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Railway Ghosts

blessmycottonsocks said:
The term is derived from the Greek σαρκασμός (sarkasmós) meaning tearing of flesh, so I suspect it goes back a very long way (and some of those great Greek raconteurs must have had a very cutting sense of humour).
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Well, there was Momus, the Greek god of sarcasm, I suppose.
 
Cochise said:
if you place it 10 miles from where it actually happened.
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That's a fine railway tradition, though, isn't it? At least when it comes to the location of stations in relation to the settlements they were meant to serve. It certainly happened a lot in Russia, when the railway pioneers found that for some reason they would have to site the station tens of kilometres distant, unless a certain amount of financial incentive found its way to them.
 
escargot said:
A bit like the disastrous Selby rail crash, which actually happened at a spot called Great Heck.
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Ah, well, that was after the RI was abolished in favour of a bunch of bureaucrats. The RI would have got it right. :).
 
Krepostnoi said:
That's a fine railway tradition, though, isn't it? At least when it comes to the location of stations in relation to the settlements they were meant to serve. It certainly happened a lot in Russia, when the railway pioneers found that for some reason they would have to site the station tens of kilometres distant, unless a certain amount of financial incentive found its way to them.
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In the UK the tradition was to add 'road' to the name of the station that distantly served the community in question.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunfanaghy_Road_railway_station
 
Cochise said:
Ah, well, that was after the RI was abolished in favour of a bunch of bureaucrats. The RI would have got it right. :).
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The media called it Selby because nobody'd heard of Great Heck!
 
DrPaulLee said:
The problem with the paranormal database is that it doesn't give sources. It sounds like this (and others) came from the 1986 booklet I have so it's probably not an independent source at all.
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True. This has to be one of my favourite witness testimonies from a station I travel through quite often:

Victorian Girls​



Location: Falmouth (Cornwall) - Penmere Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid 1990s, approximately 01:00h
Further Comments: While walking home, a witness heard loud, distorted music coming from the station. He went to investigate and encountered two girls dressed in Victorian clothing (but no source of the music). One pointed down the tracks, as if she wanted the witness to follow, but he decided to turn around and leave the site.

https://paranormaldatabase.com/reports/rail.php?pageNum_paradata=2&totalRows_paradata=189

It's just a single platform on the edge of Falmouth town on the Truro - Falmouth Docks branch line but it has been adopted by locals and has been restored to how it would have looked in the steam era.

However, I have never been able to find any further details or witnesses which is frustrating as it's a relatively modern day haunting. Well, there is this from the Ghost Adventures of Cornwall YouTube channel. It's a nighttime electronic voices recording, make of it what you will:

 
blessmycottonsocks said:
The term is derived from the Greek σαρκασμός (sarkasmós) meaning tearing of flesh, so I suspect it goes back a very long way (and some of those great Greek raconteurs must have had a very cutting sense of humour).
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Like ripping into someone. :wink2:

Reminds me of a Guardian analysis of the expression taking the piss, which translates to rhyming slang as 'taking the Mick'.
'Mick' here is short for 'Mickey Bliss'. While nobody knows who Mickey Bliss was, 'Mick' suggests 'micturition' which means passing urine.

Mickey, Mick, mic, piss. It goes round and round. :)
 
WeirdExeter said:
True. This has to be one of my favourite witness testimonies from a station I travel through quite often:

Victorian Girls​



Location: Falmouth (Cornwall) - Penmere Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid 1990s, approximately 01:00h
Further Comments: While walking home, a witness heard loud, distorted music coming from the station. He went to investigate and encountered two girls dressed in Victorian clothing (but no source of the music). One pointed down the tracks, as if she wanted the witness to follow, but he decided to turn around and leave the site.

https://paranormaldatabase.com/reports/rail.php?pageNum_paradata=2&totalRows_paradata=189

It's just a single platform on the edge of Falmouth town on the Truro - Falmouth Docks branch line but it has been adopted by locals and has been restored to how it would have looked in the steam era.

However, I have never been able to find any further details or witnesses which is frustrating as it's a relatively modern day haunting. Well, there is this from the Ghost Adventures of Cornwall YouTube channel. It's a nighttime electronic voices recording, make of it what you will:

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I would love to witness that and I wonder if that was time slip ?...sounds like something from the Shining.
 
Sabresonic said:
I would love to witness that and I wonder if that was time slip ?...sounds like something from the Shining.
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Yes, my kind of ghost story...!

I lived and worked at Dartington in Devon for a decade, a 14th Century courtyard of buildings with many reported hauntings over the years and which included ghostly music from locked, empty rooms.

One witness to an entity:

https://www.dartington.org/kay-starr/

We had some minor poltergeist activity and on two occasions myself and several witnesses heard what sounded like an audience applauding along with the sounds of general 'audience murmuring' inside the locked and dark Great Hall, and but alas no actual music.
 
A few years ago I attended a conference in York & this was at the Railway museum (not in the museum itself) but large set of rooms just off the main site.

One of the nights (2 or 3 day conference) they held a meal for delegates & this was in the museum (on a railway carriage) itself, talk about atmosphere, noises, clicks, feeling of being watched etc. the whole museum seemed to be in darkness, only the route / path to the carriage seemed lit, so anything just out of this was dark & as i followed the guided route through to the train carriage, it was difficult not to let your mind wander.

Im sure theres plenty of stuff about the museum & its ghosts or if theres anyone out there whos worked at York......
 
Bororeturn1 said:
A few years ago I attended a conference in York & this was at the Railway museum (not in the museum itself) but large set of rooms just off the main site.

One of the nights (2 or 3 day conference) they held a meal for delegates & this was in the museum (on a railway carriage) itself, talk about atmosphere, noises, clicks, feeling of being watched etc. the whole museum seemed to be in darkness, only the route / path to the carriage seemed lit, so anything just out of this was dark & as i followed the guided route through to the train carriage, it was difficult not to let your mind wander.

Im sure theres plenty of stuff about the museum & its ghosts or if theres anyone out there whos worked at York......
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Let me turn out my book on Haunted York. I'm sure that's got something in it about the railway museum...
 
Here we go! From 'Haunted York (Vincent Danks, pub 2018)

'National Railway Museum

A number of people have reported a strong feeling of being watched when viewing one of the old sleeper carriages and, in 2008, a ghost hunting team ....witnessed a figure walking up one of the royal carriages. a member of staff infomred them that this had been experienced a number of times.

In 2013 an Interpretation Developer in the Public Programmes Team posted three photographs purporting to be of ghosts that had been taken in the museum. One clearly shows a man dressed in what could be period clothing either entering or exiting a steam train cab in the museum's South Yard.'
 
Bororeturn1 said:
A few years ago I attended a conference in York & this was at the Railway museum (not in the museum itself) but large set of rooms just off the main site.

One of the nights (2 or 3 day conference) they held a meal for delegates & this was in the museum (on a railway carriage) itself, talk about atmosphere, noises, clicks, feeling of being watched etc. the whole museum seemed to be in darkness, only the route / path to the carriage seemed lit, so anything just out of this was dark & as i followed the guided route through to the train carriage, it was difficult not to let your mind wander.

Im sure theres plenty of stuff about the museum & its ghosts or if theres anyone out there whos worked at York......
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The museum's core is a converted engine shed and it would be no surprise at all if one or more staff had died in accidents over the years it had been a working shed.
 
catseye said:
Here we go! From 'Haunted York (Vincent Danks, pub 2018)

'National Railway Museum

A number of people have reported a strong feeling of being watched when viewing one of the old sleeper carriages and, in 2008, a ghost hunting team ....witnessed a figure walking up one of the royal carriages. a member of staff infomred them that this had been experienced a number of times.

In 2013 an Interpretation Developer in the Public Programmes Team posted three photographs purporting to be of ghosts that had been taken in the museum. One clearly shows a man dressed in what could be period clothing either entering or exiting a steam train cab in the museum's South Yard.'
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Yes, hit the nail on the head, that was the main feeling, being watched.........you knew you weren't `on your own` in there!!! & certainly some of the trains / carriages gave off a `your not on your own here` type of vibe.......

I cant remember which carriage we had our meal on but it was very nice (could have been the Royal one) but not sure, again just the whole feel of it, surrounded by `spirits` (not the drink kind) lol
 
Bororeturn1 said:
Yes, hit the nail on the head, that was the main feeling, being watched.........you knew you weren't `on your own` in there!!! & certainly some of the trains / carriages gave off a `your not on your own here` type of vibe.......

I cant remember which carriage we had our meal on but it was very nice (could have been the Royal one) but not sure, again just the whole feel of it, surrounded by `spirits` (not the drink kind) lol
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That place is definitely now on my Visit List. :)

Though I've been before, over 50 years ago.

My school year went to Yorkshire at Easter 1969 - walks on the moors, Robin Hood's Bay, Staithes etc - and had the last day in York.
We visited the Castle museum with the reconstructed Victorian streets and saw the Shambles and were taken to see some preserved steam locomotives.

There were also carriages and wagons, all indoors and on show. As the posters and leaflets advertised 'National Railway Museum: Clapham - Swindon - York' I thought those places were all up and running but it seems they weren't yet.
Didn't see any ghosts but it was all very atmospheric.
 
escargot said:
That place is definitely now on my Visit List. :)

Though I've been before, over 50 years ago.

My school year went to Yorkshire at Easter 1969 - walks on the moors, Robin Hood's Bay, Staithes etc - and had the last day in York.
We visited the Castle museum with the reconstructed Victorian streets and saw the Shambles and were taken to see some preserved steam locomotives.

There were also carriages and wagons, all indoors and on show. As the posters and leaflets advertised 'National Railway Museum: Clapham - Swindon - York' I thought those places were all up and running but it seems they weren't yet.
Didn't see any ghosts but it was all very atmospheric.
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It's a very good place for a day out.
 
Been a few times never noticed anything but the tomato soup and roll are good.
 
In the museum unless things have changed since my last visit.
 
I wonder if any of our train buffs can guess which loco we were especially shown?
(Clue: it was the first of many.)
 
escargot said:
I wonder if any of our train buffs can guess which loco we were especially shown?
(Clue: it was the first of many.)
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Henry Oakley?

In 1969 wouldn't it have been the old museum?
 
I saw my elderly friend John the other day and we were talking about family history.

He was telling me about something that happened to (I think) his maternal Grandfather, who was a guard on trains running from the North down to London. Apparently, one day his grandad was sitting in his guard's van, when he had the strongest feeling that he had to 'get out', He resisted it for a while, but eventually the feeling was too strong and he walked out and up the train, just to 'check'. When he was about midway up the train, something hit the back of the train and the guard's van was obliterated.

John had all this from his Grandad, whom, he said, was a straightforward bloke and continued to be puzzled about the 'feeling' until the day he died. Is there anyone with Advanced Railway Knowledge who could verify the event? Grandad's surname was (probably) Stacey. John didn't know what hit the van or where the accident happened, but probably on one of the lines down from Leeds/York to London.
 
catseye said:
Could be. John doesn't know the date, just that it's 'something that happened' to his Grandad, so it's hard to pin down.
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There are not that many accidents post WW1 where carriages got obliterated. But strangely enough that happened in both the Welwyn crashes. The one in 1957 is maybe less likely as the destroyed carriage was in a local train which may not have had a corridor.

The first accident in 1935 was quite significant as it led to a revision in the way signalmen worked (on some lines at least) that was named 'Welwyn Control'.
 
Cochise said:
There are not that many accidents post WW1 where carriages got obliterated. But strangely enough that happened in both the Welwyn crashes. The one in 1957 is maybe less likely as the destroyed carriage was in a local train which may not have had a corridor.

The first accident in 1935 was quite significant as it led to a revision in the way signalmen worked (on some lines at least) that was named 'Welwyn Control'.
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Yup, I looked at the Wiki link you cleverly supplied and the 1935 crash fits in several ways -

- It was around the right time frame, as someone of age to be a Guard in 1935 would have been born around the turn of the century.
(I have older sisters of 70 and our grandparents were born before 1910.)
- It was the correct route.
- Only the rear carriage was destroyed because the others were more modern and so sturdier.
- The anomaly of only the rear carriage being wrecked would be because the carriages were replaced first.

I have railway minds working on it! Though I reckon @Cochise is well ahead. :cool:
 
Cochise said:
There are not that many accidents post WW1 where carriages got obliterated. But strangely enough that happened in both the Welwyn crashes. The one in 1957 is maybe less likely as the destroyed carriage was in a local train which may not have had a corridor.

The first accident in 1935 was quite significant as it led to a revision in the way signalmen worked (on some lines at least) that was named 'Welwyn Control'.
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To be fair, John only said that 'something' hit the guard's van, not that anything was obliterated. Could have been something as simple as a rock heaved off a bridge.
 
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