Mrs Andrea X
This event concerns my husband who works for the railway and does lots of night shifts.
As you can imagine many stories fly around the different yards about railway ghosts, legends and suchlike. Normally he laughs them off but on this night and at this particular location which is situated deep in the middle of the Derbyshire Peak District, he found little to laugh about!
It happened in August this year on a hot soundless night , as where this yard is situated means that it is surrounded by open fields and hills and so no traffic etc. can be heard, especially in the middle of the night.
He had seen to one train, he is a shunter by the way, and was in the cabin awaiting his next train due some half an hour later. The cabin is really just an old wooden shack with a little office and a kitchen area with an old chair and cooker. In fact the yard is so old that the old semiphore signal system is still in operation and I find the whole place spooky even in daylight!
Anyway this night - a Tuesday if I remember,there was a full moon in the sky - known for reasons that shall become clear later, my husband was sat on the chair waiting for the kettle to boil to make a cup of tea. He was sat in the dark, enjoying the peace and quiet. Suddenly he distinctly heard footsteps on the gravel in the yard outside. He could hear someone (or something!!) moving towards the cabin and the cracking sounds of the leaves and twigs as it grew closer. He is the only member of staff on duty at night, save for the drivers who arrive and depart with each train, so knew that he was completely alone.
The footsteps grew louder but seemed to be of a dragging nature as he could hear one foot being dragged behind the other! As I said, this place is so remote up a long dark lane, that no one from the nearby village bothers to go up there - it is private property after all and so it is desolate at night. Normally my husband would go out and confront whoever it was, as at other yards there have been cases of opportunists, out to steal from the standing trains, and he has had to call the police many times before. But for some reason the sound of these footsteps filled him with foreboding.
There is a small window at the side of the cabin and if you are sat in the chair you look directly at it. My husband could see the bright light of the full moon outside and suddenly he saw illuminated by it, as if leaning against the window, a dark inverted V shape ie, an arm bent at the elbow as if somebody was stooping and holding onto their back as they walked, it was also very knobbly - like a twiglet is how Sean described it!! . He could also hear a deep rasping sound like somebody breathing with a bad lung problem!
The elbow moved around the building away from the window and as myhusband looked at the door he realised that it wasn't locked! Instead of jumping up to lock it as he might have done he felt compelled to sit still and so sat stunned as a sharp tapping could be heard on the door itself. Suddenly the doorknob turned about three times - but not enough to open it .
By now my husband was scared stiff and expecting who knows what to enter the cabin, but as suddenly as it appeared it turned on its heel and was gone. The dragging sound and rasping disappeared - but not gradually, just all of a sudden!
He went out to investigate but found, as he expected, that he was alone again! He told me this story with some reluctance as I said he is a real sceptic!!
Incidentally, he regualary sees one particular driver and has to get into the cabin for part of the journey down the line to this yard. Anyway, this particular driver insists on keeping the doors locked - even though he knows that they never see anyone around there! My husband asked him why he kept them firmly bolted but all he asked in reply, was had Sean heard or seen anything strange whilst he had been working at this particular yard. Sean pretended that he didn't know what he meant, to see if he would say more - but he just shrugged and locked the door again!!
He has thankfully seen or heard nothing untoward since but now goes on nights at that particular yard with some trepidation!!
NB. I have changed my husband's name to protect identities, but otherwise this is a full and true account of what happened!
