... or worldwide for that matter.
My nomination: Built by the Santa Fe Railroad: The Grand Canyon Watchtower.
Here's Jimi doing the Dylan classic[/URL].

Way down in the moist dark bowels of GCT, would be my vote.

Pick up this book - It's a GREAT read! I almost left the lights on that night



"Ghost Train!: American Railroad Ghost Legends" by Tony Reevy

That is a good book.

quote:

Originally posted by falconservice:
That is a good book.

If you remember, the first story in the book was about the ghost of president Lincoln's funeral train. The legend actually includes a flatcar with a skeleton band. Have there been documented sightings or is this one just pure myth?

...."moist dark bowels of GCT" ..... now that is spooky. The sub-basement in Penn Station is pretty weird too.

But on the High Bridge Branch of the CNJ, now the Morristown and Erie in Flanders N.J., the ghost of the "Hooker Man" can be seen on dreary and eerie nights like tonight.

The glow of light, his lantern can be seen traveling down the RR at night. People have debunked this ghostly brakeman saying that the Ramapo Fault Line is below the surface and it's quartz, under pressured movement reacts with the two rails which are aligned with the fault below and create the "glow" as it travels along the fault.

WWWhhhoooo Really knows ...... It sure is spooky out there!

LOL SAM

Happy Halloween!

Hoosac Tunnel in Massachusetts; there's a history of ghosts, ghost lights and weird noises. Apparently a bunch of guys were killed during the construction.

I work part time at a local farm. They used to run hayrides on the old High Bridge Line trackage and had someone jump on an off the wagon as the "Hooker Man". That line is a few hundred yards from our house and I have never seen him.

One of the stories I remember from taking the Harper's Ferry Ghost Tour many many moons ago (and reading quite a few books on HF) was the legend of Screaming Jenny. Jenny was an "unfortunate" living in a shack along the tracks by the Harper's Ferry Armory. One cold night she got too close to the fire and met her end running screaming down the tracks for help. The claim is that to this day on misty nights, engineers sometimes see a ball of fire racing down the tracks towards them as they pass over the old Armory site, hear a "thump", but can find nothing after stopping...

Spookiest location in U.S. railroading? I've two to nominate.

First is the "Packsaddle", a section of the old PRR Pittsburgh Division that runs along the Conemaugh River west of Johnstown, PA. Head end crews used to report seeing the ghost of an old miner with his mule when they were running through this area in the wee hours.

Second is the east portal of Hoosic Tunnel in western Massachusetts. Supposedly this area is haunted by the ghosts of workmen killed in the building of the tunnel in the 1800's.

quote:

What is the spookiest location in US Railroading?

Under my layout where wiring gremlins thrive . . .

An abandoned railroad tunnel in Texas. I believe run by park service and they have gatherings at night to watch the bats leave the tunnel.



Tex

Watersmeet, MI....The Paulding Light

Brakeman's Ghost

At one time, Ripley's Believe It Or Not offered in excess of $100,000 to the person or persons who could solve a bizarre light phenomenon in Paulding, Michigan.

Nearly every clear evening, strange circular spheres of light dance on the horizon of the tiny community, and at one point seem to follow the pathway of electrical lines.

The lights have been captured on film by Michigan Magazine and Channel Six News out of Marquette. Experts from Ripley's have been to the location to examine the phenomenon.

At the location of the Paulding lights, the Michigan Forest service has put up signs which indicate the best area from which the lights can be seen. So far, no logical conclusions have been reached. The lights have been witnessed as being red, white and green. These lights are not to be confused with the Northern Lights. They are a phenomenon that is unique to Paulding, Michigan.

Locals say the lights have been viewed for a long time. Eye witnesses claim to have seen the lights way back at the turn of the century, while on their way to the train depot at Watersmeet.

Various legends have developed concerning the lights. One myth explains the lights as the ghost of a railroad brakeman, while other say it is the ghost of an Indian dancing on the power lines. Some locals attest to the fact that the lights start over Lake Superior and make their way inland. The public is welcome to view the strange lights.

quote:

Originally posted by GPJ:
One of the stories I remember from taking the Harper's Ferry Ghost Tour many many moons ago (and reading quite a few books on HF) was the legend of Screaming Jenny. Jenny was an "unfortunate" living in a shack along the tracks by the Harper's Ferry Armory. One cold night she got too close to the fire and met her end running screaming down the tracks for help. The claim is that to this day on misty nights, engineers sometimes see a ball of fire racing down the tracks towards them as they pass over the old Armory site, hear a "thump", but can find nothing after stopping...

Screaming Jenny, the Hooker man, all these legends were vividly retold in that book I mentioned. You will REALLY enjoy it if you are into ghost stories and folklore.

In Dalton, Ga - 30 miles south of Chattanooga, TN - one of the two railroad tracks that come through the center of town, for about a half mile, parallel the Main Highway U.S. 41. That is the highway that connected Miami and Chicago. The tracks run on a filled in bed created since the first tracks came through Dalton before the Civil War.

On this half mile section of track you can see the ghost of a Cherokee Indian walking down the track. Supposedly when the area was filled it covered caves that the Cherokee's used for burial, and the chief hunts that tracks.

This is something that has been documented by over a hundred years of sightings of police, engineers, fire personnel and other people including me.

I would have to say Washington, DC.

Many thanks,

Billy C

Maybe ridding the Crescent Limited at midnight through the middle of the New Orleans above ground cemetary.

Of all the rail miles I now covered,(in an Open motorcar) tunnels has to be on the top of the list. Especialy in the rain, and the water is pouring down. Just you the dirt, soot, water, cold air, DARK, and don't forget the monsters. I just ran the long rarly used tunnel under Quebec City last month.

Oldly enough we had a motor car party last night in the Howard Tunnel on the old Northern Central in York. The EC lined the tunnel with coleman lanterns and we had a large cook out in the tunnel.

The creapest tunnels are the abandon ones. You can walk up to the Frostburg tunnel which is rather swampy, I wouldn't go very far in that thing. Washington DC has some of the old DC transit tunnels still around. There is one in Dupont Circle That they wanted to turn into a mall, did injoy that walk thru. Done the ghost walks in Harpers Ferry.

Jamie

For some strange reason the money in my wallet vanishes every time I leave a hobby shop.

You guys have seen my basement, right?

I googled and read some stuff about the original Cascade Tunnel -- that sounds like a creepy place -- apparently there was a snow slide / train wreck and supposedly the ghosts still haunt the place

I would say that FOR AWHILE, in what I believe were the early '80's, the Rutherford yards outside of Harrisburg, Pa. were pretty spooky. Around that time it became a graveyard for old PC cabeese - many, many dozens, maybe hundreds of them lined up on the various tracks awaiting a trip to the salvage yard. I was visiting my family & my brother suggested we go there & check things out (w. 35mm cameras of course). The cabeese were not locked & going inside more than a few of them, we saw the pot-belly stoves, bunk beds, & some discarded schedules in some of them. You couldn't help but wonder what stories these cars could tell. We also explored what appeared to be an abandoned machine shop maintenance building for repairing rolling stock. Saw some scattered artifacts there too. When we were leaving (at dusk), an old black PC GP (don't recall which type) that was parked on a passing track fired up its engine! We looked around, but never saw anyone or any evidence of a crew onboard or autos in the parking lot. I will never forget that ending to an otherwise melancholy day.
Tom B

From right in my hometown: http://www.hoosactunnel.net/ghost.php

Bruce

My thoughts would be the World Trade Center subway station or PATH train station.

The Bunny Man Bridge

http://historicclifton.org/BunnyMan.htm

http://www.fairfaxunderground....m/read/6/155769.html

I have to vote for the Moonville tunnel. Several ghosts haunt the area but the most famous is the ghost of a dead brakeman who haunts the tunnel and the ruins of the town of Moonville.

Moonville's brakeman ghost

Paul

I just spent a week at a supposedly haunted asylum... nothing at all happened. I walked the halls, taunted the spirits and even watched others try to get in touch without incident. At least of the paranormal type. It would take a lot to convince me any place is haunted now.

Marty,

RE: Your Basement. The thread is about "spooky", not "crappy"!

Jon

Back in the late 19th Century the Central Vermont bridge over the White River down near Randolph collapsed. A father and son riding in the wood-sheathed cars survived the crash, but were tossed into the roaring rapids. The father pulled himself out, and plunged back in to search for his son. Both were drowned.

Even today, passengers on Amtrak's Vermonter have asked their conductors about the man in the old-looking clothes wading in the river by the bridge as the train goes by.

Jon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...IGrY&feature=related

White River Junction, VT Woodstock Bridge Train Wreck, Feb 1887

quote:

I work part time at a local farm. They used to run hayrides on the old High Bridge Line trackage

"highbridge line" trackage? Do you mean that OLD line which was built by a farmer that ran from Chester, NJ to Highbridge, NJ and was torn out in the 1930's??

Marty:

I watched the spook special on the Travel Channel Friday night and turned it off after about 45 minutes. I never could hear the voices saying "leave now" or some of the other crap the crew kept insisting was being said when they'd play back a recording.

Switched over to ESPN. The WVU / South Florida game was just as scary and with fewer commercials to boot!

prrhorseshoecurve,

The High Bridge brach was CNJ off the main at High Bridge and ran up to Hopatcong Jct in fed the Wharton and Northern and the Dover & Rockaway lines. Near the end of the E-L a new connection was built in the E/70's and through trains ran beteween E'Port and Scranton. ES-99 and SE-98 at that time CNJ no longer had track in PA. The Line ran through Conrail and the northen portion is now operated by the Morristown & Erie.

So, it was not torn up in the 30's. There was a portion ot the DL&W Chest branch that was torn up earlier as well as a spur from the CNJ into Chester.

The "ghost" of the Hooker Man was on the "Main" portion of the branch. In fact in the seventies when teens were hunting the ghost, a huge freight with U-33/SD-40 pooled power would have been more scary! The seemingly abandoned route would come alive with road diesels and rocking boxcars and then go back to the sounds of crickets and hauntings! (LOL)

SAM

quote:

Originally posted by NickyBigBoy:

quote:

Originally posted by falconservice:
That is a good book.

If you remember, the first story in the book was about the ghost of president Lincoln's funeral train. The legend actually includes a flatcar with a skeleton band. Have there been documented sightings or is this one just pure myth?

I have not read that book but I recall reading about the flatcar full of skeleton bandsmen as a child, and I am 42.

"Witnesses describe the train as containing a skeleton band, all in blue Union uniforms, who are playing music that no one can hear. On the second car of the train is the President’s coffin, draped in a flag and surrounded by black crepe. A skeletal honor guard dressed in both Union and Confederate uniforms, stands at attention around the coffin."

Read more: http://ghosts-hauntings.suite1..._train#ixzz0VjignOSo

"Just at the edge of hearing came the faint sound of music and turned to look at the flat cars behind the engine. I gasped and back up so far that I bumped into the trunk of a tree growing near the tracks. There was a glowing orchestra of skeletons seated in a semi-circle. They were playing a nearly-soundless funeral dirge on glowing black instruments. A violinist played passionately; a skeleton lifted a flute to its lipless mouth; a lone drummer sat waiting patiently for his cue from the skeletal conductor.

Then the orchestra was gone and another glowing headlight pierced the blackness. I was trying unsuccessfully to push my way through the bark of the tree by this time. Another black crepe draped train was approaching. A funeral train, I thought. Again, there was no one manning the engine, and no one appeared on the flat car behind it. The only thing there was a single black-crepe draped coffin. But swirling in the air around the train were the ghostly figures of soldiers dressed in the blue uniforms worn by the North during the civil war. They lined up before my eyes, saluting the solitary coffin as it passed. Some of the ghosts staggered under the weight of their own coffins; some limped on one leg or sat in a wheeled chair, legless. Their eyes were fixed upon the flat-car and the black-creped coffin. Then they were joined by soldiers from the Southern army, and all these lads saluted too, honoring the one who had fallen.

That's when I knew what I was seeing. This was the funeral train of Abraham Lincoln. I straightened up and saluted myself, having done my bit for the North many years ago."

http://www.americanfolklore.net/folktales/ny11.html


Personally I believe this is a load of nonsense, but it scared me silly as a kid. There's something appalling about an orchestra of skeletons.

York...all the weird old guys in suspenders...

Rod

The Ashtabula Ohio Bridge Disaster

This tragic event is the origin of the nearby Haunted Chestnut Grove Cemetery, where many of the train accident victims are buried. The accident was caused largely by the collapse of the railroad bridge. Legend states that the ghosts of the victims return to the bottom of the bridge on the anniversary of the disaster.
The bridge was owned by the Lake Shore and Michigan railroad, and was the joint creation of Charles Collins, Engineer, and Amasa Stone, Chief Architect and Designer. Collins did not approve of Stone's bridge design, calling it "too experimental." However, he reluctantly approved its construction due to pressure from the company and outside sources.

On the evening of December 29, 1876, the Pacific Express was traveling over the fated bridge, carrying approximately 159 passengers and crew members. Only the first engine made it to the other side, just as the bridge started to collapse. The rest of the train broke away and plummeted to the bottom of ravine below. Approximately 92 men, women and children were killed. Most did not die from the fall itself, but were literally burned alive while trapped inside the crushed cars--the result of oil lamps and stoves which ignited the fatal fire.

The accident occurred after a heavy snowstorm, making it difficult for rescuers to reach the victims. The town firefighters and citizens were ill-equipped and simply unprepared to deal with this kind of disaster. The rescue attempt failed miserably.
Approximately 25 of the dead were burned beyond recognition, and were buried in a mass grave in Chestnut Grove Cemetery.

After testifying before an investigative jury, Charles Collins quietly went home and shot himself in the head. He was also buried in the Chestnut Grove Cemetery, several feet from the mass grave.

Amasa Stone committed suicide approximately 2 years later. Stone was held partly responsible for the disaster by the same investigative jury before which Collins had testified, and was publicly scorned for many years (Stephen D. Peet, The Ashtabula Disaster, Chicago: J. S. Goodman-Louis Lloyd & Co., 1877)

Nearly lost to the pages of history
is the Ashtabula Bridge Disaster. In 1876, a packed train plunged into the icy waters of Ashtabula Creek when the bridge spanning the creek snapped under the weight of the locomotive and cars. Many months prior to the disaster, engineers had reported ominous popping sounds when trains thundered over the bridge, but inspectors found no problems. Fatal design flaws and shoddy construction actually made the bridge an accident waiting to happen. On a cold December night, the bridge collapsed, dumping the passenger cars into the creek. Many of the hapless souls trapped in the wreckage died from hypothermia. Since the train cars landed one on top of the other, many who survived the initial crash were trapped in the wreckage and burned to death when the coal-fired stoves and oil lamps ignited the heavily varnished cars.

The haunting focuses on two sites: the area near the creek where the bridge once stood, and the cemetery housing the dead. Visitors to the creek often hear screams, whimpers and cries, particularly during the winter, and the smell of burning flesh and varnish often hangs heavily in the night air. Since so many victims of the tragedy were burned beyond recognition, most are buried in a mass grave in Chestnut Grove Cemetery, marked only by a plain granite obelisk. Visitors spot apparitions dressed in Victorian period clothing near the mass grave. The apparitions carry picnic baskets and appear to be happy! Are the ghosts of the Ashtabula Bridge Disaster enjoying a sunny summer day in the afterlife instead of reliving the horrible tragedy?

this forum!!!!!!

An Orchestra of skeletons....hmmmm no wind instruments I assume....

I agree I like to book too...

quote:

Originally posted by Philip C. Howell:
this forum!!!!!!

Especially when the trolls come out... or when the orange and purple zombies come out to do battle with each other...

But seriously, the book "Ghost Train!: American Railroad Ghost Legends" by Tony Reevy (mentioned above) should be a must-read for anyone interested in some of the folklore and legends surrounding railroading.

Andy

Yardmaster's story about the Paulding light in MI reminded me of a similar story I heard, about a "spook light" in Gurdon, AR. The similarities are amazing. One of these days I am going to time my trip to AR so I can look for the spook light. Real or imagined, these things fascinate me. Good thread for Halloween! -Ted

When the train has to stop in the middle of the tunnel under the Hudson river between Jersey & Penn Station

Marty's got his basement. For me, it's my garage. Weird, unexplained stuff happens all the time on my layout. For example, once everything ran for a whole hour without any problem.