Ghost Tracks is an odd phenomena in Australia.
Overview[]
There has long been a problem with the concept of gauge in Australian railroading. There were three gauges of track built: New South Wales built a standard gauge line, Victoria and South Australia built a broad gauge line, and Western Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania built a narrow gauge line. Slowly, over time, standard gauge lines have replaced these lines, but there are still several places where the old lines lie unused. The iron rails extend off into the horizon and end abruptly. Some have been capped; some have ended without a cap.
The effect these tracks have on the Dreamtime is quite strange. On one hand, they are unnatural things, and they symbolize intrusion into the land, into the Land of the Dreamtime. Because of this, the Dreamtime Song sometimes fades as you get close to the tracks. On the other hand, they've been long abandoned - long enough for the Dreamtime to touch them, to infuse them with power. And then came the Ghost Trains. The spirits of the Dreamtime, at play, manifest as strangely constructed trains of collaborative creatures, strange animalistic pictograms made three-dimensional, roiling down the desert on the ancient ion rails that are now obsolete. Passing willworkers can occasionally flag them down or simply hop aboard as they approach, but they must be ready to jump off or risk riding the train straight into the Dreamtime.
References[]
- MTAs: Dead Magic II: Secrets and Survivors, p. 70-71