USAF TSgt C-17 Aircraft Maintenance Flying Crew Chief & Flightline Avionics Craftsman
QUOTE: Originally posted by espeefoamer UP celebrated halloween earlier this year by sending a train from Montclair to Commerce with NO crew and NO locomotives[:0]!
Jock Ellis Cumming, GA US of A Georgia Association of Railroad Passengers
this is my all time favorite ghost train story in the world!
The clinchfield curse
(Campton southwestern railroad oct 31,1957)
It was raining on the night of Halloween on the campton southwestern railroad
sitting quietly was x clinchfield 311 an old 4-8-2 mountain type locomotive 311 was
to take a load of logs from campton to black wolf lodging camp then deliver another train back down on the return journey. Earlier that morning weather reports had been warning of a storm that was to roll in during the evening. It was raining lightly but this was only a sign of the bad weather approaching.
The ride was going smooth and they were making good progress going at 15 mp hr the correct speed through the miller river canyon followed by the sound of thunder and whistling winds.They arrived at black wolf logging camp and by then night had fallen over the mountain.311 was serviced and checked over by her crewand they were ready to leave but there was a short delay due to the signal for the all clear on the return journey back to campton malfunctioned. It was repaired but this only made 311 late for her return journey.
Due to the rain a series of major flash floods were reported all across the line. The flash floods loosened large rocks and trees from the banks causing them to be pulled down stream plunging into the raging rapids below. (As they began to cross the bridge the supports gave out and they plunged to their doom). No word of 311 and her crew was heard the next day. As the minutes turned to hours, great concern grew so search teams were sent out for a rescue operation. When they came across the miller river bridge they had discovered that it had collapsed but there was no indication that a train might have gone over it. Other than the bridge itself, whatever happened the remains of 311 and it’s crew had vanished into thin air.
A few years later, a new stronger bridge was completed but strange events began to occur: one night an engine was pulling a freight train up the same line that 311 had disappeared.The locomotive and driver claimed to have seen a headlight hearing a bell ring and a whistle sounding out, then they all vanished together without a trace. Similar reports throughout the decades soon followed. People and engines alike had reported seeing an engine trying to cross the bridge but never does. According to the legend if you walk along the mountain line of the highland valley logging and mining company railroad in the fall you might hear the cry of a whistle in the wind if you are brave enough to walk the line during the thunderstorm on Halloween, you just might get a glance of a 4-8-2 with a blood red lamp as it flares past you it’s whistle screaming into the distance only to vanish in the night.
also I have witnesssed an actual haunting on the rails!
I was walking along an old line in a thunderstorm and well I heard the faint sad cry of a steam locomotive in the dicstance and this line has been abandond for years! so I looked down the line and saw the fricking engine itself I started to run and I wouldn't stop eventualy the engine caught up to me I jumped to the side and watched it rocket past me I was able to get a faint look at the cab and there was nobody driving! as it reached the level crossing it let out a loud shreaking bloodcurtleing hoot from it's whistle then it just vanished into thin air.
the locomotive looked like a Union Pacific 2-8-0
I've been down to Moonville, Ohio, a ghost town on the former B&O across southern Ohio. It's supposed to be one of the most haunted locations in Ohio. I've made a few trips down there, and each trip has been different in terms of experiences.
There was also a story I read in a book when I was a kid where a conductor or other member of a train crew was in love with an engineer's wife. He killed the engineer, making it look like an accident. He then married the engineer's wife, and they bought or built a house along a riverbank across the river from the railroad line that the engineer used to run on. As they were going up to the door of the house, they saw the headlight of a train approaching in the distance. Apparently the tracks came downhill towards the riverbank and then made a sharp turn to run alongside. The train that was approaching had the engineer's locomotive pulling it and had been stopped at the station at the top of the hill when the crew had left the cab. While the cab was empty, the locomotive started off by itself, racing downhill towards the bend at the river. As the wife of the engineer and the conductor were about to go inside the house, they heard a scream of a steam whistle, turned, and saw the locomotive fly off the curve, and fly across the river, crashing into the house and killing the couple. If I remember right, the story said that every year on the anniversar of the accident, a phantom locomotive is seen flying across the river and disappearing where the house used to be.
Kevin
http://chatanuga.org/RailPage.html
http://chatanuga.org/WLMR.html
There was a British play of 1923 called "The Ghost Train" which was turned into a film in 1931 and again in 1941.
The 1941 movie is available on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGbylI9gVsI
I like it...
Peter
I grew up in central PA. On back roads roughly paralleling the former PRR between Mattawanna and Newton Hamilton was a location known to teenagers as "the light". Basically this spot was a farmers field, bordered by a tree line on three sides - open along the road. On moonless nights, a blob of light would appear in the far left corner of the field - at or right behind the tree line, slowly move from left to right along the field then follow the right side tree line toward the road. It would get about halfway to the road, disappear then immediately reappear at the original spot and repeat the process.
The legend associated with this had it being a headless PRR brakeman walking with his lantern searching for his head.
Grownups all tried to debunk this phenomenon but, we teens knew it was "real". ;-)
Not sure if teens in that area still visit or even know about "the light" but, it provided excitement for many of us in the late '60's/very early 70's.
Curt
Juniata ManThe legend associated with this had it being a headless PRR brakeman walking with his lantern searching for his head.
A. That's why he has to keep trying... to paraphrase the old Three Stooges gag "I can't see!! I can't see!!!"
Hmm; are you sure you weren't one of those grownups? ;-)
Juniata ManHmm; are you sure you weren't one of those grownups? ;-)
Likely the fact that the supposed PRR guy was a BRT brother would help account for it.
OvermodQ. Why would he need a lantern if he has no head?
So his head can see his body looking for him.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
LOL! Love it!!!
zugmann Overmod Q. Why would he need a lantern if he has no head? So his head can see his body looking for him.
Overmod Q. Why would he need a lantern if he has no head?
BNSF(ex SF yd Newton, KS). In 1959 a carman was killed in one of the yd tracks. On many occasions afterwards for yrs, crews working at the east end of the yd at night could see a faint white light way down there, as if a carman light. One night a train was built. It is the car dept job to blue flag and lace the train and insp. Two carmen work from each end and discovered every air hose was coupled and ready to go. No one ever came up w/an answer on that. I was working a3rd shift job my first yr there in '99. Stormy night just outside town to the north. I had to go down in there to make a couple of joints. Forman told me w/a grin to "keep my eye out" the the carman ghost. Yep down there wondering if a ghost was going to jump at me from between the cars. The story of the carman ghost has likely faded out but was legend for many yrs
You cannot have a thread titled Ghost Trains without including Alan Rails (AKA "Ghost Train") from the Vindicators.
All Aboard . . .
-Kevin
Living the dream.
When I was a kid in the 1970s, there was a railroad track near where we lived. The track intersected at two different through-roads nearby.
On a Saturday or Sunday afternoon in the fall or spring, I would walk up to one of the roads with the railroad intersection, and then walk the length of the track to the other. It was probably only a mile or so, but as a kid, it felt like forever.
This stretch ended with the intersection at the second through-road. At this location was an ancient TV/electronics repair shop. It was essentially a log cabin. I would look through the broken windows, and I would see a bunch of ancient electronics, all covered in dust and cobwebs. It was clear that no one had set foot in the place in a very long time.
So here is the creepy part: On two different occasions, as we were driving home very late at night and passing by this stretch, the TV repair shop was lit up from the inside. My recollection is that this happened precisely two times. I remember us slowing down to try to see what was going on. We didn't see any activity through the windows.
I moved away in the 1980s, and never returned to this area until sometime circa 2004. The TV/electronics repair shop was gone by then. It was a creepy place even before those two incidents, and lights being on late at night made it even creepier.
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