The story takes place in an extremely deep, unusually precipitous, unnatural looking cutting which has a zigzag path leading down to it. From the bottom only a narrow strip of sky can be viewed and an entrance of a dark, mysterious and gloomy tunnel.
The traveller sees the signalman as a dark sallow man with a dark beard and bushy eyebrows. The traveller is quite daunted by the signalman and finds it difficult to initially address him. The traveller also has the thought that the signalman may be some kind of ghost himself. He also initially believed that the signalman might have been mentally deranged; “I have speculated since, whether there may have been infection in his mind”. The traveller believes the signalman to be well educated or he has an inclination to such an effect. This turns out to be true, the signalman was indeed well educated but he had squandered his chances; “a student of natural philosophy, and had attended lectures: but had run wild, misused his opportunities, gone down and never risen again”. The traveller is intrigued and interested by the signalman though when he hears the signalman’s ghost stories of the spectre and the untimely, unfortunate and disastrous accidents that follow its appearance he becomes quite concerned over the signalman. He tries to explain to the signalman that the events which have occurred must have some kind of logical explanation. On his final visit the traveller has the distinct intention to persuade the signalman to visit a doctor. The traveller thought of recommending to the signalman that he refer himself to someone in the medical profession after he realised the worry and acute consternation the horrifying, haunting experiences had caused the signalman.