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Not sure about the debunking - Highgate High Level was in use (or rather the tracks through it were) from 1867 to 1970. For the first 90 years or so it would indeed have seen steam engines. I remember the final closure - in its last years it was only used for transferring stock from one line to another.

I know that has nothing to do with the China video, but hey, check your facts, man.
 
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This is an extract from Harry Ludlam’s 1967 book ’The Restless Ghosts of Ladye Place’.
My father received this book as a gift when I was a child, possibly as soon as it was published. As I've mentioned elsewhere I was FAR too young to be reading it but went for it anyway, and scared myself silly.

Local kids routinely played on the railway in my home town, not stealing or vandalising but just wandering round and climbing on things.
We were often still there when it was going dark.

After reading the following story though I had nightmares and was cured of railway trespassing!

'A particularly shocking accident was believed to be the reason for a macabre haunting of the railway track running through the little colliery village of Burnopfield, Durham, during the autumn of 1932.
Here is the account of one man who encountered the ghost:

"I was coming down beside the line to get to Burnopfield, when I was stopped by hearing several metallic clangs, just like those a
platelayer makes when laying or repairing rails.
After stopping for a few moments I walked on, but my progress was again arrested by seeing a face hanging in mid-air.
It was horribly twisted and scarred, and the eyes blazed in a terrible and eerie way.

"I saw the face for a second, then I heard a thunderous roar like hundreds of coal wagons out of control on the line. I did not stop for any more but turned and ran."

Several other people claimed to see on different occasions the twisted face, its head covered with a shock of white hair, and always the ghost's appearance on the colliery wagon-way was heralded by a number of clangs like a sledgehammer striking metal.
Older people in the village recalled a distressing accident in 1879, when a platelayer on the railway was killed when the wire rope connecting a line of moving coal wagons suddenly parted.
It seemed that the unfortunate man's agonised spirit had returned for a time to haunt the spot.’

I sodding SAW that head floating over my bed every night for weeks.
 
Having read the other railway ghosts thread I would like to share something that happened to me 20 odd years ago, I would be interested if anyone had any more information:

On a particularly cold And frosty winters night I was working a ballast train in a block on the Mid Sussex line, I had a pair of Class 37’s which I had worked down from Three Bridges yard to the worksite, after dropping the required ballast I was instructed to pull up to the boards, and await for the block man to drop them before proceeding.

I pulling up short of the boards, and then settled down pouring a nice warm cup of tea from my flask and tucking into some hot-cross buns my wife had kindly packed me. I noticed a light flicking outside so dropped the window to see a chap wandering around, assuming he was the blockman I called over to him to jump up in the warm cab away from the cold (Class 37’s are far from comfortable but the heaters are pretty good if they are working) as he climbed up I noticed he was wearing an old BR donkey jacket and one of the original issue BR high vis vests from the 1980’s which I thought was a little strange as no one had worn those for years and was carrying an original style bardic hand lamp. As he settled into the second mans seat I offered him a cup of tea which he accepted and then we got chatting, he had a strong Scottish accent which made a few words difficult to understand. We chatted for a few minutes then I asked him about dropping the boards to get me away, at that moment he seemed to get upset and left the cab quite abruptly. Perplexed I dropped the cab window again to see where he had gone but there was no sign of him.

As it was freezing outside I wasn’t going to investigate so stayed put in the warm to wait for his return. About 25 minutes later I saw a van pull up near by an access gate and 2 figures get out dressed in the more familiar full orange and hard hats. They made their way down to me and explained they were the block-men and were here to drop the boards. I told them I had their mate up here a few minutes ago but he left in a hurry. They looked at me strangely and told me no one else was out here working tonight, I asked again giving a description and they thought I was having them on. I distinctly remember getting a chill down my spine as I realised the chap I had in my cab was not supposed to be there. They dropped the boards and I made my way out the block towards Littlehampton where I was relieved by another driver.

I made some enquires and whilst I never found anything concrete a retired colleague recalled a story of a track worker being killed by a engineers train on the Mid Sussex Line in the early 80’s. Could it have been him up in the cab with me that night? I will never know but it is certainly a night I will never forget.
 
Or maybe an ex-employee who still had his old gear, but mentally unstable and unable to let go of his former occupation?
 
Did he open the cab door? if so that takes a fair amount of strength even taking the cup
implies a physical presence a interesting one that's for sure.
 
I'm reminded of a story from my nearby Nuneaton railway station which (I think) was listed on Paranormal Database.

Back in the 80s, two friends returning from a night out were crossing a bridge that spans the railway by the station when they saw a scene of utter devastation on the tracks below. An upended train carriage, bodies on the tracks and walking wounded staggering to safety.

Obviously panicked, they ran to alert the police but when they arrived at the scene there was absolutely nothing there.

Interestingly, a sleeper train did derail at Nuneaton a few years previous and killed six people. Could what the two witnesses saw have been a 'recording' of the initial disaster?
 
...but my progress was again arrested by seeing a face hanging in mid-air.
It was horribly twisted and scarred, and the eyes blazed in a terrible and eerie way.

Several other people claimed to see on different occasions the twisted face, its head covered with a shock of white hair,
Sounds familiar
7aebd7d4-5407-4165-b742-860b9a18046c.jpg
 
Saw this on Facebook just now -

So about 2/3 weeks ago, me and my friend were doing the Monsal trail and we were sat in one of the tunnels having a cup of tea when a man walked past on his own whistling and kind of skipping.

He caught our attention so we watched him as he walked past us, and then all of a sudden he steered off and walked straight into the wall and just disappeared.

We were both so confused and we were in a tunnel so he physically couldn’t have gone anywhere!

Has anyone experienced anything similar?

Monsal Trail tunnel 1.jpgMonsal Trail tunnel 2.jpg
 
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Re the Monsal Trail tunnels - I posted the following on the Trainyard Ghost? thread a couple of years ago:

When I was a kid some of the Monsal trail tunnels were accessible: dark, wet and potentially lethal - but if you really wanted to, and you had a torch and some guts, you could get through. Then they bricked them up properly, and for at least a couple of decades they were impenetrable. Now, as you'll know, they are accessible again - well lit and surfaced and somewhat sanitised, but still capable of being spooky.

Two weekends ago me and my partner were walking through Cressbrook Tunnel one late afternoon when, about half way along, I distinctly heard someone whistle close by - that short, sharp, two note whistle you use to get someone's attention, or to call a dog. I checked both directions - but we had the whole length of the tunnel, in both directions, to ourselves

I'm sure it was actually much further away than it seemed, and the apparent proximity was just the way sound travels in those places. But it added a nice bit of spookiness to the afternoon, and in the perfect setting.
 
Isn't it Scargy who's cycled that trail a few times?
 
Also from that Facebook page -

I’ll relate my experience and see what you think.

Back in the early 90s I was rostered as a supervisor at Covent Garden. A new colleague was ‘seeing’ the last train away. All that was needed was the Green light.

The train sat there waiting. Eventually I asked him if he was gong to let it go? He replied he was looking for the little girls mother.

Watching on CCTV There’s no one there I replied. She’s here right next to me he said.

After convincing him to let the train go, he returns to the office and I showed him the CCTV tapes. You could see him standing there talking to someone.

But there’s no one there.

Flustered I explained to him he was not alone in seeing her. She originated from an incident in the 50s.

When a recently divorced mother had thrown herself and the little girl in front of a train killing both. The little girl asks staff if they can find her mummy. As I said we all saw her at some stage, perfectly formed with a small Teddy Bear clutched in her arms.
 
The teddy bear detail makes me uneasy. Almost as though it's a caricature of what a child ghost 'ought' to look like.
The teddy bear detail makes me uneasy. Almost as though it's a caricature of what a child ghost 'ought' to look like.

The above is from a Facebook page where people give their full names. I'm inclined to believe the poster.

Railway employees aren't keen on sharing scary experiences outside the industry. If they do, it's usually a long time afterwards in case they're thought unfit for the responsibility. I've heard some corkers!
 
I pulling up short of the boards, and then settled down pouring a nice warm cup of tea from my flask and tucking into some hot-cross buns my wife had kindly packed me. I noticed a light flicking outside so dropped the window to see a chap wandering around, assuming he was the blockman I called over to him to jump up in the warm cab away from the cold (Class 37’s are far from comfortable but the heaters are pretty good if they are working) as he climbed up I noticed he was wearing an old BR donkey jacket and one of the original issue BR high vis vests from the 1980’s which I thought was a little strange as no one had worn those for years and was carrying an original style bardic hand lamp.

It is also possible he was a trainspotter/enthusiast.

Or less likely, but possible, a grafitti writer.

It has not been unknown for graffiti writers to wear borrowed London Underground uniform to assist them in access to yards, though I am not sure about on Network Rail.
 
A haunted railway tunnel!
(Safe Sussex Live news site link)

Clayton Tunnel: The haunted railway tunnel near Brighton where 'screams can still be heard'

There's a detailed account of a horrific accident, then a mention of the ghosts -

After the deaths of 23 passengers, some of their bodies were brought to the nearby Hassocks Hotel, while others were taken to the portal above the northern entrance.

The tunnel, along with the portal is where most descriptions of paranormal activity took place.

Screams of agony and crunching metal have been heard in the tunnel, with numerous reports of ghostly activity in the portal.

There is even a ghost nicknamed 'Charlie', who has been reportedly sighted near the sealed off entrance by the ventilation shaft.

If the story and haunting sound familiar, that's because Charles Dickens based The Signalman on the incident.
 
It is also possible he was a trainspotter/enthusiast.

Or less likely, but possible, a grafitti writer.

It has not been unknown for graffiti writers to wear borrowed London Underground uniform to assist them in access to yards, though I am not sure about on Network Rail.
But would a graffiti artist be out in the middle of nowhere?
I would have thought they'd be more than likely to be found around depots and carriage sidings.
Would a trespasser willingly get up in to the cab for a chat therefore giving the opportunity to be identified away?
 
"I was coming down beside the line to get to Burnopfield, when I was stopped by hearing several metallic clangs, just like those a
platelayer makes when laying or repairing rails.
---
Several other people claimed to see on different occasions the twisted face, its head covered with a shock of white hair, and always the ghost's appearance on the colliery wagon-way was heralded by a number of clangs like a sledgehammer striking metal.
Oh, that is spooky. Especially because, on a colliery railway, the signalling arrangements were often very primitive. When a string of wagons was set off down an incline, the signals used to announce its departure were a ball and a 'rapper'; the ball was on a chain, and would be raised or lowered as a visual signal, and the rapper was like a hammer that struck against metal as an audible signal. This ghost story seems to include a very accurate description of a 'rapper' in use.

Here's a picture of a 'rapper' and ball in situ at Kibblesworth colliery during the 1970s.

rapper_kibbleworth.jpg
 
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.
 
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