"The Lost Special" is a short story by Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...

 first published in 1898

1898 in literature

The year 1898 in literature involved some significant new books.-New books:*Elizabeth von Arnim - Elizabeth and Her German Garden*F. W. Bain - A Digit of the Moon*L...

. It is implied to be a Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...

 story, though his name is not used.

Synopsis

This story concerns the baffling disappearance of a special train on its journey to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. A letter to The Times by "an amateur reasoner of some celebrity at that date" is excerpted at one point, and the style of the writing suggests that the author of the letter is probably meant to be Holmes. This "recognized authority upon such matters" does not solve the mystery, although his proposed solution is fairly close to the true solution revealed at the end of the story. The impersonal way in which this person is referred to would seem to imply that the narrator is not meant to be Dr. Watson

John Watson (Sherlock Holmes)

John H. Watson, M.D. , known as Dr. Watson, is a character in the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Watson is Sherlock Holmes's friend, assistant and sometime flatmate, and is the first person narrator of all but four stories in the Sherlock Holmes canon.-Name:Doctor Watson's first...

.

Adaptations

• The Sherlock Holmes pastiche series Solar Pons by August Derleth
  August Derleth
  August William Derleth was an American writer and anthologist. Though best remembered as the first publisher of the writings of H. P...
  
   treated the story as canon with its own version of the story, The Adventure of the Lost Locomotive
  The Memoirs of Solar Pons
  The Memoirs of Solar Pons is a collection of detective fiction short stories by author August Derleth. It was released in 1951 by Mycroft & Moran in an edition of 2,038 copies...
  
  .
• The story was loosely adapted into the serial The Lost Special
  The Lost Special (serial)
  The Lost Special is a Universal movie serial based on the story The Lost Special by Arthur Conan Doyle. This adaptation does not include Conan Doyle's character Sherlock Holmes, and moves events to the American West....
  
  (1932
  1932 in film
  -Events:*Cary Grant's film career begins*Katharine Hepburn's film career begins*Shirley Temple's film career begins*Disney released Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon in three-strip Technicolor film.*Santa, first sound film made in Mexico released....
  
  ) as a western
  Western (genre)
  The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
  
  . This serial does not include Sherlock Holmes.
• The story was adapted as an episode of the radio program Escape
  Escape (radio program)
  Escape was radio's leading anthology series of high-adventure radio dramas, airing on CBS from July 7, 1947 to September 25, 1954. Since the program did not have a regular sponsor like Suspense, it was subjected to frequent schedule shifts and lower production budgets, although Richfield Oil signed...
  
  which aired February 12, 1949. While the episode includes several letters to the Times, the one sometimes attributed to Sherlock Holmes is not among them.