What happens
A condemned man, speaking from the studio before his execution, tells a story from 1925 about a small man named Louis Carrotel who arrives in Liverpool and hires a special train to Paris. The train vanishes between Manchester and Liverpool, and railway superintendent James Bland and his staff search for it in vain. The narrator says the disappearance is tied to a political scandal and to a golf game where wealthy men arranged the matter. He promises to name those men only if his terms are met before the broadcast ends. The story is told in the first person by this narrator, who presents himself as the central figure of the affair.
Liverpool, Manchester and the railway line between them in June 1925, with a golf course and a Central American port also featuring in the story; framed by a studio broadcast on the day of a condemned man's execution.
Characters: Louis Carrotel, James Bland, James McPherson, Gomez, Mrs. McPherson, Oswald Smith, John Slater, D'Odagnac
Listen for: The narrator's account of the special train's disappearance and how the railway staff react as the search unfolds.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.