so, you want to learn about All Aboard/Ghost Train...
okie dokie, so funny story about this one as well, not only is it not featured in The Art of The Cuphead Show! but it's also got me a little confused on the name. on some twitter posts, deeki deke has referred to it as "All Aboard", but at an appearance at san diego comic-con (one that was recorded, luckily), it's been referred to as "Ghost Train". either way, it stars the phantom express, and it's super cool. i'll be referring to this script as "Ghost Train" because i flipped a coin and that's what i got, but just know that either name should work until it's confirmed/deconfirmed otherwise.
thanks again to @harleyacoincidence for the screenshots!!!
aside from this, we don't really know that much about "Ghost Train," other than the fact that it was going to be the episode with the phantom express from the original cuphead video game. we don't exactly have a snippet that has them directly (and no storyboards, as far as i know), but i really like the concept here! it's really suspenseful, and it's a real shame we didn't get to see it all play out!
i also transcribed the new script that was read at the comic con event the best I could, so transcript below!!
Deeki Deke: "We’re going to start off in the cottage in the living room. Elder Kettle unfurls a long list of chores. Cuphead and Mugman watch it unfurl with disgust."
Elder Kettle: "Now, boys, you don’t have to do these chores."
Cuphead and Mugman: "Good!"
Cuphead: "Yeah, that was a close one."
Elder Kettle: "But, if you want to live here and not do the chores, well, then, you can pay rent instead."
Cuphead: "What?! We can’t afford that!"
Mugman: "Yeah, what are we, made of rent?"
Elder Kettle: "So let me get this straight. You don’t want to do the chores, and you don’t want to pay rent?"
Cuphead and Mugman: "Nuh uh!"
Elder Kettle: "You know who else doesn’t do chores or pay rent?"
Cuphead and Mugman: "Uh uh."
Deeki Deke: "They exchange a look."
Elder Kettle: "Is that what you boys want? To be hobos? Carry all your belongings in a handkerchief on the end of a stick? Eat beans out of a tin can? Sing old songs by a campfire? Sleep outside? Never shower? Steal pies from windowsills? Hitch rides in boxcars playing the harmonica? Boys?"
Deeki Deke: "The door slams. Kettle looks out the window. Cuphead and Mugman walk away from the cottage carrying bindles over their shoulders."
Cuphead: "Sayonara, old man! We’re living the hobo life now!"
Mugman: "Yeah! Playing by nobody’s rules but our own!"
Cuphead: "And probably not even those."
Elder Kettle: "Eh, they’ll be back."
Deeki Deke: "He slams the window. Interior freight train boxcar. Freight train picks up steam. Cuphead and Mugman run alongside it. They toss their bindles into the open car and jump on as the train chugs into the sunset."
Mugman: "Wow! Ooh, we did it! We hitched a ride on a boxcar!"
Cuphead: "Yeah, now we can say we’ve lived the full hobo experience!"
[There’s a pause, as if everyone is waiting for the next person to speak.]
Dave Wasson (confused): "I’m the hobo?!"
Deeki Deke: "So on brand for the hobo."
Cuphead and Mugman: [loud gasp]
Deeki Deke: "We turn and see a figure in the shadows. The glint of his knife shines in their eyes."
Hobo: "You ain’t a real hobo until you’ve been in a hobo knife fight. Oh, wait, you’re just kids. Uhh, I mean, uhh, you ain’t a real hobo until you, uh, heard a hobo ghost story."
Cuphead and Mugman: "Oooooh!"
Deeki Deke: "The hobo sits on a pile of straw and puts down his lantern."
Hobo: "It was a night just like tonight. On a train just like this train. On tracks, eh, similar to these tracks. On a route bearing more than…a passing resemblance---"
Cuphead: "Uh, can we kinda speed this up?"
Mugman: "Yeah, hobo, get to the ghost part."
Hobo: "Alright, alright."
Deeki Deke: "We push into the lantern’s flame and pull out to reveal that we’re now inside the train’s dining car years in the past. It’s the train’s heyday full of well-dressed passengers."
Hobo: "It was the classiest in all of Inkwell Isles. And everyone was dressed to the nines, nay, to the tens!"
Cuphead and Mugman: "Ooh!"
Deeki Deke: "There’s a well-dressed society couple, one in a tuxedo, one in fox fur, a piano player, a newlywed couple dancing, and a waiter carrying a tray of drinks."
Cuphead and Mugman: [gawking]
Deeki Deke: "The chef prepares a plucked chicken, and the train picks up speed and enters the tunnel."
Hobo: "None of the passengers knew that at the other end lied their ultimate demise. For, that night, the Inkwell Cannon Bridge was out. The train sailed right off it, and everyone on board stayed on board. Forever. Some say the train still runs to this day."
Deeki Deke: "Now, we’re back to the present."
Mugman: [terrified squeak]
Hobo: "If you’re on that train when it crashes, you’re stuck there, doomed to repeat history year after year. At least, that’s what they say happens when you board the ghost train on the anniversary of its crash."
Mugman (stuttering): "It’s the anniversary?" [wheezes in fear]
Hobo: "I don’t know, kid. What am I, an encyclopedia?"
Cuphead: "Now this is what I’m talking about. Yeah. Hopping box cars, exchanging ghost stories with a hobo, by firelight?"
Deeki Deke: "Whoosh! The wind blows and the lantern goes out. They turn and find the hobo is gone."
Cuphead: "Hey, wait, where’d he go?"
Mugman: "Ah, okay, Cuphead, we hitched a train, uh, heard a hobo ghost story. Let’s, uh, go home. The train’s not chugging too fast, we could just hop off!"
Cuphead: "Oh, look! There’s a door to another train car! Maybe there’s another hobo or another spooky tale about another ghost train we shouldn’t be on, right?"
Deeki Deke: "He yanks Mugman into the car."
