As I'm sure you all know, this is the title of one of Agatha Christie's murder mysteries. Miss Marple's friend catches the 4.50pm train from Paddington Station to some fictional place in the country. It's winter and it's dark outside. The friend, an old lady like Miss Marple, is travelling alone. She's quietly reading. Gradually she becomes aware that the 4.50 is slowly overtaking another passenger train. She can see the passengers eating, chatting or snoozing as she passes each compartment of the other train. In those days you had first class compartments with six seats (3 opposite 3) and third class with eight (4 opposite 4). None of these open plan coaches you get nowadays. So if you were lucky and the train wasn't crowded you could get a whole compartment to yourself, as had the friend.
After a little while the old lady gets a bit bored of eavesdropping on the humdrum lives of her fellow travellers opposite, and goes back to her 'Woman's Own'. But then the two trains start to run at the same speed. Something makes her look up. In the compartment exactly opposite her something not at all humdrum is taking place. There are two people there, and there seems to be a struggle going on. A very violent struggle. The old lady slowly realises that what she is witnessing is a man strangling a woman. Just as the woman slumps down obviously dead the other train starts to slow and the old lady sees no more.
After witnessing this terrible real-life melodrama, the old lady is then faced with the problem of what to do about it. I don't recall if she considers pulling the alarm cord: anyway she certainly tells the guard. Naturally he doesn't believe her. And when she gets to the fictional town where she is to stay with Miss Marple, neither she nor Miss Marple can persuade the local police to take it seriously either.
To cut a long story short, Miss Marple with the help of the railway timetable first works out where the body was thrown out of the train, and of course later she discovers who the victim was and who bumped her off.
What interested me was that my father and I several times had a similar experience to Miss Marple's friend. Well, to be honest witnessing a murder we didn't, but everything else seemed to fit. My father often spent the day in London. In those steam-train days we lived in a village called Leafield, near Witney, and our nearest station was Finstock, or Finstock Halt as it was called then. Occasionally I was taken to London as a treat. We always caught the 4.40 back as this went on past Oxford, stopping at Finstock Halt. There was another train though, the 4.45, also for Oxford. Although this was an express train, it was no good for us as we would have to change somewhere to get home. Every time we took this journey the two trains somewhere around Reading would run along together. I remember my father telling me it was because the two drivers wanted to have a chat. When the trains were going exactly the same speed you had the illusion that they'd both stopped. This was always a big thrill for a small child - the highlight of what otherwise seemed an interminable journey.
I'm sure Agatha Christie must have made the same journey, and what would be more natural on a dark night for somebody with her imagination to build one of her murder mysteries around it.
OK, I know there's a 5 or 10 minute difference, but I'm not going to let that spoil a good yarn....
After a little while the old lady gets a bit bored of eavesdropping on the humdrum lives of her fellow travellers opposite, and goes back to her 'Woman's Own'. But then the two trains start to run at the same speed. Something makes her look up. In the compartment exactly opposite her something not at all humdrum is taking place. There are two people there, and there seems to be a struggle going on. A very violent struggle. The old lady slowly realises that what she is witnessing is a man strangling a woman. Just as the woman slumps down obviously dead the other train starts to slow and the old lady sees no more.
After witnessing this terrible real-life melodrama, the old lady is then faced with the problem of what to do about it. I don't recall if she considers pulling the alarm cord: anyway she certainly tells the guard. Naturally he doesn't believe her. And when she gets to the fictional town where she is to stay with Miss Marple, neither she nor Miss Marple can persuade the local police to take it seriously either.
To cut a long story short, Miss Marple with the help of the railway timetable first works out where the body was thrown out of the train, and of course later she discovers who the victim was and who bumped her off.
What interested me was that my father and I several times had a similar experience to Miss Marple's friend. Well, to be honest witnessing a murder we didn't, but everything else seemed to fit. My father often spent the day in London. In those steam-train days we lived in a village called Leafield, near Witney, and our nearest station was Finstock, or Finstock Halt as it was called then. Occasionally I was taken to London as a treat. We always caught the 4.40 back as this went on past Oxford, stopping at Finstock Halt. There was another train though, the 4.45, also for Oxford. Although this was an express train, it was no good for us as we would have to change somewhere to get home. Every time we took this journey the two trains somewhere around Reading would run along together. I remember my father telling me it was because the two drivers wanted to have a chat. When the trains were going exactly the same speed you had the illusion that they'd both stopped. This was always a big thrill for a small child - the highlight of what otherwise seemed an interminable journey.
I'm sure Agatha Christie must have made the same journey, and what would be more natural on a dark night for somebody with her imagination to build one of her murder mysteries around it.
OK, I know there's a 5 or 10 minute difference, but I'm not going to let that spoil a good yarn....
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