Are our railways haunted? (ghost stories)

[83G/84D]

There's a 37 which is supposedly haunted by a driver who was killed when something smashed through the windscreen and hit his head. It's 37069, IIRC.

A driver was killed whilst shunting a 37 at St Blazey and the loco was sent away as understandably none of the drivers wanted to drive it.

 

[Busaholic]

I've heard quite a few have been seen at kings cross, apparently one man saw a woman dressed in jeans sat down crying inconsolably, but when he approached her she disappeared :/ she was presumed to be a victim of the kings cross fire in 1987

i find it sad more than anything that because of one person having to smoke a cigarette so many people had to lose their lives, and for this particular woman, have her soul trapped in kings cross underground station forever.

Exceptionally sad, but the firetrap Kings Cross had become was always going to ignite at some stage. It wasn't just Kings Cross, of course, the whole cleaning culture was lax.

Might I suggest that that the ghost you refer to at KX though may have something to do with the IRA bomb in 1973 in the mainline station, almost simultaneously with one at Euston Station. Fortuitously no-one was killed, but one man's blood was still visible on a station wall weeks after the event (I worked in Camden Town Hall opposite St P ancras and heard one of the bombs).

 

[Kernowfem]

Absolutely astounded this thread is still going, it's so nice to come back and catch up on contributions. Please keep them coming )

 

[G136GREYHOUND]

I was driving a 150 on dark night and I had a totally irrational conviction that there was someone on the 2nd man's side, very strongly, I reached behind me and flicked the crew lights on,.........nothing. put them off, it came back as strongly as before, feel my shoulder blades compressing with an involuntary shudder even now as I type this. Then after the next station stop, it went.

In the messroom next day, one of the guards was getting the **** taken out of him, I listened and he swore blind he heard someone walking up and down in the vestibule of a 150, he said he opened the door, no one there of course, closed it again, the footsteps came back, swore it was footsteps and not track/flat noise.

I dug my diagram out from the day before and it was the same cab, of the same 150 in the same place at the same time but on the down, not the up or visa versa.

Never happened again, never heard anyone else say anything, but it was flippin' strange.

 

[PaxVobiscum]

Do we get to know the number of the Spectr'd Sprinter?

 

[G136GREYHOUND]

Do we get to know the number of the Spectr'd Sprinter?

sorry, but no, I'm not divulging !

 

[RichmondCommu]

Isn't Blea Moor tunnel/Ribblehead Viaduct area supposed to be haunted?

One of the cottages at Grisedale on the S & C is haunted although I can't remember which one!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

sorry, but no, I'm not divulging !

Can you at least tell us if it's a 150/1 or a 150/2?

 

[chrisatyork]

I see many of the forums users are railway workers, and i wondered if anyone had any tales to tell of mysterious happenings/hauntings while on duty, or if anyone has any railway ghost stories.
I appreciate this thread may not be everyones cup of tea, but i would love to hear any stories/experiences you guys may have

Hi i work on york station on the night shift, A few weeks ago i was cleaning the womens loo on platform 3 when an elderly woman entered as we are told i left the toilets and stood outside until she had left, After 15 mins or so i decided to see if she was ok. It was then i discoverd the toilet was completly empty. As there is only one enterence in and out ( and i was stood there) i will let you work this one out .

 

[pne]

Hi i work on york station on the night shift, A few weeks ago i was cleaning the womens loo on platform 3 when an elderly woman entered as we are told i left the toilets and stood outside until she had left, After 15 mins or so i decided to see if she was ok. It was then i discoverd the toilet was completly empty. As there is only one enterence in and out ( and i was stood there) i will let you work this one out .

She was on her way to work at the Ministry of Magic?

 

[chrisatyork]

She was on her way to work at the Ministry of Magic?

whatever the reason if i felt like messing myself i was in the right place lol

 

[WD0-6-0]

Hi
I've been following this thread for a long time and have really enjoyed the stories but never signed up to add my own.
I don't blame everything on ghosts or similar, but I'm like most people here I do think they're around.
Anyway a story of my own. I do a little bit of dog walking for a friend and on one occasion I was walking past the closed foot crossing in long rock in cornwall (you may have heard about it as it's closure was very unpopular in the area) anyway the crossing was closed as unsafe when a woman from the houses nearby was killed by a train, she wasn't the first as I believe there were at least two fatalities there before. Anyway it was a darks ending and the weather was horrible. I was on my way back from the beach with the dogs and as we got to the crossing they started to behave a little funny. Then as we passed I heard crunching in the ballast. I had deliberately looked as we approached there were no workmen on the line and nobody from the nearby depot. I had seen no one on the beach and there was no one on the path, I was alone as far as I could tell. I ran very quickly back to the road crossing. This crossing is near the beach and I won't deny that could be the cause of the sound (although I'm sure it came from the right, crossing side, not left, sea side) and the dogs behaviour could be coincidental but that crossing never felt right.
Could be something could be nothing.

 

[g.satchwell]

I'm not sure if everyone is supposed to become a ghost after they die. Or indeed whether some ghosts remain as introverted in death as they were before they became ghosts. But assuming that most ghosts desire some form of human communication, it seems to me that 'numbers' are the real bar to viability. Consider, there are nationally, including Underground railways, about 350 sudden deaths on the railway every year. Now,over the course of the last 150 years that's quite population. They must be standing shoulder to shoulder at some locations!!!

 

[Scotrail84]

Cracking thread, keep it going.

 

[chrisatyork]

whatever the reason if i felt like messing myself i was in the right place lol

Can you at least tell us if it's a 150/1 or a 150/2?

had a 150/1 on york station overnight for cleaning a few weeks ago , saw and heard a fist banging on cab window , aparantly out of the 4 of us within earshot i was the only one who experienced anything

 

[Ash Bridge]

On a holiday in North Cornwall around 25 years ago, I set off one day to find a location on a former mineral railway line that ran up from the Camel valley to the quarries on Bodmin Moor.

I had a book with me that I had owned for some years with a delightful colour shot at this spot, which showed an ancient Beattie Well Tank Locomotive on a short rake of wagons, stood next to a row of cottages and about to cross a secluded country lane, the guard having just handed a large package to a lady occupant of one of the cottages, just like one of the cameo scenes that today's preserved railway arrange.

Having located the spot we (had my dad with me on this occasion) were surprised to find little had changed in the several decades since the original picture, the cottages still looked the same and the rails were still set in the road although lifted on either side sadly, as the route has since become a walking/cycle trail.

I then set about positioning myself in the same spot as the original photographer did all those years previous in an attempt to do a then & now type of shot, having achieved this my dad then did the same with his camera,I'll just add this is a very remote spot and in the 20/30 mins spent there we never saw a soul.

After the holiday I sent my roll of 35mm slide film of to Fuji Labs for processing, my dad didn't get through his film quite so quickly so when he came to get his prints developed at I think Boots, it was about 3 months later than I.

So having received my slides back from the lab, come the evening I ran them through the projector, then something struck me, the picture that was shot on the old railway was missing, the lab mounted the slide but it was blank? The camera I used was a semi pro model and this had never occured before!

Anyway never thought much more about it until about 3 months later my dad received his prints back ( From a totally different photo lab) guess what? His photo from the same location was missing! We checked the negative strip accompanying the prints and it was blank...

Just to add I tried to get back to the same location twice whilst on more recent holidays, only to be thwarted again by on one occasion an accident (not involving myself) and the second time temporary road closure, is someone/thing trying to tell me something?

 

[tsr]

Apparently a passenger train near Oxted was recently heard by its driver to have struck something, large enough to cause concern. When he went back to check, with the line blocked to traffic, he found nothing but two hand prints on the equipment under the sole bar, and some disturbed ballast...

This was not long ago and in broad daylight. Nothing of note has been found since.

 

[Busaholic]

Hi
I've been following this thread for a long time and have really enjoyed the stories but never signed up to add my own.
I don't blame everything on ghosts or similar, but I'm like most people here I do think they're around.
Anyway a story of my own. I do a little bit of dog walking for a friend and on one occasion I was walking past the closed foot crossing in long rock in cornwall (you may have heard about it as it's closure was very unpopular in the area) anyway the crossing was closed as unsafe when a woman from the houses nearby was killed by a train, she wasn't the first as I believe there were at least two fatalities there before. Anyway it was a darks ending and the weather was horrible. I was on my way back from the beach with the dogs and as we got to the crossing they started to behave a little funny. Then as we passed I heard crunching in the ballast. I had deliberately looked as we approached there were no workmen on the line and nobody from the nearby depot. I had seen no one on the beach and there was no one on the path, I was alone as far as I could tell. I ran very quickly back to the road crossing. This crossing is near the beach and I won't deny that could be the cause of the sound (although I'm sure it came from the right, crossing side, not left, sea side) and the dogs behaviour could be coincidental but that crossing never felt right.
Could be something could be nothing.

I walk my dog, a labradoodle, very near there sometimes (mostly between the car park past the level crossing in the Penzance direction) but I'll check out that location with him, as he's incredibly sensitive to things humans can't easily see or hear. In fact, a few months ago walking along an otherwise-deserted Pz prom in the late evening we saw an inshore lifeboat near the Jubilee Pool and a helicopter began circling overhead; a couple of lifeguards hove into sight with torches directed onto the seawater, near high tide. I asked what was going on and they replied that a woman had threatened suicide by walking into the sea near there. They weren't clear whether she'd carried out her threat but they could see something floating on the water not too far from the beach. I offered to go onto the beach (shingle and rocks) with my dog and focus his attention on the object as I was sure he'd respond if he thought it was a living being, human or otherwise, in fact he'd have swum out to it. Instead, he did take a look as the torchlight shone on it and then looked at me as though to say 'don't bother me with that', sniffing the air all the whole. It looked plastic and, later, this was confirmed when the inshore lifeboat got near enough to examine it. This story has a happy ending - the woman was found alive and well in St Just.

 

[507021]

A really interesting thread

I was on a late evening train to Liverpool Central a few years ago on my way to visit a friend in the city centre. About five minutes into the journey I glanced out of the window and noticed the reflection of a man that was sat in the seating area opposite mine. When I looked over there was nobody there - yet when I looked back out of the window the reflection of the same man was still there

I've not experienced anything since but I've heard rumours of a similar experience on the London Underground - from memory it was the Bakerloo Line but I'm not 100% sure

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I've not experienced anything since but I've heard rumours of a similar experience on the London Underground - from memory it was the Bakerloo Line but I'm not 100% sure

Bakerloo Line - the stories relate to the departure from Elephant and Castle, I believe only from the left hand platform ( as you face the north ).

 

[43074]

In the messroom next day, one of the guards was getting the **** taken out of him, I listened and he swore blind he heard someone walking up and down in the vestibule of a 150, he said he opened the door, no one there of course, closed it again, the footsteps came back, swore it was footsteps and not track/flat noise.

I dug my diagram out from the day before and it was the same cab, of the same 150 in the same place at the same time but on the down, not the up or visa versa.

Never happened again, never heard anyone else say anything, but it was flippin' strange.

On the subject of haunted units there is a certain 222 on which staff have seen a figure moving through the 3rd/4th carriages at night on the fuel road at Etches Park depot; the unit concerned has been involved in three fatalities and a derailment...

I've never seen any ghostly activity at Rothley on the GCR, supposedly notorious for hauntings, although it does feel at little strange, particularly at dusk.

Really interesting thread.

 

[Kernowfem]

It's lovely to pop back and see the thread still going after all these years. I've recently visited the former Rolleston junction where the old junction for Southwell used to be. I don't live too far from these days, so decided to take an evening drive and look around. I've read reports about the sounds of an old steam loco being heard on the old branch, but sadly I saw and heard nothing.

It's still a lovely peaceful spot and the old box just down the road at Fiskerton still stands well. Well worth a visit.

 

[grumblingalong]

Cheers all for a good few hours of reading!

Despite the amount of time I spend in and around railways I've got no incidences to report.

The only ghost known to train crews in East Anglia is the one that seemingly haunts the toilet tanking points at Crown Point, everyone who works there must be petrified of it, because very rarely does one find a working loo in a AGA 170.

 

[12CSVT]

Cheers all for a good few hours of reading!

Despite the amount of time I spend in and around railways I've got no incidences to report.

The only ghost known to train crews in East Anglia is the one that seemingly haunts the toilet tanking points at Crown Point, everyone who works there must be petrified of it, because very rarely does one find a working loo in a AGA 170.

Does that ghost by any chance have dislike to class 47 fitters, given the unreliability of the loco hauled Great Yarmouth set ?

 

[grumblingalong]

Does that ghost by any chance have dislike to class 47 fitters, given the unreliability of the loco hauled Great Yarmouth set ?

Almost certainly, that's why they're sending down the 37's instead, specifically the haunted one!

 

[ACBest]

Fascinating thread - have really enjoyed reading this from start to finish. Although I now don't really want to sleep...!

 

[scott118]

Cheers all for a good few hours of reading!

Despite the amount of time I spend in and around railways I've got no incidences to report.

The only ghost known to train crews in East Anglia is the one that seemingly haunts the toilet tanking points at Crown Point, everyone who works there must be petrified of it, because very rarely does one find a working loo in a AGA 170.

hahahahaha....classic

 

[Strathclyder]

The West Street - Shields Rd section of the Glasgow Subway has had quite a few supposed hauntings over it's existence...

The Clatter – West Street / Shields Road (dates from construction of the Subway to it's reopening in 1897):

One of the grimmest tasks that confronted the workers who constructed the Glasgow Subway was excavating human remains from the city’s medieval plague pits. The pits were impromptu mass graves, hastily prepared to cater for the sudden glut of deaths resulting from the outbreaks. One such pit was alleged to have been encountered whilst digging the stretch of tunnel that runs from West Street to Shields Road. Workers became concerned by the texture of the earth they were digging and alarmed by the regular discovery of bone fragments and teeth. Nonetheless, progress had to be made and soon a tunnel had been constructed, but workers continued to be suspicious of the area. They were right to be cautious, as it was this stretch of tunnel that gave rise to the story of the Clatter, an amorphous cloud-like spirit that would emerge from a wall, appearing first as a small hovering ball of light, no bigger than a golf ball, only to swell up, extending and enlarging suddenly, so as to engulf an entire area and anyone stood near. Its name derives from the noise it is supposed to produce, described by one worker as an intense clattering, like dozens of tin pans falling from a wall simultaneously and continuously. Hapless workers who encountered the Clatter during their time in the tunnels reported seeing the anguished faces of many long deceased souls in the mists that suddenly surrounded them. Following the reopening of Glasgow’s Subway in 1897, there were no further reports of this mysterious entity.

The Child Ghoul – West Street / Shields Road (last sighting made in 1955):

The stretch of track between West Street and Shields Road also gave rise to another particularly unpleasant ghost story. As well as the reports of the Clatter, workers also alleged that they had seen a demon on several occasions in the same area. The entity would appear out of shadows, then disappear quickly. Its face was described as being half boy, half animal and it would often appear to be in the act of devouring something when it was spotted. The last sighting was made in 1955, when workers reported seeing a “demented child” loitering in the tunnel near West Street. The workers reported the child to be eating raw meat, which they assumed he had stolen from the butchers above.

Source: http://www.british-paranormal.co.uk/ghosts-of-glasgow-subway/

 

[tsr]

Something that has been doing the rounds again recently is that Mark Beech Tunnel, near Cowden, is haunted by the ghost of Anne Boleyn. As we all know, contrary to what we were taught in history lessons, Anne Boleyn was in fact executed by a faulty reclining seat on 171803.

 

[Springs Branch]

My spooky railway story started in the late 1960s or very early 1970s.

I was just about a teenager and had become interested in the trains in my local area. One of the spotting locations I discovered was on the Wigan to Bolton line, near the former Crow Nest Sidings signal box & goods loops (by this time abolished) about ½ mile east of today's Crow Nest Junction.

It was a quiet, rural site where an unmettled farm track passes over the railway on a bridge, in the middle of fields with just a couple of small farms visible in the distance. There was a good view either way along the railway and semaphore signals within sight to alert us to imminent trains. For anyone who may know the area, it's Jack's Lane at Hart Common near Westhoughton.

Another attraction was it was just about (actually a bit beyond) the limit of distance my parents allowed me to roam by bike on my own at that age.
This photo of the spot has been posted on the Wigan World website (not by me).

My first visits here were on my own, and in between the passing trains, I started to get an uneasy feeling - like someone or some sort of "presence" was watching me. This seemed to be coming from the hedgerows alongside the lane (which can be seen starting to the left of the bridge in the photo in the link).

There was clearly no-one around, but the uneasy feeling did not go away. I stuck it out, however, and eventually went home and thought no more about it.

On a subsequent trip, a train-spotting friend came with me. It was his first visit there and after a short while (unprompted by me), he also felt someone was watching us. He actually said he thought he saw someone's head peering above the hedges. We plucked up courage and cycled to the spot, but of course there was nobody there.

I must have been keen on exploring by myself because I went back there a couple more times on my own, always with varying levels of unease that something was not quite right. One time there seemed to be some inaudible, but very mysterious & pervasive vibration in the air, like a sub-sonic "hum" which you couldn't hear, but could feel in your guts. I actually bailed and went elsewhere that day!

Over the following months our sphere of travel increased and we cycled to more distant spots to see more interesting rail traffic, like the double-headed Class 50s which had been introduced on the WCML.

Wind forward about 10 years to the late 1970s, I'm 19 or 20 and a young bloke who enjoys a refreshing beverage or two at weekends. One moonlit summer's night, well after closing time at a favourite pub a few miles from home, I find myself taking a shortcut, walking on my own along barely-used Public Footpaths across the fields.

Too late, I realise that I will need to walk down Jack's Lane and cross that railway bridge and then recall the odd experiences all those years ago. All rubbish, I tell myself, I was just an easily impressionable young lad back then, obviously there are no such things as ghosts etc.

As I approach the spot, whistling a happy tune, I feel more and more uneasy & the hairs on my neck stand up. Again, something is definitely threatening and "not right" around here and it's made me sober up pretty quickly. I need to keep walking, there's no alternative route and I've already set off the dogs at a couple of farms I passed earlier on, so can't easily go back.

The closer to the bridge the more the feeling of dread increases and I end up jogging along, staring directly ahead, too scared to look either side of the narrow track into the hedgerows, but expecting something to come at me any time. The terror peaks at the place where my mate claimed he saw the head above the hedges, then eases only slightly as I make it to the end of those hedges and cross over the railway bridge. That subsonic buzz is there again, in my head this time (or is that just alcohol, or fear?)

Luckily the yellow sodium lights of the main road are not far away now, but there is still no way I'm looking behind me to where I just came from. The fear evaporates and enormous relief sets in as I reach the first terrace of houses, street lights and the occasional late-night car on the main road.

I don't know what it was about this place, but the thought of it gives me the shivers 50 years later. You could also argue this has nothing to do with the railway itself and it's coincidental that I was loitering around there trainspotting. I've looked to see if there have been any accidents or such at Crow Nest Sidings (plausible in the days of unfitted trains, since it was at the bottom of the long uphill gradient to Chew Moor) but I found nothing. Will I now have the courage to go back there next time I visit that part of the UK?