Halloween & spooky train stories

[TomPM]

Since Halloween is fast approaching and the family and I just returned from a Halloween train ride and a tour of a haunted railroad museum I thought I would begin a post about spooky train tales. At the railroad museum tour they handed some stories out and I will post one of the short ones.

The Headless Engineer’s Light

According to a local legend, in the 1890’s, a Louisville & Nashville engineer was killed when he accidentally leaned too far from the cab window. When the train went into a sharp curve, he was thrown out of the engine and was decapitated by his own train.

Since that time, the engineer has returned many times looking for his head. After an evening freight train passes by the sight, at 9:30 or so, a light appears and sways back and forth over the track. Locals say the light is the ghost of the headless engineer, looking for his head.

Lets hear some more.

 

[Hummingbird]

I HAVE SEEN THAT GUY....IS THAT SPOOKY OR WHAT !!!???

Happy Railroading...pass it on!
Debbie

 

[Shay Driver]

Cool Tom, let's hear some more.

 

[tomfassett]

Originally posted by Hummingbird
I HAVE SEEN THAT GUY....IS THAT SPOOKY OR WHAT !!!???

Happy Railroading...pass it on!
Debbie

That's not the ghost, Debbie, that's Mike looking for his glasses with a flashlight...

Tom F

 

[Hummingbird]

HaHaHa....You are probably right! LOL

Happy Railroading...pass it on!
Debbie

 

[brakie]

I have 1 that I will share with you.This story was past on to me by my neighbors,father in law,mother in law and my late wife.. When I live in my late wifes home state of Kentucky and worked on the Chessie.

I lived in a small town named Garrison for around 10 years and lived along the former right of way of the Kinniconic and Freestone RR.This became a branch of the C&O after the C&O bought the K&F. This line was served by a mixed train that haul mostly stone.
Here is the way the story goes.

In 1899 a mixed train was leaving Stonecity(now Garrison) the brakeman fell off the combine and was killed when he was getting off to throw the switch..They say the train and the ghost of the brakeman falling can still be seen on a foggy and rainy night along with his final scream...I did not see this nor hear the scream,my father in law sweared to his dying day that he saw it several tmes as well as some of my neighbors.My wife claim to have seen it once when she was around 16 years old and coming home from a date,her boyfriend was supposed to have seen it also...You judge for yourself. I have no idea as I never saw it.

 

[msh]

It was a cold and blustery night and the wind howled through the trees. I was alone. Over in the distance I saw a shining glimmer and was strangely compelled to have a closer look. As I drew nearer my eyes were met with something I'd never seen.

It was a brass steam loco and the price sticker was $2100.

Scared the hell out of me!

 

[TomPM]

The Phantom Stationmaster

As requested:

The Phantom Stationmaster

On a stormy night, at a small depot just outside of Wilmington, North Carolina, an old stationmaster received an order to stop an oncoming train. He put on his raincoat and hat, lighted his red lantern, and stepped out on the tracks to signal the approaching train. The driving wind and rain made visibility nearly impossible. The stationmaster, amazed that the engineer was not slowing for his signal, began to wave his lantern frantically, using the standard railroad danger signal, or "washout". But then engineer, peering into he storm, never saw the old man who stuck to his post. The train ran him down, passed over his body and continued on its way.

Although the accident happened in the early 1900s, local say that a dull red glow still appears at the old station site during a full moon. If you stand right by the tracks, you cannot see the light; you have to get at least 20 feet away, or it will not appear.

 

[Ralph]

This will be one of those "I think I remember reading...." stories. If you recognise the tale and I've completely bungled the facts, please forgive me. The memory seems to be the first to go!

Any way, a passenger train led by a steam locomotive plunges off a bridge into a river late at night in winter time. The next morning rescuers find the water iced over and can see dead victims under the ice!!! After that, every winter, the sound of knocking and pounding from under the ice can be heard by any who are brave enough to venture near the site at night!


Man, I just creeped myself out!
Ralph

 

[roryglasgow]

There used to be a depot in the small East Texas town of Lovelady. One day, a long time ago, two trains ended up heading towards each other on the same track. A signalman ran out onto the tracks outside the depot to warn one of the trains, but he slipped and fell onto the rails and was then decapitated by the passing train.

His body was brought into the depot, and ever since then people reported seeing his ghost out on the rails and in the station.

The depot was moved to Spring, TX fairly recently where it was set up as a restaurant. People claim to have seen the signalman's ghost there. The restaurant burned in 1999, and most of the building was destroyed. It has since been rebuilt.

I've heard that the food there is good. Whether or not this is attributable to the ghost, I don't know.

 

[N Gauger]

Awesome stuff!!!!!

I have 2!!!!

There's an "Old Wives Tale" about an engineer that pulled his Engine onto a turntable. The Turntable operator was a rookie.

The Operator started the bridge turning Counterclockwise. The enginner jumped out of the engine & started berating him to turn the engine the other way. The operator refused stating that Counterclockwise, was the shorter way, as the locomotive was only going a Quarter turn.

The engineer Got madder, started yelling - a fight ensued. The enginner punched the TT operator. The yardmaster broke up the fight.

It was then that the Engineer - admitted that: His father (an engineer) had been killed in a train accident, a day after his locomotive was turned "Agin the Sun"

(The Sun seems to move Clockwise from Morning to night)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The second one:

In grand Central station, When it was open to Late Night Passenger service, there was a story of a young woman that would sometimes ask an arriving traveler, at about 4:00 AM, for help finding her home on Lexington Ave.

She would ask to be escourted there and would talk about her Grandmother who she lived with.

When she got near to the house she would somehow manage to "lag behind" and dissappear.....

When the absolutly confused "good samaritan" would knock on the "grandmothers Door". They would find out that the girl, was in a gas explosion when "Grand Central" was being built and died at 4:17 AM.

And every anniversary of her demise, she asked for help. -- Now this can't be proven as the station is not used at the late Hour of 4:00 AM. It's only used for local service now.....

~~ Great Idea Tom!!!!!!!

~~ Mikey

 

[Tankertoad70]

Here's one that happened to me yesterday:

I was down at ye ol' club running a couple o' test trains to prepare for the modern session of the club open house. My intermodal train enters the climbing, reverse loop to the higher lever and emerges outa the upper tunnel minus a 20' container. Subsequent searches under the layout's hidden trackage are fruitless.

Hmmm, wonder how big those spiders under there really are.

 

[rush2ny]

Originally posted by msh
It was a brass steam loco and the price sticker was $2100.

Scared the hell out of me!

Even more scary is that it was a completely detailed, rivets counted model of Thomas the Tank Engine!! BOOO!

Seriously though, these are great stories! Keep 'em coming please!

Russ

 

[brakie]

Don,That there sounds like a mouse problem.

Here is another ghostly tale from the Blue Grass State....

There was a old slave cemetery behind the house that we lived in.I found out that my neighbors 22 year old daughter hated to drive by that cemetery late at night on her way home from work. Being a ornery young cuss that I was at that time I got this great idea.I enlisted a friend of mine to help... We strung some wire from a oak tree to a elm tree,made a cross then cover it with a sheet,filled a brown paper bag with dry leaves and added a rubber skull mask complete with red glowing eyes....We then placed this on some rollers and waited till it was time for her to come home...Well, up the lane she drove,when she got just about to the cemetery we let the ghost loose and it flew in front of her car.She scream,hit the gas and never stop till she got home screaming bloody murder all the way....The next night when she came home she sped up past the cemetery then slowed back down.She found out later what really took place....Yes,she paid us back in spades....

 

[CarlFidy]

Halloween fun from days gone by....

Brakie, you sound a lot like me....

A couple friends and I, after we were in high school (and too OLD to go trick-or-treating), setup a haunted porch at my parents house. Parents front porch is covered, and runs from the driveway across the front of the house for about 25' with the front door set in an alcove about halfway. We hung some black plastic floor to ceiling to make a dark "tunnel" and just beyond the front door did the same thing to block of the porch. Leaving us a 10' section for our "control room". At the time there was a big Redbud tree in the front yard. Next to it on a hay bale, we sat a life size dummy/scarecrow with a 1"x2" wood "skeleton" hinged at the knees, waist, elbows, and shoulders. His head was some spooky mask with a PA speaker inside. Through a series of pulleys and 3 cables, we could move each of his arms with two of the cables. After luring in the unsuspecting and naive, we could pull the third cable to completely stand the dummy up. Got lots of good screams with that.

Word must have spread as the night went on, because we started hearing some of our guests that were in the "know", guiding their freinds right into the scare zone.

So our next bright idea about halfway through the night, was to make a REAL dummy. I dressed up in something similar, removed the stuffed dummy, and took his place. Sat down, hooked the "stand-up" cable to the bungee cord we were using as a return spring, grabbed the other two cables in my hands, and waited for the next group that thought they knew what was going on. They proceded to come right up to the "dummy" and start giving him(my buddy on the PA) a hard time. I'd move my arms a little, start to stand up, they'd back off a little, draw 'em back in, stand up a little farther, sit back down, back in, then drop the cables and chase to the end of the driveway, candy fly'n all over the place, screams heard the next block over!!! This scene repeated itself numerous times the rest of the night.....

Since we had so much fun that first year, we did similar stuff for another five. More stories of our Halloween high jinks in the nights to come.....

Great stories from the rest of ya'll...keep'm coming

 

[TomPM]

The Haunted Railroad Crossing

Here’s another one

The Haunted Railroad Crossing

Many rather bizarre and unexplained events surround a rather unremarkable railroad grade crossing just south of San Antonio, Texas. According to local legend, this was the site of a tragic accident back in the 1930s or 40s in which several school-aged children were killed when their school bus stalled on the railroad tracks. A speeding train smashed into the bus, killing 10 of the children and the bus driver. Since that time, any car stopped at the crossing will be pushed by unseen hands across the tracks to safety. It is the spirits of the children, they say, who push cars across the tracks to prevent a tragedy and fate like their own.

Even today, cars line up at the haunted crossing to see if the legend is true. Sure enough, time and time again, cars do seem to be pushed over the tracks. But that’s not all. If a light powder - like talcum or baby powder - is sprinkled over a car’s trunk and rear bumper, when one crosses the tracks at this location, tiny fingerprints and handprints will appear - the prints of ghost children pushing the car.

 

[N Gauger]

Re: The Haunted Railroad Crossing

Originally posted by TomPM
Here’s another one

The Haunted Railroad Crossing

Many rather bizarre and unexplained events surround a rather unremarkable railroad grade crossing just south of San Antonio, Texas. According to local legend, this was the site of a tragic accident back in the 1930s or 40s in which several school-aged children were killed when their school bus stalled on the railroad tracks. A speeding train smashed into the bus, killing 10 of the children and the bus driver. Since that time, any car stopped at the crossing will be pushed by unseen hands across the tracks to safety. It is the spirits of the children, they say, who push cars across the tracks to prevent a tragedy and fate like their own.

Even today, cars line up at the haunted crossing to see if the legend is true. Sure enough, time and time again, cars do seem to be pushed over the tracks. But that’s not all. If a light powder - like talcum or baby powder - is sprinkled over a car’s trunk and rear bumper, when one crosses the tracks at this location, tiny fingerprints and handprints will appear - the prints of ghost children pushing the car.

I was reading this to one of my buddies, and he said he SAW this - it waas on "Unsolved Mysteries" about 6 Yrs ago...

Awesome stuff!!!!!!!!!

~~ Mikey