Railroad Ghost Folklore

Oops, this isn't the link with the cool guitar folk song, looked at so many videos, I will need to see if I can find it again.

 

Ahhh, here it is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn_UE7NG8tg

 

Stack

hello guys and gals........

 

BOO................!!!!!!!!! good story.............    Really, ghosts are unclean sprits from **** (demons were cast out from high heaven) and they roam around the earth unseen causing all kinds of trouble (sin) soon to be cast into the lake of fire with Satan.  For now enjoy running trains.

 

the woman who loves the S.F.5011,2678,2003,200

Tiffany

Well, I keep an open mind about ghosts, due to the bed rising off the floor in what was

reputed to be the most haunted house in Louisiana, just as I do about Bigfoot, never

having been sure what crossed the road under my headlights in a snow squall in

western Oregon in 1963.  However, my brother, while stationed in Va., went down

with a group to see a ghost train in N. Carolina, where if you waited at a crossing

at a certain time, a headlight, with no sound, would race toward you, coming rapidly

closer, and then vanish.   I wrote a fictiional account of a ghost train in a post-graduate creative writing course, in which a "Colorado Midland" train, with long

buried passengers, was found when a avalanche buried tunnel was opened.  I got an

"A" out of the course, FWIW, and the professor recognized me years later when I was

in the library doing some research, and asked me if I had pursued my writing.  I

considered that a compliment.

The ghost trains exist all over the place it seems. In NJ, near the town of Chester, there is the myth of the Chester Brakeman, that appeared as a light bobbing over the rails, supposedly looking for his lost arm. Kids used to go out there at night to scare the crap out of themselves, I went but never saw anything. I remember when professors from a local college investigated, and said it could have been a piezoelectric effect from the surrounding rocks, something to do with interaction with the rails. They ripped up the rails a while ago, and some say you don't see the light any more,others still claim it happens still.

 

I suspect railroad ghost stories are probably as old as the railroads themselves, just seems to lend itself to them. 

Anyone interested in some good RR ghost stories should hunt down a copy of "Ghost Train: American Railroad Ghost Legends" by Anthony W. Reevy.  It is a fun read this time of year.

 

Andy

I just ordered the Reevy book.  Sounds like there are a lot of ghosts roaming the tracks searching for departed body parts with lanterns

 

Stack

Anyone who visits the NC Transportation Museum in Spencer, that place is definitely haunted! Both the roundhouse and Master Mechanic's Office have ghosts that I have personally heard or saw the evidence of their presence. (They are good at setting off the alarms at 1:30 in the morning!) 

 

Also, speaking of decapitated, near Wilmington was the story of Joe Baldwin looking for his head. I think this is mentioned in Tony Reevy's book as well. NC also has the ghost train at Bostian's Bridge near Statesville. Ghosts sure seem to like NC, train related or not.

Ghost stories are fun, but...

 

You all do realize that there's no such things as ghosts? Which is why thee is zero scientific evidence of them?

Well smd4, there may not be any scientific proof, but when a door that can only be opened from the inside keeps opening almost every night for 6 months at about the same time (1 - 1:30 in the morning), there aren't many other explanations.

Really?? The only possible explanation is that a disembodied human spirit from beyond the grave with a penchant for being on time opens the door?

 

Please.

 

Occam's Razor, anyone?

And there's the wet blanket, right on time...

And I fully agree with him, too!!!

And somehow, I'm not surprised! ;-)

Remember this one?

 

1985 - Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories first episode: Ghost Train

"[An old man] tells his nine year old grandson the story of him as a boy and the Highball Express Train, which he accidentally caused to crash 75 years earlier. He holds a ticket from that fare and has been ready to board that train for along time, and tonight is the night."

From: sci-fi-london

 

Dave

BOO...LOL




K.C.

Next you'll tell me there ain't no Sanity Clause

I'll second the "Ghost Train!" book recommendation. It's a fantastic spooky read for anyone who likes trains and the unknown. All the stories and legends are actual railroad folklore relevant today, not just arbitrary fiction. There is quite a bit of material too, ranging from the most popular legends to the smallest obscure unexplained incidents, and it's all compiled in category chapters such as headless ghosts and ghost lanterns, etc. The author also re-tells the stories with his own keen interest in the subject, so the writing really holds your attention as opposed to a monotonous documentary format. All around great book for this time of year.

I suspect that the ghost stories around trains are so old because of people's fears and observations of them, that in the first 70 or 80 years of their existence they weren't very safe, when missing fingers and limbs were common from link and pin couplers, or crushed to death, or exploding boilers, ghost stories would be a logical extension. Ghosts in a sense are real,maybe not as ectoplasm or whatever, but rather as extensions of our own fears and worries. 

 

As far as the door swinging shut by itself, there is probably a cat on the other side of the door laughing itself silly at the reaction of those who thought it was a ghost!