Are our railways haunted? (ghost stories)

[Jones]

No.

 

[Tim R-T-C]

Neat my favourite thread returns in time for a late night read....

Thanks

 

[BritishRail83]

Only just discovered this thread.

Does anyone remember a story from the back of Rail magazine a good few years ago, about a signalman on duty in a box somewhere in the Midlands? The box was only being manned because the line was being used by diverted trains due to the main line being shut for an engineering possession. It was 1970's/1980's and it had been snowing and a man in a top hat appeared at the door and asked ''when's the next train due''? The signalman kept trying to explain that the adjacent station had closed years ago. The signalman went to the telephone to call a taxi to collect the man and when he turned around the chap in the hat had vanished and there were no footsteps in the virgin snow!

As I say I can't remember the exact details but it was an interesting read and i would love to see it again.

 

[1s06pilot]

I was working a night shift at a Farnham carriage shed in the late 80s early 90s
. I heard the sound of someone walking on the ballast. Whos this I thought went outside as the only other person there was a Guildford guard , who at the time was asleep in a 2HAP unit. Nobody there as the cleaners had gone. Went back into the cabin put kettle on then heard more tramping on the ballast , then a bang on the side of the cabin. No one there. Now Im completely freaked out, No driver is booked in for at least 2 hours , cleaners gone ., guard asleep. Rang signalbox then walked up the track and spent the rest of the shift in there until the early turn cover driver came in.
Apparently I wasnt the first person to have experienced strange goings on down there. Ilater heard a story about a p/way man or a shunter getting run over down there.

 

[03_179]

I have heard the following stories:

SUTTON (London):
When I worked there, the rear door would open on a late turn and footsteps were heard. On investigation the door (which had been locked) was open. No one was in the ticket office with me at the time. This happened about 50/60 times while I worked there. Always the locked door would open.

BALCOMBE TUNNEL:
I was told there are the sounds of crashing stone and the shouts of trapped men. When the tunnel was built a roof caved in and many were killed.

LUL BRIXTON EXTENSION:
Many moons ago There was an extention planed and begun from Brixton toward Crystal Palace. One day there was a major cave in and many lives lost. Although there is no access to the area a couple of houses above the site of the collapse suffered poltergeist activity.

COULSDON SOUTH:
When I worked there there were often noises from the back of the old ticket office (it was still decked out in Southern green). Nothing drastic, but slight noises. When the tocket office was refurbished things would go missing. Note books, pens cups etc would be moved. Many times I locked up, set the alarm and returned and next morning items had been moved. No one had been in the office apart from me.

Also at about 7pm the ticket hall (customer side) would have footsteps although there was no one there and on a few occasions the window would have someone tap on it and there would be no one there.

I suspect that having Cane Hill Mental Hospital just over the road and a number of suicides that may have been a cause!

ADDISCOMBE TRAIN SHED:
It was reported that this iwas haunted, iut was in a book I have somewhere at home.

 

[Flamingo]

That reminds me, a few weeks ago I was working a HST, we were between Reading and London and I was in the TGS (TM's Office) when I got a really strong smell of cigarette smoke. I was instantly on my feet, as a (foreign) passenger boarding at Reading into the vestibule of A was smoking on the platform, and I had to tell him to put the cigarette out before boarding. My first thought was "That bugger has lit another cigarette", and I shot out the door - however, there was nobody smoking! No passenger was sitting near the TGS, and the foreign gentleman I had suspected was in fact in coach B, looking out the window.

I wonder if it was the fumes hanging around from some long departed HST TM?

 

[user15681]

I remember a commuter who was convinced he had seen a soldier on platform 8 at London Victoria station. The significance is that the unknown soldier, who now lays in the tomb at Westminster Abbey, was returned from the battlefield via Dover and moved by train to London Victoria. The carriage the body was in spent the night at London Victoria... in platform 8.

I'm not a believer myself of anything paranormal, but make of that story what you will. I must admit, platform 8 isn't the most pleasant platform I've ever been on. If I'm ever sitting on the train there, I will cast a thought to the fact that years ago the unknown soldier sat there too. Odd feeling.

 

[Tio Terry]

There are a lot of books about Railway Ghosts, there's one by J A Brooks that includes a story about two children, one of which was hit and killed by a steam train between Kings Lynn and Hunstanton.

Many, many years ago, as a teenager, I was recovering serviceable equipment with a gang of men on the line following the Beeching closure.

I heard the children laughing and watched them run over the level crossing - looking as if they had been to a themed party in old clothes - didn't think anything about it until on the Friday the Gang was having the customary Friday drink in the pub (Oh yes, we did drink alcohol in those days!) and I mentioned it to the Landlord, he just smiled and said you've seen the Ghosts then, and told me the story.

 

[Kernowfem]

Great to read and catch up with this thread! It's brilliant to see so many of you still posting!!

 

[Strathclyder]

Are light rail stories allowed?
Glasgow Subway (undated) – Track between Kelvinbridge and Hillhead stations – Cleaning staff working late have reported hearing several women’s voices softly singing along the tunnels.
I found this here.

 

[RPI]

Sorry if I'm resurrecting an old topic, only ghostly experience I've had was railway related, but before I joined the railway. When I was about 10, (20 years ago) my great grandmother had a caravan in Bewdley on the opposite side of the river to the railway, we quite often would walk along the river bank in the direction of of the disused bridge piers of the old branch that came off and went to Tenbury Wells.
This one evening it was one of those beautiful summer evenings and we went for a walk, we could see the railway line on the other side of the river about a mile away, we heard a train whistle up the valley and could hear it coming, we sat on the bench to watch it go by, only, we heard it go by but saw nothing, weird, and to this day my gran and I Always recall that and to this day can't explain.
A few years after the incident I was reading a railway magazine that was left in the mess room, and there was an article about how other people had witnessed similar things in the same place. Strange.

 

[rdlover777]

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.

your right, it was a stone that smashed thought the windshield and killed him instantly

 

[rdlover777]

i did once hear a steam whistle while i was at the tunnel at Mossdale on the old Hawes branch last summer, i couldn't and still cant explain who or what it was

 

[12CSVT]

i did once hear a steam whistle while i was at the tunnel at Mossdale on the old Hawes branch last summer, i couldn't and still cant explain who or what it was

Any possibility it was a steam special on the S&C ?

Mossdale is only about 2 or 3 miles from Garsdale.

 

[Yew]

Nice to see this thread is still around!!

 

[rdlover777]

Any possibility it was a steam special on the S&C ?

Mossdale is only about 2 or 3 miles from Garsdale.

i just thought thats what it was but i checked the internet there were no steam special on the line at the time

 

[David F]

Looked in the mirror lately?

Chris, the fact that your post was impolite should tell you something.

The volume of reports sightings and experiences should tell you another.

 

[AndyJB]

No. Grow up.

No need for that whatsoever. I won't repeat what others have already said in response to your unnecessary, and ironically hypocritical, insult - but sufficed to say; the number of replies, popularity and longevity of this thread speaks volumes.

 

[DJ_K666]

This is quite possibly my favourite reported haunting of all time. It evokes an image of a Scotsman decked in black metal attire standing on the footplate, playing bagpipes that belch forth flames.

This guy perhaps?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-Op1Mng4oY

 

[chickenwings12]

That feeling when you reach the end of the thread, sigh.

I want more from old timer!!

--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I hope everyone else hasn't given up on this thread, but I just remembered hearing about this story from the moorgate crash. At Moorgate, in the mid-1970s, workers in the Northern City Line tunnels (then part of the Northern Line, now National Rail) spoke of a man in blue overalls who would approach them. As he came closer, a look of unspeakable horror would appear on his face, and he would vanish into the tunnel wall. Some people have suggested that the driver seeing this ghost might have been the cause of the 1975 tube crash in that part of the station, the true cause of which is unknown to this day. Others have suggested that the man may have been a premonition or time lapse of the disaster.

 

[BestWestern]

That feeling when you reach the end of the thread, sigh.

I want more from old timer!!

--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I hope everyone else hasn't given up on this thread, but I just remembered hearing about this story from the moorgate crash. At Moorgate, in the mid-1970s, workers in the Northern City Line tunnels (then part of the Northern Line, now National Rail) spoke of a man in blue overalls who would approach them. As he came closer, a look of unspeakable horror would appear on his face, and he would vanish into the tunnel wall. Some people have suggested that the driver seeing this ghost might have been the cause of the 1975 tube crash in that part of the station, the true cause of which is unknown to this day. Others have suggested that the man may have been a premonition or time lapse of the disaster.

That is incredibly spooky :-/ But utterly rivetting!

 

[trentside]

Occasionally, when I open my local door and step from the train at isolated rural stations I think of this thread, and take a look over my shoulder. Funnily enough, never had a funny feeling at Rolleston, despite earlier reports in this thread.

I was stopped at a signal check the other night, not far from where someone was killed on the track a couple of years ago - I stuck my head out of the window to see if the signal had cleared, and heard a crunch in the ballast. Probably nothing, but I didn't keep my head out of the window for long!

 

[tsr]

A darkened cab on a quiet train in Balcombe Tunnel feels really odd, somehow, and once I had the distinct impression there was someone standing inside but hard up against the window on my right hand side. I knew this was completely impossible and irrational, as I was on my own in there, but reached over and put the "cab right" light on nonetheless, of course not seeing anyone at all. I've never felt the same thing in any other location, really. Older railway workers in the area do speak of people who walked into the tunnel and took their own lives in times past, although that's more likely to be the case at local stations now, albeit at least as awful.

And that's not to mention the eerie and haunting screaming noise from passing the vents in Oxted Tunnel, which, whilst perfectly explainable, doesn't really sound very nice at all.

 

[ThePannier]

Very interesting thread, just read through every single post and I'm hooked!

My grandma told me that when she was waiting for a train at our local station, Chester-le-Street, back in April 1993 - she thought she could see an old man with a BR uniform on inside the station building, despite it being pretty run-down, and I gather, boarded up.

She said what she couldn't get her head around was the fact everything had recently been privatised, with individual companies, etc, yet she fully recognised what the man was wearing as a BR uniform.

 

[Busaholic]

That feeling when you reach the end of the thread, sigh.

I want more from old timer!!

--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I hope everyone else hasn't given up on this thread, but I just remembered hearing about this story from the moorgate crash. At Moorgate, in the mid-1970s, workers in the Northern City Line tunnels (then part of the Northern Line, now National Rail) spoke of a man in blue overalls who would approach them. As he came closer, a look of unspeakable horror would appear on his face, and he would vanish into the tunnel wall. Some people have suggested that the driver seeing this ghost might have been the cause of the 1975 tube crash in that part of the station, the true cause of which is unknown to this day. Others have suggested that the man may have been a premonition or time lapse of the disaster.

I hadn't heard that story before. My wife worked at Moorgate at the time and I remember walking from my office opposite St Pancras at the end of the working day to meet her and seeing all the ambulances still lined up in Moorgate itself hours after the event in the hope that more living casualties might be found.

I hope I won't be shot down for this, but I've only ever once seen a premonition or ghost myself, before which I'd always been very sceptical, and it was so close to Moorgate that I'll recount the experience and crave your indulgence.

One Sunday evening in summer, I was driving my wife and myself home to S.E. London from Lancashire, it was dark and drizzling and I chose to drive up Pentonville Road, little traffic around, steady 30 mph through a succession of green traffic lights until at one set a tiny person dressed in all black stepped in front of the car and I swerved and braked all in one. My wife said ' what the ...' : I looked in the mirror, there was nothing or nobody there. At this point both my wife and myself were beginning to doubt my sanity, or, more accurately, whether I was too tired to be driving. I proceeded even more carefully, the next junction was the Angel and the lights were still in my favour. There were a few pedestrians around and as I drove past the first set of traffic lights, one of them stepped in front of my car - yes, it was a tiny figure in black, and this time he/she did exist but I managed to swerve again and just missed them without causing an accident. My wife saw them too this time and I saw them in my wing mirror, scurrying off. I have no doubt that if what I had reacted to a minute before had not occurred I'd have run over that pedestrian at the Angel. I offer no explanations. I can only reiterate that it is not a made-up story, but I do reflect on it quite a bit. Oh, and 2 minutes after Angel I was driving down Moorgate heading for London Bridge.

 

[Tracked]

Very interesting thread, just read through every single post and I'm hooked!

My grandma told me that when she was waiting for a train at our local station, Chester-le-Street, back in April 1993 - she thought she could see an old man with a BR uniform on inside the station building, despite it being pretty run-down, and I gather, boarded up.

She said what she couldn't get her head around was the fact everything had recently been privatised, with individual companies, etc, yet she fully recognised what the man was wearing as a BR uniform.

I don't want to be a pedant, but it hadn't recently been privatised at that point ... Sectorised maybe, if that's a real word :-?

 

[DJ_K666]

I don't want to be a pedant, but it hadn't recently been privatised at that point ... Sectorised maybe, if that's a real word :-?

I think the arguments about privatisation were raging around that time though.

 

[chickenwings12]

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.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

How I adore this thread, OT had some absolutely cracking stories. Anyway, some from me (none are personal experiences mind!):
- Entwistle is haunted by the ghost of a child killed around the time of the First World War.
- Nearby Sough Tunnel is allegedly haunted by someone (it may be a stagecoach) which fell down one of the shafts during construction.
- Bessie Ghyll on the WCML just south of Penrith has apparent reported sightings of a Victorian woman.

 

[samj]

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