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Ghost train stories?

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Ghost train stories?
Posted by Anonymous on Monday, October 18, 2004 7:42 AM
Does anybody know any good stories about ghosts and trains?

Maybe like riding late at night on a locomotive that was once in a wreck. Or, passing a place on the track where a tragedy once unfolded. Or, maybe crossing a bridge where a man was hung during the war.
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Posted by Anonymous on Monday, October 18, 2004 7:47 AM
Once, I was driving through a dark village in Poland (the power is out after ten o'clock), and a life size and very realistic crucifix suddenly loomed in my headlights - I just about lost it !!!!!
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Posted by dharmon on Monday, October 18, 2004 1:54 PM
I have heard stories of crewless UP trains haunting the sideings from Houston to LA looking for thier crew.......[}:)]

'pooky......wooo eee oooo
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Posted by espeefoamer on Monday, October 18, 2004 2:13 PM
UP celebrated halloween earlier this year by sending a train from Montclair to Commerce with NO crew and NO locomotives[:0]!
Ride Amtrak. Cats Rule, Dogs Drool.
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Posted by Anonymous on Monday, October 18, 2004 2:40 PM
Subdivision: Vaudreuil
Mile: <will get back to>
Location: Ste. Anne-De-bellevue, Quebec, Canada
Railway: CP Rail

One Night, A railway crew Responded to an "urgent structural failure" in the Ste. Annes bridge- The crew, Two men- took out ladders, climbed them while positioned it with the tracks and began the ascent.

Theres is where the breaksdiwn in communicateion happened- The Oncomming train was not aware of the man standing on a ladder on the tracks as it approcahed at 55 MPH.

As the trains rounded the bend, the man relaized he had no chance in climbing down the ladder- The other man in The CP rail truck on the south track tried to warnt he northbound train that there was someobody on the track, but there was no where near enough time to stop the freight train.

It hit the ladder, the guy didn't even have enough time to jump onto the structure- all that could be heard was the passing of the freight train, and if you lsitened really careful you could hear the faintest sploosh in the water.

The water is only 2 feet deep there, the rapids however mving really fast

The body was never recovered, oddly enough- Refelctive jacket and all- just dissapeared

SO LEGEND HAS IT

he reapears every now and then, determined to fix that flaw- Many trains get flat wheels on that bridge because suddenly a ladder appears from no where- and causes the crew to react- Sometimes a man- is hobbling along the trakcs- blood stains everywhere- looks as if he was submerged in the water for 100's of years- some people claim to see sea weed on him as he hobbles toward the oncomming train seeking help.

usualy once the light sets on him- he dissapears- or shortly there after- again only in time for the crew to go into emergency.

SO WHAT CAN YOU SAY...

This is what I know- that bridge is bloody well eerie, i'll give it that- and sometimes i'll turn my head really fast and think I may have seen something- But as for bloody people and ladders- never have i seen or had to hav an emergency break executed.

thats my halowe'en story
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Posted by adrianspeeder on Monday, October 18, 2004 3:59 PM
If you listen close to any diesel engine you can hear the sound of Old Rudy Diesel's bones creakin at idle and his howl at top rev....

Adrianspeeder

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Posted by Anonymous on Monday, October 18, 2004 4:49 PM
There is a book called Ghost Trains that has stories of haunted stations, bridges, tunnels, etc. You can probably get it at yor local book store.
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Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, October 21, 2004 10:32 PM
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]!


That's funny, they also sent a train north through downtown Portland from Brooklin yard with no locomotive or crew !!!

It must be part of some new money saving program!!!!!
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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, October 22, 2004 9:26 PM
Try this link out. Pretty good story!
http://abandonedrailroads.homestead.com/Maco.html

Larry
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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, October 22, 2004 11:00 PM
What a cool story ! now I want to go see the light.

When I was a kid, I would walk home from school on the train tracks, a distance of about 8 miles. My parents worked late, and I always had detention or I would be practicing my bass for the school orchestra. So, one night in the dead of winter, I was walking home in the dark deep in the woods on the track. It was extremely cold (northeast ohio). It may not sound like much, but I got spooked. I have never been one to panic in the woods, I had always loved hiking and never even been lost even in fairly remote places. But, there was something in the trees, and it was following me, and the longer I walked the worse it got. I didn't want to run, because I had quite a ways to go and it was very cold. So, I kept moving at a quik pace even though it started to look like the branches of the trees were being moved by some invisible force, which actually started to get pretty scary. It may not sound like much, but I was sure glad when I got home, I think I ran the last hundred yards.
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Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, October 23, 2004 1:13 AM
It's something about walking the Train Tracks and bad weather that makes for some interesting things that you may or may not see.
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Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, October 24, 2004 2:29 AM
Maybe it's more being alone and an environment with no standard with which to guage your perceptions.

It's amazing how far even the smallest sounds will travel in the woods when there is no foliage and the ground is covered with ice. And, compared to the silence, those sounds become apparent. In the pitch black there is no visual cues to compare to the sounds and things that are perfectly still can appear to be moving.

I guess that all sounds very rational, but once your spooked, the more you think about it, the worse it gets.

It's also amazing how far smell travels when there is no foliage. I once smelled warm air and food cooking from a nearby subdivision, it had to be about a mile.
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Posted by adrianspeeder on Sunday, October 24, 2004 8:23 AM
My favorite thing to do (yes more so than drivin the stroker) is when there is at least a foot of snow on the ground, and i go walkin in the fields around home. The cold, sounds of only nature at rest, how clean everything looks, a pretty gray sky with more snow fallin. Man, I feel better just thinkin about it. Although i dont think i will be able to do that down here in philly. :( I wanna go home.

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Posted by Overmod on Sunday, October 24, 2004 8:40 AM
Adrian -- you're in the middle of a hundreds-of-mile radius of country where you can do exactly that. Some weekend, drive down 95 or 40, and get onto 896 north. Start taking notes. This is just one little representative example.
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Posted by jockellis on Sunday, October 24, 2004 9:28 AM
I used to own a newspaper in south Georgia and would take papers around on Thursdays to stores which sold it. One day I was cranking along at 100 per and had decided to go over the grade crossing at that speed to see how far I would be airborn. But the thought came to me, "this would be a perfect day for a grade crossing accident." So I snaked the Porsche 914 to a stop at the crossing sign, looked both ways and went on. About 15 minues later I arrived at home to see my wife at the door telling me that the sheriff's office had called for me to go out to a car train accident. It was at the grade crossing I had just stopped at.
Jock Ellis

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Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, October 26, 2004 3:49 AM
Coincidence? Premonition?

I make it a point to deliberately have such moments of pause, it has served me well.

Have you seen the story about the truck load of Porsches hit by a train?
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Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, October 26, 2004 8:14 AM
Old steam Train whistles anyone?
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Posted by GN24 on Friday, October 23, 2020 4:59 PM

    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.

 

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Posted by GN24 on Friday, October 23, 2020 5:07 PM

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

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Posted by chatanuga on Saturday, October 24, 2020 12:04 AM

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

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Posted by M636C on Saturday, October 24, 2020 1:45 AM

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

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Posted by Juniata Man on Saturday, October 24, 2020 7:30 AM

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

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Posted by Overmod on Saturday, October 24, 2020 10:23 AM

Juniata Man
The legend associated with this had it being a headless PRR brakeman walking with his lantern searching for his head.

Q.  Why would he need a lantern if he has no 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!!!"

 

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Posted by Juniata Man on Saturday, October 24, 2020 11:06 AM

Hmm; are you sure you weren't one of those grownups?  ;-)

Curt

 

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Posted by Overmod on Saturday, October 24, 2020 11:19 AM

Juniata Man
Hmm; are you sure you weren't one of those grownups?  ;-)

Not at all!  Just trying to explain why the phenomenon always repeated exactly the same way.

Likely the fact that the supposed PRR guy was a BRT brother would help account for it. Wink 

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Posted by zugmann on Saturday, October 24, 2020 12:05 PM

Overmod
Q.  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

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Posted by Juniata Man on Saturday, October 24, 2020 1:11 PM

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.  

 

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Posted by SFbrkmn on Friday, October 30, 2020 2:45 PM

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 

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Posted by SeeYou190 on Wednesday, November 4, 2020 10:35 PM

You cannot have a thread titled Ghost Trains without including Alan Rails (AKA "Ghost Train") from the Vindicators.

All Aboard . . .

-Kevin

Living the dream.

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Posted by Shock Control on Tuesday, November 10, 2020 12:04 PM

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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