[00:00:16] Speaker A: The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society Podcast welcome to the Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society, a podcast dedicated to to suspense, crime and horror stories from the golden age of radio. I'm Eric.
[00:00:36] Speaker B: I'm Tim.
[00:00:36] Speaker C: And I'm Joshua.
[00:00:37] Speaker A: We love mysterious old time radio stories, but do they stand the test of time? That's what we're here to find out.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: In December of 2017, we each selected Christmas themed episodes to listen to and I chose an adaptation of Charles Dickens other ghost story, the Signal Man. The story doesn't inherently have a Christmas theme, but ghost stories are a bit of a holiday tradition in Britain.
[00:00:59] Speaker C: 23 years after publishing A Christmas Carol, Dickens published the Signal man in the 1866 Christmas edition of the literary magazine all the Year Round. It was part of an anthology called Mugby Junction, which featured stories about the rail lines that extend from that junction.
[00:01:18] Speaker A: The story was adapted by several series including Lights out, hall of Fantasy, Columbia Workshop and Nightfall. Suspense adapted the story for radio three times. The first featured Agnes Moorhead and aired March 23, 1953. It returned in November of 1956 featuring Sarah Churchill and then again in February 1959 featuring Ellen Drew.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: Given how many adaptations of the story exist, I thought it'd be fun to make a holiday tradition of listening to a different version each December or January. Our first year we listened to the suspense version from 1956 with Sarah Churchill. The year after that we listened to Columbia Workshop's version. Next we listened to Beyond Midnight's adaptation, followed by the Lights out version and then. Then we return to Suspense for the adaptation starring Ellen drew from February 1959. Two years ago we checked out Nightfall's take from December of 1982, and last year we listened to an even more recent adaptation from Seeing Ear Theater.
[00:02:16] Speaker C: But for our eighth year we're going back for the Weird Circle adaptation. 78 episodes of the Weird Circle were recorded in the RCA studios in New York between 1943 and 1945. The series is largely remembered for its distinctive introduction in which the announcer calls for the bell keeper to toll the bell to indicate that the listeners had once again joined them in the Weird Circle. They first broadcast their version of the Signalman, which they chose to call the Thing in the tunnel on March 4, 1945.
[00:02:53] Speaker A: It's late at night and a chill has set in. You're alone and the only light you see is coming from an antique radio. Listen to the sounds coming from the speaker, listen to the music, and listen to the voices.
[00:03:27] Speaker D: The Weird Circle in this cave by the restless sea, we are Met to call from out of the past. Stories strange and weird. Bell keeper, toll the bell so that all may know we are gathered again in the weird circ.
[00:04:20] Speaker E: Out of the past.
Phantoms of a world gone by Speak again their immortal tale.
The thing in the tunnel.
Listen.
That's the long moaning whistle of the through expression wailing through the lonesome night. Crying like a lost and anguished soul in the mountains. Listen to it. I've heard that mournful crying for 10 years.
And each time it reminds me of Macgregor.
Yeah, reminds me of macgregor.
My name's Kelsey. Howard Kelsey. I live out here solitary and alone because I like it.
I hear nothing but the wind and the passenger and freight trains roaring through the canyons and the arroyos at the clearwater rain.
And of course, myself.
I'm a lonely man. Sure.
I got too many memories.
Ah, there she comes.
She's through the tunnel now. The Statesman Express 12 Car Pullman roaring like a blast of fire Thunder for home.
Ah, Macgregor. Macgregor. Are you flagging her through once more?
I met Macgregor by accident. In those days I was new to this country and I lived here with a fellow named pike, an old time prospector. He had a voice of sandpaper and a heart of stone. He didn't like me and I didn't like him. But prospecting kept us together for a time nonetheless. We went out separately and sometimes two or three days went by before we saw each other again.
I first met macgregor on one of those trips. I'd come through some valley in the clearwater range, and just as day was beginning to fall, I found myself on top of a steep embankment overlooking a gleaming set of rails.
The air was dead silent, the mountains around me purple and velvet, soft in the setting sun. It was all so still, so silent, that, well, for a moment I felt the whole world had died. But just then, suddenly I saw somebody move down by the tracks. I cried, hello, below there. Hello.
The man spun about and slept, stared up the track in the opposite direction. I called again, hello, below there. Hello.
The man spun about again, and this time he saw me.
How do I get down there?
[00:07:11] Speaker F: Over to your left, there's a path.
[00:07:14] Speaker E: All right, thanks. I'll be down in a minute.
The whistle called just as I began to descend. A rumble filled the air and just as I reached the rail bed I saw the tunnel hewn out of mountain rock and plunging from the tunnel's mouth like some black terrible monster roared. A train tore by me in a Deafening roar.
Then when it was past, directly opposite, on the other side of the track, stood the man I'd just called.
He was staring at me strangely.
He was short and dark skinned, and his eyes were sunk deep in his head. He wore a sheepskin coat and an old fedora, and he was holding a signal flag.
Hello.
My name's Kelsey.
[00:08:06] Speaker F: Hello.
[00:08:07] Speaker E: I was just kind of wandering and, well, I. I saw you and I called and.
[00:08:13] Speaker F: I work here.
[00:08:14] Speaker E: Oh.
Kind of lonely, isn't it?
[00:08:18] Speaker F: It is.
[00:08:20] Speaker E: What do you do?
[00:08:22] Speaker F: Don't you know?
[00:08:23] Speaker E: What?
Well, should I? Oh, the flag.
Signal man, huh?
[00:08:30] Speaker F: And telegrapher.
[00:08:31] Speaker E: I see.
Say, look, if I'm breaking any regulation by being here, I mean. Well, you look as if I. I.
[00:08:41] Speaker F: Was thinking that maybe I've seen you before.
[00:08:45] Speaker E: Where?
Over there by the tunnel mount. Yes, but good Lord, man, I've never seen it before. I didn't even know you had a tunnel here.
Well, don't you believe me?
[00:08:58] Speaker F: I think so.
My name is McGregor.
[00:09:02] Speaker E: I'm glad to meet you, McGregor.
[00:09:05] Speaker F: My signal shack's just down the road.
I've got some coffee inside.
Well, I'd be glad to share some.
Like you said, it's lonely here.
Very lonely.
You see. Coffee's ready.
[00:09:30] Speaker E: Well, can I help or get cups or something?
[00:09:33] Speaker F: No, no, I'll get them.
Tell me, why did you shout what you did when you were on the embankment?
[00:09:42] Speaker E: What did I shout?
[00:09:44] Speaker F: Hello. Below there. Hello.
Those were the exact words.
[00:09:50] Speaker E: Well, I don't know why I shouted them especially.
[00:09:53] Speaker F: Are you sure you had no reason? I mean, did you feel that somebody or something was making you shout just those words?
[00:10:01] Speaker E: No.
What makes you think that something did?
[00:10:05] Speaker F: They might have.
[00:10:07] Speaker E: Who might have?
Say, look, are you all right, MacGregor?
[00:10:12] Speaker F: I'm all right. Fine. It's just.
[00:10:15] Speaker E: Just what?
[00:10:16] Speaker F: Look, listen to me. Don't think I'm crazy. You mustn't.
[00:10:20] Speaker E: Why should I think?
[00:10:21] Speaker F: It's just. Well, when you see something, it's there, isn't it? I mean, it's real when you can see it and hear it. It's not a dream or a nightmare when you can see it there night after night. It's real, isn't it? Isn't it?
[00:10:35] Speaker E: What in the world are you talking about?
Put that coffee down over here. You'll spill it.
Say, you better put it down and answer your key.
Say, look, what's the matter with you? What are you staring at that telegraph key like that?
[00:10:52] Speaker F: Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Leave me alone. Let me out. Let me out.
[00:11:01] Speaker E: MacGregor.
Well, I.
I stood there and the little shack dumbfounded. And by the time I roused myself out of it, MacGregor was coming back. He came into the shack, and his face was haggard and his eyes strained wide and unseeing.
He shut the door.
[00:11:25] Speaker F: It's gone.
[00:11:27] Speaker E: What's gone? What are you talking about, McGregor? Are you sick or something?
[00:11:32] Speaker F: It was there. I saw it. Why does it come back? Why? Why?
[00:11:37] Speaker E: Look, sit down, man. Calm yourself. You're not yourself.
You better answer your telegram.
[00:11:43] Speaker F: I can't. There's no one to answer. It's him that's doing it.
[00:11:46] Speaker E: For who is? Him.
[00:11:47] Speaker F: Can't you understand it? It's a warning, an accident signal. And he's sending it. He's sending it.
[00:11:53] Speaker E: Now, listen to me. This can't go on.
[00:11:56] Speaker F: Stands there night after night in the tunnel's mouth. And he shouts frantically, hello.
[00:12:00] Speaker E: Below there. Hello.
[00:12:01] Speaker F: Look out. Clear the track. Clear the track.
Been going on for a week now. Standing there and shouting in such an agony.
[00:12:09] Speaker E: It's the wind you've been hearing, man, not the wind.
[00:12:11] Speaker F: It's him. Him. He's outside now in the tunnel mouth.
[00:12:15] Speaker E: You've been dreaming things.
[00:12:16] Speaker F: Then look for yourself. Look for yourself.
[00:12:18] Speaker E: I will.
I walked up the tracks toward the tunnel. And then I saw it. I stopped dead and I stared. And there.
There standing in the tunnel's mouth, wrapped in an eerie radiance, stood a figure. I could see him clearly, one hand waving frantically and the other hiding his face.
And I could hear his voice, like something out of the tomb, pleading, hello, below there.
[00:12:55] Speaker G: Hello.
Look out. Look out.
Clear the track.
Clear the track.
[00:13:05] Speaker E: And again that train whistle moaned amongst the hills. And all the time I watched him. He stood there waving, dressed in what seemed to be a short coat and a beaver hat.
[00:13:16] Speaker G: Look out.
Clear the track.
Clear the track.
[00:13:23] Speaker E: MacGregor, bring a lantern. MacGregor?
[00:13:26] Speaker D: Aye.
[00:13:27] Speaker F: He gives his own light.
[00:13:28] Speaker E: Bring out a lantern. We're going up to him. He must be real.
And MacGregor brought out a lantern. And up the twin, gleaming rails we moved. The lantern cast a wan pool of light about us. And as we walked, it shook madly, running long, sharp shadows at our feet. It was cold, so cold my body shivered. My hands were as nervous as an old man's hands. And now the voice of the thing in the tunnel got louder and louder, and it was supportful, hollow sounding and torn with grief.
[00:14:03] Speaker G: Look out. Look out. Look out.
[00:14:08] Speaker E: Do you know him? Do you know him at all?
[00:14:11] Speaker F: No. He's not real. All week he stood there and called, clear the track.
[00:14:17] Speaker G: Clear the track.
[00:14:18] Speaker E: He's waving his arm in such a frenzy.
[00:14:20] Speaker F: He's warning me. He's warning me. But of what? Of what?
[00:14:27] Speaker E: When we are close to him, seize him.
[00:14:29] Speaker F: Yes. Yes, seize him. I'll seize him, sir.
[00:14:33] Speaker E: McGregor, do you hear me? Stop.
[00:14:34] Speaker F: Yes, I'll stop.
[00:14:35] Speaker E: I'll stop. Feel yourself together, man. We'll be near him in a few moments.
[00:14:38] Speaker F: I'll try.
That whistle.
[00:14:43] Speaker E: Where's that whistle from?
[00:14:45] Speaker F: Tow train's due now.
[00:14:46] Speaker E: McGregor. What? Are you ready?
[00:14:50] Speaker F: Yes.
[00:14:50] Speaker G: Look out below there. Look out.
Clear the track.
Clear the track.
[00:14:59] Speaker E: Now I've got.
[00:15:02] Speaker C: Why?
[00:15:02] Speaker E: What?
[00:15:03] Speaker F: He's gone. It's gone. Kelsey.
[00:15:06] Speaker E: Down the tunnel.
[00:15:06] Speaker F: Quick as vanished. Under my hands like a pup. He disappeared.
[00:15:10] Speaker E: Come on. McCracker. In the tunnel. Come on.
Look sharp, McGregor. He must be in here. He couldn't disappear like that.
[00:15:19] Speaker F: The dead can. The dead can stop it, MacGregor.
[00:15:22] Speaker E: Now look about. Do you see anything?
[00:15:24] Speaker F: You won't find him. You won't. He's not real. You won't find him.
[00:15:27] Speaker E: You won't. He's dead.
[00:15:29] Speaker F: He's a ghost, a specter, a vision of death. He's the dead trying to warn me.
[00:15:34] Speaker E: But of what? Tell me, of what?
[00:15:36] Speaker F: Of what? Of what?
[00:15:38] Speaker E: And we did not find the thing in the tunnel.
After a while, we went back to The Signal Shack. MacGregor, I said.
[00:15:46] Speaker F: Yes?
[00:15:47] Speaker E: How long have you worked here?
[00:15:50] Speaker F: Some six months. Why?
[00:15:53] Speaker E: What brought you to this?
[00:15:54] Speaker F: I needed a job. There was one here. The other signalman before me was killed.
[00:15:58] Speaker E: Killed? Yes.
[00:15:59] Speaker F: A train caught him. Captain Beaver. That was his name.
[00:16:02] Speaker E: What?
[00:16:02] Speaker F: Eh?
[00:16:03] Speaker E: What was his name?
[00:16:04] Speaker F: Captain Beaver.
[00:16:05] Speaker E: That's what they called him.
[00:16:06] Speaker F: An account.
What's the matter?
[00:16:08] Speaker E: Didn't you notice, McGregor?
[00:16:10] Speaker F: Notice what?
[00:16:10] Speaker E: His hat. The thing's hat.
[00:16:12] Speaker F: What about Kelsey?
[00:16:15] Speaker E: Yes, McGregor, it was a beaver hat. A beaver.
[00:16:19] Speaker F: He's there again.
[00:16:20] Speaker E: I'm going outside.
[00:16:21] Speaker F: Wait. Wait. The lantern. I want to see.
[00:16:24] Speaker G: Hello. Below there.
Hello.
Clear the track.
Clear the track.
[00:16:34] Speaker E: Look, MacGregor. Look. His hat.
[00:16:37] Speaker F: It is beaver. I never noticed.
[00:16:40] Speaker G: Look out.
Look out.
[00:16:44] Speaker F: Then it's him. The other signalman come back from the dead. But why? Why? What's he trying to warn me of? Tell me, Kelsey. Tell me.
What is the dead trying to say?
[00:17:21] Speaker E: At dawn, McGregor's relief came. A young, sullen looking boy named Carter. They both used a sleeping sack a few hundred yards away from their station. And it was to this shack that MacGregor took me. After a while, I fell asleep for I don't know how long until.
[00:17:38] Speaker F: Kelsey. Kelsey.
[00:17:41] Speaker E: Wake up.
[00:17:41] Speaker F: It's Time.
[00:17:42] Speaker E: Wake up. What?
What is it? What's the matter?
[00:17:47] Speaker F: It's time for me to go on.
[00:17:48] Speaker E: Oh, I feel as if I only just fell asleep.
[00:17:53] Speaker F: You can stay here if you want to.
[00:17:54] Speaker E: No, no. I want to go along.
[00:17:57] Speaker F: There's the 9 o'clock express coming through. We better go then.
[00:18:01] Speaker E: We left soon after, and when we reached the embankment, evening was coming down. And with each step I felt my heart thudding. The question loomed in my mind like a flame. Was the thing in the tunnel mouth? Was it there? The evening express screamed again through the hill. And its pitch suddenly seemed lifted to a tense agony.
When we reached the tracks, my eyes were streamed with staring.
Well, we went up to the shack. Inside, we asked Carter if anything had happened while he was on. Nope, he said, as dull as ever. He shook himself into a heavy mackinaw and said, so long and walked out. We heard his footsteps fading. We listened to them as if they were the last living sounds we'd ever heard. And then they were gone. And we stood in the shack hearing only the whistle of the express coming down the hills.
[00:19:00] Speaker F: Maybe he won't come tonight. Maybe the thing's left us at last. Maybe I dreamed about that all day.
Maybe he's given up and I won't ever hear or see him again.
[00:19:12] Speaker E: Even though you think it's trying to warn you or something.
[00:19:14] Speaker F: Of what? Of what? What's there to be warned of for a whole week? Maybe it's all a lark, a joke, a dead man's joke.
[00:19:23] Speaker E: Take it easy, MacGregor.
[00:19:24] Speaker F: Tell me, Kelsey, please tell me. Am I going crazy? Maybe I'm seeing and hearing all this in my own brain. I can't tell anymore. I can't. I'm so tired.
It would be pleasant to escape, to forget. If I am going crazy, MacGregor, stop it.
[00:19:39] Speaker E: If you are mad, then so am I. I've seen the thing.
[00:19:42] Speaker F: Then what does want?
[00:19:43] Speaker E: What does it want? There, there.
[00:19:45] Speaker F: It's him. It's him again. He's outside. He's come back.
[00:19:48] Speaker E: MacGregor. I raced out after him. He was standing there between the glistening rails. And in the tunnel mouth, wrapped in its unearthly radiance, stood the thing, waving and calling.
[00:20:01] Speaker G: Clear the tracks. Clear the tracks.
[00:20:06] Speaker E: And then I became aware of the faint rumble of a train. The Express. McGregor, get off the tracks. Get off the tracks.
[00:20:14] Speaker G: Clear the tracks. Clear the track.
[00:20:20] Speaker E: I seized MacGregor and I pulled him off. And it was just in time. Like an incredible fiery eyed monster, the express engine roared out of the tunnel mouth.
Multiple eyes. It plunged past.
And then, unbelievably, it happened. I saw the rear cars as if they were toys suddenly flung, hurtling off the tracks.
A fearful grinding and crashing filled the air. And along the embankment there was of turmoil, of twisted steel and fire. A sheet of flame leapt up. Smoke poured in billowing clouds from the terrible wreckage. And it screamed. It screamed. The night was torn with the cries of the injured and the dying. MacGregor. Get me a telegraph. Call for help. MacGregor. MacGregor.
[00:21:25] Speaker F: So this is what it was warning me about.
[00:21:26] Speaker E: Will you get your key? There are people dying.
[00:21:28] Speaker F: Look. Look in the tunnel mouth, Kelsey.
[00:21:31] Speaker E: Look.
[00:21:31] Speaker F: The thing. The things in the tunnel mouth.
[00:21:33] Speaker G: Give a try.
[00:21:38] Speaker F: Chelsea. He's still calling it. He's still warning me. This wasn't it. There's something else. There must be something else.
[00:21:48] Speaker E: With the first sign of dawn, it disappeared, faded. And with the first sign of dawn, full emergency aid reached this lonely station. We worked all through the night and early morning. And it wasn't until mid afternoon that MacGregor and I parted company. He to his shack and I to mine. We promised to meet again soon. But it was some four days before I saw McGregor again.
One morning I heard some rapping on my door.
Come in, McGregor.
[00:22:18] Speaker F: Hello, Kelsey.
[00:22:19] Speaker E: Come in. Shut the door.
[00:22:25] Speaker F: He's moved. Kelsey.
[00:22:27] Speaker E: Moved.
[00:22:27] Speaker F: Kelsey, the thing. He's moved.
[00:22:30] Speaker E: He's no longer in the tunnel mouth.
[00:22:32] Speaker F: No. It's left it.
[00:22:34] Speaker E: Good, is it? Well, isn't it? The thing's not in the tunnel mouth anymore. It's gone. Isn't that.
[00:22:38] Speaker F: It's not gone, Kelsey.
[00:22:41] Speaker E: What do you mean?
[00:22:42] Speaker F: Two nights ago, it moved.
[00:22:43] Speaker E: I don't understand, McGregor.
[00:22:45] Speaker F: I don't understand it myself, Kelsey. But two nights ago it wasn't in the tunnel mouth. It appeared further down the tracks.
[00:22:52] Speaker E: You mean.
[00:22:52] Speaker F: I mean it appeared closer to me. And it waved and called to me from its new position. Last night it appeared even nearer, in another position.
[00:23:01] Speaker D: But why?
[00:23:01] Speaker F: Can't you understand? Why? It's frantic, Kelsey. Frantic. It can't get me to understand what it wants to warn me of from the tunnel mouth. So it's coming closer. Maybe its time is running out, getting shorter. Shorter?
[00:23:12] Speaker E: Well, maybe it was only an illusion.
[00:23:14] Speaker F: Is the thing itself an illusion? No, I tell you, it's trying to reach me, to tell me something. Kelsey, you mustn't go back. That's just it. I mustn't stay away. I mustn't.
[00:23:22] Speaker E: You've got to stay away.
[00:23:23] Speaker F: Can't you see? Maybe what it wants to tell me Will ease it. Maybe it's an anguished, damned soul and I can free it. I don't know. Maybe it's about a different accident or what?
Maybe it's about myself.
Maybe it's a message to me, to me alone. Maybe that signalman's come back from the grave just for me. I can't always. I can't. I've got to wait until it reaches me. Until I understand.
Until I know.
[00:23:52] Speaker E: In the falling dusk, we came down the embankment hearing at the same time the first signalings of the Northwest Limited, the Statesman, winding through the Clearwater Range. We relieved Carter, and after he had gone, we sat down in the shack.
Somehow, this night felt uniquely strange.
Later on, I knew why.
[00:24:17] Speaker F: Kelsey, I have a brother back east.
[00:24:22] Speaker E: Huh?
[00:24:23] Speaker F: If anything should happen, let him know. I'll write his address.
[00:24:28] Speaker E: Now Stop that nonsense, McGregor.
[00:24:30] Speaker F: It's not nonsense. I feel it tonight. There's something.
You'll let him know. Please. You will, won't you?
[00:24:37] Speaker E: This is foolish. All right, I will. But nothing's going to happen.
[00:24:44] Speaker F: That's the Statesman. It's in the canyon now. I wish I were on it. Going past, never stopping. I wish.
[00:24:53] Speaker E: Kelsey. Yes?
[00:24:55] Speaker F: Why don't the dead lie still?
Haven't they had enough of living? What insane desire drives them back again?
[00:25:01] Speaker E: If you don't leave off these ideas.
[00:25:03] Speaker F: The telegraph key's all right, isn't it?
[00:25:06] Speaker E: Why?
[00:25:06] Speaker F: See if the key's all right, Kelsey. Try it. Tap it.
[00:25:08] Speaker E: Now, McDonald.
[00:25:09] Speaker F: No, no, no, no, no. See? He has to be able to reach me. If the key is not working, how can he tap it? Tap it.
[00:25:15] Speaker E: Well, all right.
There. It's fine. It works fine.
[00:25:20] Speaker F: And it's strange. Where is he?
[00:25:25] Speaker E: Where are you going?
[00:25:26] Speaker F: Outside. I've got to see.
[00:25:28] Speaker E: How. Will you please calm?
[00:25:29] Speaker F: Something wrong. I know. I've got to reach you.
[00:25:32] Speaker E: I've got to. McGregor. McGregor, the key. Signalman.
[00:25:36] Speaker F: Captain Beamer, where are you? Design. MacGregor, where are you?
[00:25:41] Speaker G: Signal.
[00:25:42] Speaker E: He was calling, calling the thing. And all at once I was seized with terror. I ran out there in the moonless night. I saw MacGregor walking up the tracks, moving slowly, calling, walking like a lonely, bewildered hunter in the immense, starry night of the mountains.
[00:26:00] Speaker F: Where are you, Captain Fever. I'm coming. Where are you?
[00:26:04] Speaker E: But something was wrong.
Because the thing was not visible. Even MacGregor was aware of it. He halted uncertainly for a moment, his head turning in all directions.
[00:26:14] Speaker F: Can't you find me, Captain Beaver? MacGregor looking for you. There's something wrong. Tell me. What should I Do tell me.
[00:26:22] Speaker G: Tell me.
[00:26:23] Speaker E: The train, McGregor. The train.
And then suddenly, as if it were a trick of magic, the air flared luridly beside McGregor. And the thing stood there. MacGregor touched him.
[00:26:35] Speaker F: Captain Beaver. Captain Beaver. I'm here. What is it? Tell me. What are you trying to tell me?
[00:26:47] Speaker E: And again the whistle blasted the air. I saw McGreth scaling face to face with the thing, as if he were listening. I saw the thing waving and shouting, but all at once I did not hear its words. And I knew. I knew that it was speaking to MacGregor now.
Now I know what the thing was trying to warn MacGregor of. And MacGregor knew it, too. He found it out too late. The train and his own death.
I saw McGregor's face contort with horror as he listened to the thing. And then suddenly he spun around, staring wild with fear at the tunnel and plunging like a cyclopean eyed monster. The train roared down.
The whole picture in that moment burned into my brain. The thunderous locomotive, MacGregor transfixed with horror and the eerie, gesticulating things. And then the engine was upon it.
They stopped the train a few hundred yards below the accident. There was nothing much to find and less to recognize.
I stood unmoving for a while.
This was what the thing had tried to warn MacGregor of. This, his own death. The kind of accident that had occurred to the thing itself once upon a time.
I remember still the last time I saw it. It stood where the train had struck, MacGregor down, wrapped in its own radiance, holding its bowed head in its hand as if weeping, grieving that its warning had so tragically failed.
Ah, listen to it.
Listen to it, forlorn and sad.
Go ahead, Blow, engineer, blow.
Lament for McGregor. Sorrow for McGregor.
Even the dead, the ghost of Captain Beaver grieved.
From the time worn pages of the past.
We have brought you the story the Thing in the Tunnel.
Bell keeper, toll the bell.
[00:29:51] Speaker D: From the time worn pages of the past, we have heard another immortal tale in the Weird Circle. Bell keeper, toll the bell.
Be here in this lonely cave by the restless sea Once again next time for another immortal tale in the Weird Circle.
[00:30:16] Speaker A: That was the thing in the Tunnel, AKA the signal man from Weird Circle, here on the mysterious old Radio Listening Society podcast once again. I'm Eric.
[00:30:27] Speaker B: I'm Tim.
[00:30:28] Speaker C: And I'm Captain Beaver.
[00:30:35] Speaker A: Happy holidays, everybody.
So this tradition continues on a number of things I would like to start out with in this discussion. First and foremost, I can never remember, was it the Ellen Drew Version that we all really loved. Or was it the Sarah Churchill?
[00:30:56] Speaker B: Churchill.
[00:30:56] Speaker A: Sarah Churchill. And Ellen Drew's was the terrible version.
[00:30:59] Speaker B: I did not care for that one at all.
[00:31:00] Speaker A: We didn't like that Sarah Churchill we loved. And then last year's, if I remember correctly, we hated it a lot. Right.
[00:31:07] Speaker B: There was a lot of flaws that we.
[00:31:09] Speaker A: A lot of flaws. So let me just start this off with. I'll just throw a little hand grenade in the room here. This by far, by far is the best adaptation of Signalman that we've ever had.
[00:31:25] Speaker E: Wow.
[00:31:27] Speaker A: I knew it'd be a hand grenade.
[00:31:28] Speaker C: That was not the hand grenade. I thought you would.
[00:31:31] Speaker A: I know, by far. I enjoyed this for a lot of reasons that are really aimed at me. Reasons.
[00:31:40] Speaker C: Because they literally explain everything and give a comic book secret origin to.
[00:31:46] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:31:46] Speaker C: Who the Phantom is.
[00:31:48] Speaker A: Yes. Loved it.
[00:31:50] Speaker C: They removed all mystery.
[00:31:52] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:31:53] Speaker C: All suspense.
[00:31:55] Speaker A: Scooby Doo. It was.
[00:31:56] Speaker C: Really was.
[00:31:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:57] Speaker C: Here's where I think this would have been brilliant.
[00:32:00] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:32:01] Speaker C: At the beginning, for reasons that are of no real narrative import later, I thought it was significant because they took the time to mention it, that our narrator at this time was living with another prospector named pike, who he did not like. I honestly got.
[00:32:18] Speaker B: They shared a bike.
[00:32:21] Speaker C: I honestly got to the point in this adaptation, you brought up Scooby Doo where I thought, this is a prospector who is disguising himself as a phantom to scare them away from the railway tunnel where there is gold.
[00:32:36] Speaker A: That would have been sweet. That's a great adaptation.
No. Yeah. They pull the mask off, the rubber mask off them.
I am going to clarify, somewhat defend and acknowledge some things right now. I am well aware of how much pablum has just been fed to me in this episode of really spelling it out, adding things that were never there, making it really streamlined and coherent.
Not having me have to think or decide for myself or what could that possibly have been. I love the original story. I love all of those elements of the Signalman. I want to be clear. I love the what's going on and the scariness and the suspense of that and the. The ookiness of that.
There's something about this adaptation that just. I went, oh, yeah, that's it. Just keep moving forward and keep explaining things and let me just not have to stop and go, what now?
There are versions of this that have really complicated that and made it even more complicated, convoluted, than Dickens even intended. There have been versions, the Sarah Churchill version, that I thought really did a nice job of staying true to the original story, keeping that open endedness of things, keeping that scary. And yet a great performance and also followable. There's some that have been horrifyingly unfollowable. Only thing that saved me was I know this story. If I hadn't, I would have been lost. But I love this. I will tell you the one thing I didn't like the actor playing the main guy. I love their intent to this. Right. And how they wrote this and if.
[00:34:41] Speaker C: They wanted to update it. It's somewhat contemporary. Right. It's set in states.
[00:34:47] Speaker A: I didn't enjoy the lead actor, our narrator's performance. It did not match the signal man himself, who I thought was really good. I thought he was the only problem in this version.
[00:35:04] Speaker C: It's so explicit. He's an idiot.
Literally. At the end of this, the phantom puts his head in his hands and cries because the guy is so stupid that he could not understand the very explicit warning.
[00:35:19] Speaker B: Clear the rails.
[00:35:21] Speaker C: Literally. There is a train screaming down at you right now. But I think palm.
[00:35:28] Speaker B: I think you clear you in the coat.
[00:35:33] Speaker A: I think the confusion for him though, was that the train that he was warning him of every night never showed up until that final night. Do you know what I'm saying? That he was out there warning him and there's. And no train comes. And so I think he was. The confusion of what are you trying to say to me? Worked for me in the sense of, well, there is no train, so just leave me alone.
[00:35:59] Speaker B: I'm going to pat myself on the back for what wasn't really a plan and say the best time to listen to this adaptation is the eighth version you're going to hear.
Because listening to it, I had the response of like, what is happening? What is happening? They've gone so far, as it were, off the rails.
I had a whole set of expectations what this would be and this is none of it.
[00:36:29] Speaker A: Right. Well, hence why they changed the title of it too. Because it's inspired by. Would you not say that that's fair?
[00:36:37] Speaker C: Yes. But also it stays too close to it because honestly, when I first started listening to it, I was captivated by the potential of transporting it, as our episode last year did as well, to the United States. And then they are clearly, by the dialogue and diction, they are contemporizing it. It was 10 years earlier. So at most this is set in the 1930s.
[00:37:04] Speaker B: Puffer hat. Still viable.
[00:37:06] Speaker C: Still viable. Yes.
[00:37:08] Speaker A: Right.
[00:37:08] Speaker C: And it seemed like they were doing something with it. So I. I was like, ooh. And that, you know, the train sounds. Those are nice. And there's sort of a sense of pathos with the narrator about how he's never left this spot after what he encountered. And I'm like, oh, is this gonna be a. Like, let's turn the Signal man into sort of an American folk tale. Is this kind of Johnny Cash's the Signal Man? And I was like, yeah. And then it was like Captain Beaver. And I was like, I'm out.
I was like, nope. This is just ridiculously on the nose to the point that it actually becomes more convoluted, I think, by explaining so many things.
The tragedy of the Signal man is this miscommunication between the living and the dead.
[00:38:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:03] Speaker C: And here when you make the communications on one level so explicit, but keep the notion of miscommunication, you make everyone seem stupid.
[00:38:14] Speaker A: Think of your favorite food. Yeah. Now you're super hungry.
[00:38:18] Speaker B: I am so hungry now.
[00:38:20] Speaker C: I'm very hungry right now. This is our fifth recording, Right?
[00:38:24] Speaker A: Right.
[00:38:24] Speaker C: We're about to draw straws for like a cannibalism situation here.
[00:38:29] Speaker A: Imagine that moment when you're really hungry and it's your favorite thing in the world and you start eating it and you're like, oh, yeah, right. You know that.
That's how I feel with how ridiculously on the nose this is.
[00:38:47] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:38:47] Speaker A: No, I went, yeah. Oh, my God.
[00:38:50] Speaker B: Seven years. Like, yeah, I kind of.
[00:38:53] Speaker A: Good, good. Just. Just write it. I'm going to tell you something really fascinating.
I don't know if it's really fascinating. I just set that up for failure. I'm going to just tell you something transient.
Here we go.
He says, you hear a train start in the distance. And he says, that's the 9:00. Or that's not supposed to be. It doesn't matter. There's a train in the middle of this. Well, there's a lot. But there's a particular moment at the exact moment that that train in the recording pulled and blew the whistle and we could hear it on the tracks. I live a block and a half from a train.
[00:39:34] Speaker E: Oh.
[00:39:35] Speaker A: And it happened simultaneously. And as the train is bearing down on them, my train in my. Next to my house is bearing down on me. And as it.
What happens that the thing falls off the tracks? The last car, right?
[00:39:54] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. The car is all tumbled like.
[00:39:55] Speaker A: And it's all loud in that recording. It's the exact moment that the train going by my house is at its apex of how loud it gets. Which my neighbors, when I moved in, they said, well, the only Thing. It's great place, but the only thing is that train. And Shannon and I looked at each other with huge eyes. There's a train.
And three times a day this thing goes by, blows its horn, you know, in that distant whistle.
[00:40:21] Speaker C: Mournful.
[00:40:22] Speaker A: Mournful. It's far enough away that it's not like, oh, geez, you know, it's just far enough away and you hear it on the tracks and I think it's beautiful. And this happened at the same time. And I just sat there going, ah. So let me go back.
[00:40:36] Speaker C: Yes. This is a moment of synchronicity. Yeah.
[00:40:38] Speaker A: Possibly. That's why I love this. For that. Nope. I really did enjoy food now. I really did. And I do give it a pass because I know it's. I know what it is, and I know it's not great, and I know it screws everything up, and I know it's on the nose, but I give it that pass because it's not called the Signalman. And even though you said it's still too close to it to be inspired by. I give it a.
[00:41:09] Speaker C: Exactly. The Signal man.
[00:41:11] Speaker A: But they took liberties by morons.
But they. They get away with it because they don't call it the Signalman. So they can be close.
[00:41:19] Speaker C: No, they don't.
[00:41:25] Speaker E: All right.
[00:41:25] Speaker C: Well, seriously, though, what if we all received ranks based on our hats?
[00:41:33] Speaker B: Major Pork Pie or just all in the Beaver Army?
[00:41:38] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:41:39] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:41:39] Speaker C: Field Marshal Propeller Beanie reporting for duty, sir.
[00:41:43] Speaker A: Oh, that would be me. Yeah.
[00:41:44] Speaker B: If. If this.
[00:41:45] Speaker C: Grand Admiral, I'm going to stop.
[00:41:48] Speaker B: If this had been the third version of Signalman we heard, I would be like, this really kind of missed the mark. They didn't get the point of it. But being the eighth, it opened me up to, like.
It was so unexpected for me and so delightfully wrong.
It is wrong that I was open to catching details that I don't know that I would have otherwise. Like. I don't normally think of Weird Circle as being a big sound. True show. But this was great. Yeah. They did a great job with this.
[00:42:18] Speaker A: They sure did.
[00:42:20] Speaker C: Yeah. The sound was really good. The trains were loud and the signalman should have heard them coming before they ran him over. Yeah.
[00:42:29] Speaker B: But he's just so wrapped up and. What do you mean, clear the rails? What am I supposed to do?
[00:42:34] Speaker C: This is typical of the Weird Circle, where they have these really strong instincts, like, what if we took this tragic derailment that happens in the past.
[00:42:44] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:42:44] Speaker C: In the Signalman. And made it a scene that happens in front of our Ears, as it were in radio. And they do that and it's like, wow, that could be exciting. But then they're like, oh, wait, this isn't the warning. Anyway, so we cleared the dead bodies and went to sleep and they just drop it.
[00:43:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:03] Speaker C: He doesn't live in this tragedy. There's no difference between describing it as something that happened in his past versus portraying it as a scene. It might as well have just not even ban in the script.
[00:43:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:17] Speaker B: All the things you're saying, like. Yeah.
Yes. Oh, yes, clearly a mistake.
[00:43:23] Speaker A: The.
[00:43:24] Speaker B: The.
The idea of a ghost sends me telegraph messages all the time, like, oh, like that's an important thing that maybe you should be alarmed about.
[00:43:37] Speaker A: He's really good at it.
[00:43:39] Speaker C: Captain Beaver. I just cannot get past a script that decides, you know what? This could use the Signalman. It's just too sophisticated and it's just.
[00:43:50] Speaker B: Like, what particular market they're probably trying to appeal to.
[00:43:54] Speaker C: The Beaver market.
[00:43:55] Speaker B: Yes, the old prospector market that likes to wear weird accoutrement.
[00:44:01] Speaker A: So coming up in a few days, months, weeks, whatever, we'll be discussing next year live performances. Well, I would have. Is going to suggest is was that next December of 2025 that we perform a version of the Signalman.
I'm guessing that it won't be this one.
[00:44:24] Speaker B: Well, if we do a live version and do a different live version each year, I'm up for doing this one in eight years.
[00:44:31] Speaker C: Yes. Because I will be too old to even know what I'm doing.
You could play Captain Beaver and just.
[00:44:38] Speaker A: Captain Beaver.
[00:44:40] Speaker E: Clear the rails, you idio.
[00:44:44] Speaker C: I'm sorry, there's a train that's going to hit you.
[00:44:48] Speaker B: You might not be familiar with trains, having worked with them all your life.
[00:44:52] Speaker A: So if we were to write our own version by we collaboratively or one of us, whatever, and perform that. I'm getting to another point. And perform that and record it. We could put that up as our 9th year signalman for the podcast.
[00:45:08] Speaker C: Well, we're not out of Signalman yet.
[00:45:09] Speaker A: That's what I was going to ask.
[00:45:10] Speaker C: I think our final signalman should be our version of the Signalman.
[00:45:14] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. So that was my next question.
We're not out of Signalman yet.
[00:45:19] Speaker E: No.
[00:45:19] Speaker A: Oh, I thought that we were out.
[00:45:21] Speaker C: Dear Lord, no.
[00:45:22] Speaker A: How many more are there?
[00:45:24] Speaker B: There's two more that I have in the. In the hopper. In theory. There are more versions out there.
[00:45:30] Speaker C: There are even more. There's some contemporary versions that would not be right for us to put on the podcast.
[00:45:35] Speaker B: Too far out of our YouTube.
[00:45:37] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:45:37] Speaker A: Oh. Some reason I had it in my head, this was. This with the swan song.
[00:45:42] Speaker B: You were hearing clothes on, weird circle.
[00:45:44] Speaker C: You were hearing the doors in your head. This is the end.
[00:45:48] Speaker B: You might not.
[00:45:49] Speaker A: So I walked on down the hall.
[00:45:50] Speaker B: But there is still an Agnes Moorhead version to be done.
[00:45:53] Speaker A: Oh, we have not done that one.
[00:45:54] Speaker B: No, we have not.
[00:45:55] Speaker C: No, we're saving that.
[00:45:56] Speaker B: That's. That's the prize at the end.
[00:45:58] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:45:58] Speaker C: I hope it's good. I hope it's good. Angus Moorhead is playing Captain Beaver.
[00:46:04] Speaker A: It can't be better than this one. Nothing gets better than this.
[00:46:08] Speaker E: Oh. Oh.
[00:46:10] Speaker C: I have nothing more to say about this.
[00:46:12] Speaker A: Boy, I love this. Can we vote? Because I just want to say classic.
[00:46:16] Speaker B: We. We all agree on what this show is, and it just agreed, like, and that's bad. And that should not be something that we award. And I feel like, yeah, yeah, I loved it.
[00:46:29] Speaker A: It's a classic.
It's not a classic. It's. I loved it for all the wrong reasons. I loved it for its simplicity, for its trimming of fat that you. Okay. You know, when you trim too much fat off of, like, a pot roast, you're actually taking the flavor. Talking about food, you shouldn't trim all of it because some of it adds to the flavor. This is trimmed way too much of it. Right. It's trimmed and it's redefined me.
[00:47:02] Speaker B: Because one thing we've talked about in the past is the story itself is so small that every adaptation has to kind find some way to kind of.
[00:47:09] Speaker A: Like, pad it out, right?
[00:47:12] Speaker B: Say, the introduction of characters that don't exist in the story.
[00:47:16] Speaker A: I enjoyed myself knowing full well that I'm going to be the only one, not only in this room, but everybody listen. Nobody liked this. I get it. And I loved it.
[00:47:30] Speaker C: That is fair. I would say that this is yet another example of Weird Circle exhuming and desecrating a timeless classic.
It strips all ambiguity and pathos out of one of the greatest ghost stories ever written and replaces that with wacky beaver hats and secret origins of ghosts and inexplicable prospectors. I mean, it is simultaneously way too much and way too little. Boo.
[00:48:01] Speaker A: What if it had a talking dog?
[00:48:03] Speaker C: Maybe it did.
Maybe that was who Captain Beaver was.
[00:48:08] Speaker A: So I'm getting at.
[00:48:09] Speaker C: Yeah, I am. I'm out.
[00:48:16] Speaker B: I'm not going to call this a classic. To say it stands the test of time is a. It's mixed because as an adaptation, it. It's terrible.
Everything that Joshua says like it, everything that is so subtle and ephemeral and beautiful about the original story is just gone and replaced with an exuberant clown show.
But that being the case, it was a really fun clown show. I had a good time.
[00:48:46] Speaker C: Yeah, no, I. I am going to say it's at least a competently done desecration.
I found this more enthralling in its awfulness than last year's Signalman.
[00:49:00] Speaker B: Yes, I think so.
[00:49:01] Speaker C: That. That is where I will meet you. That tiny, tiny little step toward you.
[00:49:08] Speaker A: Thank you. So we can perform this one?
[00:49:11] Speaker C: Absolutely not.
I will.
[00:49:14] Speaker B: I mean after we do the sing.
[00:49:16] Speaker C: You 31 never talk to you again. We performed this.
[00:49:19] Speaker A: I'm doing it as a one man show.
[00:49:20] Speaker C: You should use your knee symbols and your one man band routine.
[00:49:28] Speaker A: Happy holidays everybody. Tim, tell him stuff.
[00:49:30] Speaker B: Please go visit ghoulishdelights.com you'll find other episodes there, including seven other versions. Maybe more of the Signal man. If you want to contrast this with other adaptations. It's been a real mixed bag, some amazing and some disappointing.
And you can also leave comments. Voting polls let us know what you think. You can also at our website
[email protected] a link to our store if you want to buy T shirts or mugs or hoodies. There's swag.
Do it. It's awesome. Show your love. And there's also a link to our Patreon page.
[00:50:05] Speaker C: Yes. Go to patreon.com themorals and support this podcast. If you give us money, we'll just keep digging up Signal man until the end of time. Yeah, we really appreciate all the support that our Patreons do give us and we would also really appreciate more. We're never satisfied. That's the truth about us. So yes, clear the tracks. Bring us money. Hello down there.
[00:50:35] Speaker B: What are they trying to say?
[00:50:36] Speaker C: I don't know. Go to patreon.com the morals and support.
[00:50:39] Speaker A: This podcast if you'd like to see the mysterious old Radio Listening Society theater company performing live. We do recreations of classic old time radio drama live on stage and a lot of our own original work. Just go to ghoulishdelights.com to find out where we're performing every month, what we're performing and how to get tickets. If you can't join us live and be there. We do record them and being a Patreon gets you access to audio and or video of our live performances. What is coming up next?
[00:51:11] Speaker C: Next we will be going on a Christmas Hanukkah Solstice holiday But never fear, guys. We will be sharing with our listeners some Patreon material. Particularly to make the stingy among you feel guilty for not supporting us. So in the next couple of weeks you can look for forward to a preview of our second best Patreon episode of last year. If you want to hear the first best, you'll have to become a patron. Until then.
[00:51:49] Speaker F: Captain Beaver. I'm here.
[00:51:51] Speaker E: What is it?
[00:51:51] Speaker F: Tell me. What are you trying to tell me, you idiot?
[00:51:56] Speaker C: I'm sorry. There's a train that's going to hit.
