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Tardis
Train

A train was a grouping of vehicles that moved, particularly over metal rails, transporting passengers or freight. According to the Second Doctor, trains had carriages, went on wheels, on rails, and were drawn by steam. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks [+]David Whitaker, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1967).)

History[]

On Earth[]

The Fifth Doctor, after landing his TARDIS at a train station in Oxfordshire on 11 June 1925, mentioned to his companions that he had always wanted to drive a train as a boy. (TV: Black Orchid [+]Terence Dudley, Doctor Who season 19 (BBC1, 1982).) The same was true of Henry Gordon Jago. (AUDIO: Higson & Quick [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)

In 1863, the Third Doctor and Charlie Fisher used a train engine to escape from the Confederate lines after their hot air balloon was shot down. (COMIC: Backtime [+]Dick O'Neill, TVA comic stories (Polystyle, 1971).)

London Underground train in 1868 Prisoners of Time

A train in 1868, moments after hitting the Animus. (COMIC: Unnatural Selection [+]Scott & David Tipton, Prisoners of Time (IDW Publishing, 2013).)

In 1868, Ian Chesterton used a train to kill the Animus, which was hiding in the London Underground. (COMIC: Unnatural Selection [+]Scott & David Tipton, Prisoners of Time (IDW Publishing, 2013).)

In 1879, Queen Victoria had planned to take the train to Aberdeen, but was forced to go by coach when a fallen tree blocked the line, as arranged by the Brethren. (TV: Tooth and Claw [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006).)

In 1885, a Shift Agent took over a steam train in order to get to Euston and recover a case of dark matter. (COMIC: Track Attack [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)

In 1898, Ian Stratford took the train from Paddington station to the town of Three Sisters. (PROSE: The Banquo Legacy [+]Andy Lane and Justin Richards, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2000).)

In 1909, Jack Harkness and a group of soldiers under his command were travelling through Lahore by train when the soldiers were killed by Fairies. (TV: Small Worlds [+]Peter J. Hammond, Torchwood series 1 (BBC Three, 2006).)

The Eighth Doctor claimed he took a train with Lenin from Switzerland to Petrograd. (AUDIO: Storm Warning [+]Alan Barnes, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2001).)

In 1917, the Doctor's TARDIS materialised on a train en route to Darjeeling, India. (AUDIO: The Roof of the World [+]Adrian Rigelsford, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2004).)

In 1920, Jamie McCrimmon saw a train for the first time. (AUDIO: The Mouthless Dead [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)

In 1930s Germany, Nazi party officials had their own private trains. The Seventh Doctor and Ace were passengers on Adolf Hitler's train when it journeyed from Nuremberg to Berlin. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus [+]Terrance Dicks, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1991).)

On 1 September 1939, Cecelia Pollard was convinced to board the Vienna to Calais Transcontinental Express by Celestial Intervention Agency agent Torvald instead of committing suicide. President Romana II, Leela, Narvin, Mephistopheles Arkadian and Torvald all boarded the train because of Cecelia's presence. (AUDIO: A Blind Eye [+]Alan Barnes, Gallifrey (Big Finish Productions, 2004).)

On 7 September 1952, the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn Smythe visited the train Ivy Lee. (AUDIO: The Nowhere Place [+]Nicholas Briggs, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2006).)

On 20 July 1966, a train ran past a London warehouse, frightening Jamie McCrimmon, who was from a time before trains. The Second Doctor explained what trains were to him. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks [+]David Whitaker, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1967).)

In 1967, Madeline Burton, while using Om-Tsor, accidentally caused a train in northwestern India to derail, killing the hundreds of people on board. (PROSE: Revolution Man [+]Paul Leonard, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 1999).)

In 1979, the Fourth Doctor and Romana II took a train while in Paris. (TV: City of Death [+]David Agnew, Doctor Who season 17 (BBC1, 1979).)

Circa 1990, the Seventh Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith took a train to Royal Albert Hall, which was abducted by the Kalik. (COMIC: Train-Flight [+]Andrew Donkin and Graham S. Brand, DWM Comics (Marvel Comics, 1990).)

In 1993, a Fortean Flicker transported a group of train passengers to Hogsumm. (PROSE: The Highest Science [+]Gareth Roberts, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1993).) They were later returned to their own time by Romana II. (PROSE: Happy Endings [+]Paul Cornell, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1996).)

In either 2000 or 2001, Rose Tyler and Shareen Costello caught a train to Parc Asterix after flunking off from their school trip to the Musee de Louvre. (PROSE: Meet Rose [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Annual 2006 (Panini UK, 2005)., COMIC: Art Attack [+]Mike Collins, DWM Comics (2005).)

In March 2005, Chris Martin watched the Ninth Doctor get kicked off a train as his season ticket wasn't valid until 2009. (PROSE: Have You Seen This Man? [+]various authors, Who is Doctor Who? (BBC, 2005).)

Circa December 2009, Mike Yates took a train to Nest Cottage to answer a strange advertisement. (AUDIO: The Stuff of Nightmares [+]Paul Magrs, Hornets' Nest (BBC Audio, 2009).)

In Bristol in the 2010s, a train almost ran over a defenceless and externally shrunken TARDIS, which had the Twelfth Doctor inside. Later, Clara Oswald and Rigsy used another train in an attempt to trample a group of the Boneless. However, the plan failed as the Boneless turned the train two-dimensional. (TV: Flatline [+]Jamie Mathieson, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).)

Miss Quill wondered if Dorothea Ames' metaphysical engine "buzzed [her] atomically" to the Peak District. She pointed out the area's relative proximity to Coal Hill Academy by saying, "There are trains for that." (TV: The Metaphysical Engine, or What Quill Did [+]Patrick Ness, Class television stories series 1 (BBC Three, 2016).)

In 2050, due to the Oroborus consuming time, all the trains in London ran on time, even if they were several hours late, and some trains even arrived before they had left. (TV: Oroborus [+]Deborah Parsons, K9 series 1 (2010).)

In 2080, Ileana de Santos and her associates took a private monorail train from Rio de Janeiro to a ranch house in the Amazon desert. The Fifth Doctor, with some difficulty, materialised the TARDIS in the train's baggage car. (AUDIO: Loups-Garoux [+]Marc Platt, adapted from The Werelings, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2001).)

Other realities[]

Train Wedding of River Song

A steam train passes through the Gherkin. (TV: The Wedding of River Song [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).)

In an alternate timeline, Amy Pond took the Eleventh Doctor aboard a train headed for Area 52 in Egypt. A train also ran through the Gherkin. (TV: The Wedding of River Song [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 6 (BBC One, 2011).)

On other planets[]

On an Earth-like planet, the Daleks used a train for transport. The Second Doctor crashed the train by removing a section of the track, causing it to derail. (COMIC: The Exterminator [+]Roger Noel Cook, TVC comic stories (1967).)

One human colony world which was mostly ice used skitrains, which had runners instead of wheels. (PROSE: Cold Fusion [+]Lance Parkin, Virgin Missing Adventures (Virgin Books, 1996).)

On the stormy planet Tempest, the only way to safely traverse the wastelands was by monorail trains. (PROSE: Tempest [+]Christopher Bulis, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1998).)

On Florana, trains were used to transport prisoners to factories. (AUDIO: The Elite [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)

In a heavily polluted city on an Earth-like world, the Fourth Doctor assisted the Guardian Angels in finding the correct train track which would lead them out of the city and to the countryside. However, when he arrived there in the TARDIS and waited for them, they never arrived, and he concluded that they didn't make it, which was perhaps just as well since the countryside was just as polluted as the city itself. (COMIC: End of the Line [+]Steve Parkhouse, DWM Comics (Marvel Comics UK, 1981).)

In the Matrix on Gallifrey, the Fourth Doctor found himself trapped on a recreation of a train line, his foot caught in the tracks after the points changed, while Goth drove a train toward him. The Doctor freed himself and jumped clear at the last second, and the train vanished. (TV: The Deadly Assassin [+]Robert Holmes, Doctor Who season 14 (BBC1, 1976).) According to the Twelfth Doctor, Gallifrey didn't have steam trains. An avid fan of them, the Doctor had considered his homeworld to have missed out. (PROSE: A History of Humankind [+]Official Guides (BBC Children's Books, 2016).)

On the Dalek Foundation world of Sunlight 349, journalist Lillian Belle was gathering information at the site of a head-on collision between two trains. When a Dalek arrived on the scene, it murdered one of the drivers (Mr Sezman) and the medics who rescued him from the wreckage and left. (PROSE: The Dalek Generation [+]Nicholas Briggs, BBC New Series Adventures (BBC Books, 2013).)

Through space[]

A space-faring version of the Orient Express ferried passengers between planets, travelling along hyperspace ribbons. (TV: Mummy on the Orient Express [+]Jamie Mathieson, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).)

Another space-faring train was hijacked by the CyberMasters to steal the Qurunx it was transporting. The Thirteenth Doctor, Yasmin Khan and Graham O'Brien attempted to stop them, but failed. (TV: The Power of the Doctor [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who Centenary Special 2022 (BBC One, 2022).)

The Eighth Doctor kept a model train set in his TARDIS, which he constructed over a period of several years until it eventually became a microcosm of its own. (PROSE: Model Train Set [+]Jonathan Blum, Short Trips (Short Trips short stories, 1998)., Vampire Science [+]Kate Orman and Jonathan Blum, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 1997)., Genocide [+]Paul Leonard, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 1997).)

The Second Doctor found a wind-up toy train in a giant toyshop which was big enough to ride in. However, he and his friends could only wind it up enough to make it go a few yards. (PROSE: The Celestial Toyshop [+]The Dr Who Annual 1969 (Doctor Who annual, 1968).)

Behind the scenes[]

Footnotes[]

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