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Ballast drop jobs are usually done overnight on a mainline.
Where trains do not stop in normal circumstances.
Not the place to find a graffiti artist.

How far from a station or depot were you when the train was stationary?
 
I wasn't on the train, it's a second hand account from a railway ghost thread from another forum.
 
Ballast drop jobs are usually done overnight on a mainline.
Where trains do not stop in normal circumstances.
Not the place to find a graffiti artist.

The buggers get everywhere though. The walls on approaches to Euston, for example, are plastered with graffiti. A highly dangerous hobby.

I used to take photos of the graffiti along there. A famous example is NIGHT ON MY MIND which appears when it was time to start getting my bag ready for off. The 'artist' is probably dead now.
 
I think that one was shown in a episode of Train Truckers about 3 or 4 days back.
 
I lived close to Barking railway station when I was a kid, and my father told me once that at 2 o'clock in the morning, a ghostly steam train could be heard running along the line near to our house. Not surprisingly I thought I heard the phantom train more than once, but it was probably a freight train. Interesting how parents like to scare the bejeezus out of their children sometimes.
Not Barking but related is the 1958 crash involving two trains on the Southend line crashing just outside Becontree in heavy fog. There’s heaps of stories about a faceless female ghost with long blonde hair who is spotted by staff and passengers on the eastbound platform believed to be related to that incident. I did a bit of homework on it and it’s fairly easy to identify the likely person this is the shade of ( I won’t post it on a public forum obvs) but of the ten fatalities only 3 were women ( I think) and only one is of the right age of the ghostly girl the others being older and not likely matching the dress and hairstyle as that described. It’s quite rare that I’ve bothered to look into the identity of a spectre when they were corporeal but this one is recent enough and well enough reported to dig a bit with a chance of success. I’m surprised no one else has bothered seeing as how many sightings there are reported of her.
 
I’m surprised no one else has bothered seeing as how many sightings there are reported of her.

I do not own these books but they might have further information?

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Not Barking but related is the 1958 crash involving two trains on the Southend line crashing just outside Becontree in heavy fog. There’s heaps of stories about a faceless female ghost with long blonde hair who is spotted by staff and passengers on the eastbound platform believed to be related to that incident. I did a bit of homework on it and it’s fairly easy to identify the likely person this is the shade of ( I won’t post it on a public forum obvs) but of the ten fatalities only 3 were women ( I think) and only one is of the right age of the ghostly girl the others being older and not likely matching the dress and hairstyle as that described. It’s quite rare that I’ve bothered to look into the identity of a spectre when they were corporeal but this one is recent enough and well enough reported to dig a bit with a chance of success. I’m surprised no one else has bothered seeing as how many sightings there are reported of her.
I do not own these books but they might have further information?

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Thanks mate.

I just checked the news reports and the accident investigation report.

apropos of nothing those railwaymen certainly covered up for each other back in the day.

two trains travelling on the same line in heavy fog crash into each other 10 dead 171 seriously hurt, a total derailment of train 2 and but no one blamed. These days the Barking signalmen the drivers and half of the controllers would be hung out to dry. All of the investigation was conducted by the Railway, BTP and a notary all by interview, none of the stories line up but all adjudged to be telling the truth.

btw these “faceless” ghosts give me the sh*ts, I loved the FT feature on this aspect of numerous ghost sightings it adds a level of higher strangeness (to something already pretty odd) that tickles my goosebumps.
 
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I do not own these books but they might have further information?

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I have the first of these three books and under Becontree it says the following
"The reported haunting by a station employee in 1992 concerns the sighting of a faceless woman with blonde hair standing on the platform. As with so many other sightings this was expereinced during the hours when the station was closed". It says there is one other reported sighting and her identity is unclear. First sentence a bit dodgy - it should say the sighting was reported by an employee, it could be read the haunting was by an employee.
 
Burnopfield colliery was on the same railway as Kibblesworth, a couple of miles away, and the system was definitely in use in 1932 there. All the locals would be familiar with it too, because it was no doubt both noisy and annoying. I suspect this was a tall tale, woven around the incessant clanging of the audible railway signalling system.

That could be said about anyone's ghost story. The people who claimed to have experienced this were locals who were likely to work in the railway or colliery industry and would know the various sounds associated with them.
The man whose account is quoted was possibly walking to work along the track and so would be familiar with the environment.

Also, life was hard back then. Men who wanted to keep their jobs in heavy industry in the 1920s/30s might not be inclined to tell fairy stories.
 
I have the first of these three books and under Becontree it says the following
"The reported haunting by a station employee in 1992 concerns the sighting of a faceless woman with blonde hair standing on the platform. As with so many other sightings this was expereinced during the hours when the station was closed". It says there is one other reported sighting and her identity is unclear. First sentence a bit dodgy - it should say the sighting was reported by an employee, it could be read the haunting was by an employee.
Just noticed a response to this sighting on another forum where the same girl was seen by a passenger working on the 2012 Olympic Games at Stratford. He was at Becontree and claims to have seen the young woman pass across the platform at Becontree and a reply from a local guy who reckons that’s more likely explanation for the girl relates to a young woman who was raped and fell pregnant as a result who jumped in front of a train at Becontree in mid 1955 he gave a name and said he knows her family who are / were locals and even a road where they lived. Given that the 1958 crash was on a cold February night in heavy fog and the ghost is supposedly dressed in a summer dress and no overcoat this seems to fit more closely.

back to the sleuthing for me.
 
I know of ghost stories that have emerged directly from real events; they just grow in the telling. I've got one or two of my own, which started off as vaguely spooky events, and have become full-blown hauntings over time. People just like to embellish their tales.

I wonder whether the Burnopfield 'scary face' might have been a known character on the line, and this entire tale was a form of satire or piss-take.
 
Not really 'haunting', except in a different way. I was on the platform in York when this came through in March 2019. Whenever I see steam trains I get a bit of a lump in my throat. It's like seeing an old dog still doing his job (I know this isn't an 'old' engine, but the feeling is the same). Anyone else get this almost instinctive response, almost as though they are alive?
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Thanks mate.

I just checked the news reports and the accident investigation report.

apropos of nothing those railwaymen certainly covered up for each other back in the day.

two trains travelling on the same line in heavy fog crash into each other 10 dead 171 seriously hurt, a total derailment of train 2 and but no one blamed. These days the Barking signalmen the drivers and half of the controllers would be hung out to dry. All of the investigation was conducted by the Railway, BTP and a notary all by interview, none of the stories line up but all adjudged to be telling the truth.

btw these “faceless” ghosts give me the sh*ts, I loved the FT feature on this aspect of numerous ghost sightings it adds a level of higher strangeness (to something already pretty odd) that tickles my goosebumps.
My husband saw a faceless ghost, (not train related!) many years ago. I'll have to try and track down (sorry) that issue... There is a ghost gardener seen in the next village to here - I think he only died in the last 20 or so years and his family are still local, and aware that he has been seen by others as a ghost. (IIRC, he used to work as a gardener on the gardens of what is now an hotel, which happens to be only metres from the graveyard where he is buried). That would be an interesting piece to write - about the feelings of still-alive friends and relatives of ghosts who are identifiable.
 
My husband saw a faceless ghost, (not train related!) many years ago. I'll have to try and track down (sorry) that issue... There is a ghost gardener seen in the next village to here - I think he only died in the last 20 or so years and his family are still local, and aware that he has been seen by others as a ghost. (IIRC, he used to work as a gardener on the gardens of what is now an hotel, which happens to be only metres from the graveyard where he is buried). That would be an interesting piece to write - about the feelings of still-alive friends and relatives of ghosts who are identifiable.
Even if I knew the original gardener before he carked it I’d still have a problem with the “no face” business. I mean..wtf!
why no face? Just so much worse to my mind than some of the Hollywood white eyed hags/ creepy kids.

Haunting of Hill House on Netflix excluded. Now..THAT was scary.

edit...sorry just re-read your post and realise the Gardener wasn’t faceless. I’m not scared of him now.
 
Even if I knew the original gardener before he carked it I’d still have a problem with the “no face” business. I mean..wtf!
why no face? Just so much worse to my mind than some of the Hollywood white eyed hags/ creepy kids.

Haunting of Hill House on Netflix excluded. Now..THAT was scary.

edit...sorry just re-read your post and realise the Gardener wasn’t faceless. I’m not scared of him now.
Just watched some Sapphire and Steel and one of the foes in that is a faceless man. There’s a write up on faceless ghosts somewhere, will give a reference shortly.
 
Whenever I see steam trains I get a bit of a lump in my throat. It's like seeing an old dog still doing his job (I know this isn't an 'old' engine, but the feeling is the same).

Tornado, I presume? Hard to tell these days, as it's had so many colour schemes in its short life. Flying Scotsman is currently in the same livery, with similar smoke deflectors.
 
Even if I knew the original gardener before he carked it I’d still have a problem with the “no face” business. I mean..wtf!
why no face? Just so much worse to my mind than some of the Hollywood white eyed hags/ creepy kids.

Haunting of Hill House on Netflix excluded. Now..THAT was scary.

edit...sorry just re-read your post and realise the Gardener wasn’t faceless. I’m not scared of him now.
Yes, he seemed like a very unthreatening ghost just doing a spot of gardening in broad daylight - disconcertingly close to where he was buried.
 
Tornado, I presume? Hard to tell these days, as it's had so many colour schemes in its short life. Flying Scotsman is currently in the same livery, with similar smoke deflectors.
Yep, Tornado. I only caught it by accident, was on the station on my way elsewhere.
 
Just watched some Sapphire and Steel and one of the foes in that is a faceless man. There’s a write up on faceless ghosts somewhere, will give a reference shortly.
Apparently The Encyclopaedia of Ghosts and Spirits by R Guiley has an entrry of faceless ghosts. If i have the book its not immediately available to hand.
 
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That could be said about anyone's ghost story. The people who claimed to have experienced this were locals who were likely to work in the railway or colliery industry and would know the various sounds associated with them.
The man whose account is quoted was possibly walking to work along the track and so would be familiar with the environment.
Also, life was hard back then. Men who wanted to keep their jobs in heavy industry in the 1920s/30s might not be inclined to tell fairy stories.
Life was still pretty hard when this movie was made, in 1975, on that particular railway (the Bowes colliery railway). A fascinating record. The soundtrack to this movie is full of noise, clangs, thuds and bells, and there are plenty of old blokes with alarming shocks of white hair, too.

I thought I was pretty au fait with the Durham accent, but I can barely understand what some of them are saying.
 
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