In my case it was the story of the train conductor putting on a show with the train whistle. I click to close the story but rather than returning control to me the game remains stuck on the image, seeming to be running fine but I never actually get my controls returned to me.

I think the same thing happened to me, but it was the headless horseman one (I can't tell for sure since it freezes after the first text, but that bit and the image suggests that was the story). The trainman and the whistle played out without a problem for me. I thought it was a bug in the story itself, how weird.

Yep same thing happened to me with the same story. I'm trying to avoid it but it keeps popping up. It seems to be a bug.

I am having this issue too, with this story.

Hopefully this gets fixed eventually, I just assumed I was running the game below system requirements or something

The story of the train conductor isn't fixed yet :/

I'll avoid this one for the moment, but it's sad for this is excellent game.

Yeah, the same here!
I've tried reinstalling, but it didn't help :( And now I have this story like everywhere, but can't read it without a crash. So painful.

Freezing during the train conductor story for me to 5 years after these posts. Is there any way around it? Does it end the game?