It’s late on a Saturday night in New York
City, 11:55 PM to be exact. A man is running towards the subway station
on 59th Street, he’s just gotten off from work at the restaurant where he waits tables
and he’s in a hurry to get home and spend some time with his girlfriend. As he approaches the station he notices something
strange, someone has placed a wooden barrier in front of the entrance. The man has never seen something like this
before, but he hasn’t lived in Brooklyn very long. Everything about the station looks normal
behind the barrier, and he’s in a hurry. He doesn’t want to have to go several blocks
to the next station, so he hops the barrier… What's the worst that could happen? As the man walks onto the train platform he
starts to second guess his decision. hTe platform is empty, and come to think of
it, he hasn’t seen anyone in the station at all. Maybe he did make a mistake, maybe the station
really is closed for repairs. He turns around to leave but just as he does
he hears a train. Good, everything is normal. He checks his watch, v11:57 PM on the dot. The train comes to a stop and its doors slide
open. It looks a little older than the trains he
usually rides, but it appears to be in perfect shape, and it’s going the direction of his
home, so he steps on board. Just like the station and the platform, there’s
no one else on the train. Strange, but he’s ridden nearly empty trains
before, especially late at night, though usually at this time on a Saturday there’s at least
a few people on board. Just then he hears something in the station. He turns to see someone running down the platform
crying out. “Stop! Stop!” the man in the Mass Transit Authority
vest cries, dropping what looks to be his dinner on the platform as he runs. While the MTA worker is still several feet
away, the doors snap shut, and the train begins to move. The MTA worker cries out again to stop but
he knows there’s no point. He watches as the train heads down the tracks
and disappears into the darkness. With a sigh, he takes out a walkie talkie
and it squawks to life. “We’ve lost another one,” he says. Hi! I’m Dr. Bob, and THIS is SCP-052, also known
as... the Time Traveling Train. SCP-052 appears to be a standard looking type
R4 New York City subway train. Official city records state that the train
was built in 1932 and decommissioned for scrap in 1975. Despite the fact that it should no longer
exist, SCP-052 continues to appear on the Uptown A/D track at the 59th street and 8th
avenue station at exactly 11:57 p.m. every Saturday night. The train appears to be in perfect condition,
just the same as when it was built over 80 years ago, and it is marked as an A train. Each Saturday, the train arrives at exactly
the same time, opens its doors to accept or discharge passengers for precisely five minutes,
then closes its doors and disappears until the next week. Where did the train come from? And where does it go in between the weekly
appearances? These are questions the SCP Foundation is
trying to answer, but perhaps the most frightening aspect of SCP-052 is that once you get on
the train, there’s no guarantee of ever getting off. Sadly, the majority of subjects that have
been observed boarding SCP-052 have not been heard from again. The rare few that have been recovered claim
to have boarded the train on various dates, ranging from 1976 all the way to the year
2204, with the latter claiming he thought he was boarding a special 300th anniversary
train. Thus far none of the recovered passengers
have reported any memories or knowledge of their time on board the train between entering
and exiting. Any passengers spotted disembarking from SCP-052
are to be immediately brought to Site-21 for questioning to determine their origin and
assess whether they pose any threat to the current timestream. The Foundation has had great success administering
Class A amnestics to passengers who arrived from the past, and reintegrating them into
society. But any passenger who is identified as being
from the future, must be held indefinitely to prevent potential disruptions to this reality’s
timestream, per order 69 dash A one from O5 councilmember O5-9. There are currently 26 recovered passengers
being held at Site 21 who fit this description, and there are not yet any procedures in place
that would allow for their safe release into modern society nor has there been any workable
theories for how to return them to their original home time. Despite the protocols in place to prevent
public access, some passengers from the present have still managed to accidentally board SCP-052
and subjects from other times continue to appear. Following interviews, it’s been discovered
that some of these subjects arrived from alternate timelines and realities. This raises the question of whether it is
possible for SCP-052 to appear other times and places which may require the containment
of additional locations, and reports of any suspicious activity involving unscheduled
trains are being monitored and investigated around the world. Following its initial discovery, several tests
were attempted in order to better understand the anomalous train and what may be happening
when it is no longer visible. The first test took place on May 31st, 2009. An agent was told to simply board the train. They did as requested, and have yet to be
recovered as of the present date. A second test took place a week later on June
6th. This agent too was never recovered, though
reports indicate that he may have returned to our timeline in 1980, at which point he
was killed in a confrontation that has since been classified. A third test was conducted the next week on
June 13th. Once again, the agent was told to board the
train and did so. This time though... the agent returned. Just two weeks later on June 27th, the agent
stepped back off the train, with his hands appearing to have been surgically removed. A note had been placed in his pocket that
had the simple message “send no more” written on it. The agent claims not to remember any of his
experiences on the train over the two weeks he was gone or what may have happened to his
hands. Following this third test, O5 Command issued
orders stopping the use of Foundation agents as passengers on SCP-052. D-Class, due to their disposable nature as
convicted felons and death row inmates, were considered as potential replacements for the
agents in the exploration of SCP-052, but the risk of releasing them into the past,
or the future, was determined to be too great. Other than the agent who knowingly boarded
the train, several other notable passengers have been recovered. One case involved the recovery of a woman
who entered the train on July 14th, 2012, but was recovered four years earlier on March
8th, 2008. She entered the train while on her way home
from the theater and was surprised to learn she traveled four years into the past. Because another version of her existed at
the time she was recovered, she was held to prevent unwanted temporal effects. Another subject was recovered in 2008 who
claimed to be from the year 1976, Although there was nothing physically wrong with him
and no risk of timestream disruptions, Foundation psychiatrists recommended that he be held
indefinitely as 32 years was believed to be too long a period of time to successfully
reintegrate into society. Perhaps the most interesting recovery was
of a man claiming to be a Level 4 Supervisor from the SCP “Federation” who boarded
the train in December of 2124. He said that he had been administered a Class
A amnestic prior to boarding and remembered nothing until his recovery in 2010. While the agent can clearly never be released
into society, O5 command has approved the sharing of classified information about various
anomalies in the hopes that he can provide additional information on possible containment
procedures. Because SCP-052 has so far proven impossible
to stop or remove from the New York City subway system it has been classified as Euclid. But its predictable nature means that the
Foundation is usually able to prevent the public from encountering it. The 59th St. A/B/C/D Station is closed to
the public between 11pm on Saturday night and 1am on Sunday morning under the pretext
of track maintenance. Any passengers seen leaving SCP-052 must be
taken to Site-21 for debriefing and processing and members of the public who simply see SCP-052
may be released after the administration of a Class B amnestic. As for what happens to most of the passengers
who board SCP-052 and are never seen from again? We simply don’t know. Now go and watch another entry from the files
of Dr. Bob, and be sure to subscribe as we delve further and further into the SCP Foundation’s
classified archives.
