike the hapless signalman.
The American television programme Suspense adapted "The Signal Man" in 1953, starring Boris Karloff and Alan Webb.
On 28 March 1969, Beyond Midnight (a South African radio programme produced by Michael McCabe) aired the story as "The Train".
Elements of "The Signal-Man" are used in Andrew Lloyd Webber's 2004 musical The Woman in White (which is also based on the Wilkie Collins novel of the same name).
[3] The following year, Lloyd Webber again attempted to adapt "The Signal-Man" for the stage, offering it as an operatic work for English National Opera's 1980–81 season.
BBC Radio 4 broadcast a version on Christmas Day 2022 starring Samuel West and James Purefoy, written by Jonathan Holloway, and directed by Andy Jordan.
The play was staged as a site specific production at Wesley Memorial Church, Oxford, and starred Anna Tolputt as The Signalman and Nicholas Osmond as The Visitor.
[7] In 2024, Matatabi Press published a contemporary and streamlined adaptation of The Signal-Man titled The Signalman & Holiday Romance: Level 600 Reader (L+) (CEFR B1-B2).
This edition, created by Josh MacKinnon under John McLean's guidance, makes the classic story accessible and engaging for modern readers at the CEFR B1-B2 proficiency levels.
