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Here's a link to a discussion on a rail forum about hauntings on the railways.

http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=27768

It very quickly descends into a squabble about the existence (or otherwise) of ghosts (which is in itself quite enjoyable) and whether it's suitable for the forum to hold a thread about ghosts (which of course 'don't actually exist'), along with some pearl-clutching 'think of the children' posts (because any reading these accounts might be traumatised by them), but if you can ignore all these, there are some interesting first-hand accounts included.

Edited: for spelling
 
Regardless of what exists or doesn't, the subjective experience of perceiving and believing in weird things which people call ghosts -- or other weirdnesses such as "rational" economic theories -- does seem to exist. First hand accounts are always fascinating to read, but sometimes also frustrating to me since not everyone cultivates the self-awareness to observe how they themselves may be constructing their subjective experience to match their unconscious expectations. (I'm thinking of several books I've read recently, not the thread mentioned above -- I haven't read that yet!)

It's a pleasure to read the posts on this site for that reason, people are exploring as many possibilities and underlying causes as they can, not just assuming that their perception is concrete proof of what they already believe in. Not only that, but it's refreshing how courteous and good humored most of the people are on this site.
 
Wow -- the site seems primed to give people goosebumps before they even read anything. Here's the warning from the top of the page :
Warning !!!.jpg


Thanks for sharing this, Calgacus!
 
Could've sworn we had a longer thread about railway ghosts. Perhaps it's been exorcised! ;)

Anyway, I was asked on it which Virgin set is supposed to be haunted, and today I learned that it's Set 12.
 
I came across this story on a railway enthusiast board that I belong to a couple of nights ago.

Most of the British members of this board will recall the Great Heck crash about three years ago. For those who don't, basically a car driver crashed onto the main East Coast railway line, causing a collision between a goods train and a passenger train. Several people died as a result, including the driver of the goods train. The goods train locomotive was so badly damaged that it was broken up and a replacement locomotive ordered.

Anyway, the upshot of the story is that the company concerned, GB Railfreight, named another of their locomotives after the driver who was so tragically killed.

One of the members of the board I referred to is a driver at the depot (FB, Ferrybridge?, I'm not up on the new codes) at which the dead driver worked, and he happened to mention that he, and the other drivers, have experienced some odd occurences on the locomotive which was named after the deceased driver. Things such as brakes coming on for no good reason, and the engine revving way over what it should do. Apparently it got to a point where the company concerned offered to have the loco blessed by a priest. I find it interesting that these things began to be reported after the locomotive was named in honour of the deceased driver.

As a railway enthusiast of about 35 years standing, I do know of other stories concerning 'bad luck' or 'jinxed' locomotives, and I just wondered if anyone else (principally jima or Escargot, as they both appear to be rail enthusiasts) had heard anything about this or any other case.
My wife is from Ebbw Vale and she is familiar with this story.
 
Not directly related to railway but rather a station - King's Cross Station in London.

It's regarding the story of a apparition of a young woman that's been only witnessed once. Theories include the woman in question being one of the victims of the King's Cross Fire in 1987.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King's_Cross_fire

It would be great if an identity could be worked out but I'm unaware of a biography info list being available as such.
 
Just reread Ronnor's floating phone story from page one.

Wow, bet you have to take a really deep breath when you enter a lonely signal box for a night shift after something like that has happened to you!

It's interesting that we rarely get that sort of caliber of IHTM these days if you look back, or were here in the first 5 years of this place there were loads.

I'm wondering if there is a lessening in High Strangeness these days?
 
It's interesting that we rarely get that sort of caliber of IHTM these days if you look back, or were here in the first 5 years of this place there were loads.

I'm wondering if there is a lessening in High Strangeness these days?

Our old friend Beakboo (Latex Realbird) mentioned some time ago that the old lot on here'd told their stories. I'm inclined to agree. Fresh blood is needed. There's plenty of weirdness out there!
 
It's interesting that we rarely get that sort of caliber of IHTM these days if you look back, or were here in the first 5 years of this place there were loads.

I'm wondering if there is a lessening in High Strangeness these days?

I don't think there is any lessening of High Strangeness , if anything the world gets stranger every day. But perhaps so strange that strangeness becomes commonplace and no longer remarked on by the majority.
 
I don't think there is any lessening of High Strangeness , if anything the world gets stranger every day. But perhaps so strange that strangeness becomes commonplace and no longer remarked on by the majority.
Those Reddit threads listed elsewhere on the forum indicates it's still enough strangeness out there. The problem is people use other sites than FT to report them.
 
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I think many see things and don't recognise them as unusual,
and others do recognise them as odd but just don't think they
are worth mentioning, A signal box at night can be a frightening place,
a friend used to work in one reputed to be haunted but he never saw
a thing in 2 years though other signal men supposedly asked to be moved
to other boxes.
Must watch "The signalman" again.

 
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There's a famous 'Railway Ghosts' book which describes a signalbox haunting. The ghost was a regular signalman called Aubrey who carried on turning up for work in his distinctive scooter helmet for some time after he died.

We cycled past a few signal boxes today. In one there was a bloke swigging water from a bottle. Not a top hat in sight!


Must watch "The signalman" again.

I saw the 1976 one on its first airing. That important gesture, with one arm waving and the other covering the face because he knew how bad it was going to be... masterly. 'For God's sake clear the way!'
When I first read the story I put the book down and tried do it. Got it spot-on.
 
Hi All,

This link provides a (short) list of supposedly 'jinxed' locomotives:

Here

Most of them are pretty tenuous; but the Great Heck loco “Driver Steve Dunn (George)” (see Cavynaut's post above), 40126* (Great Train Robbery loco), and the jinxed class 47 (47299) are all mentioned.

To the above three I would add 37069 (I see, also one that Cavynaut has previously mentioned) that was supposedly jinxed after a driver was killed by a block of concrete that was dropped from a bridge.

* as well as being involved in the Great Train Robbery, it also was involved in a crash following a brake failure in Birmingham and a secondman was electrocuted when he climbed on the roof of it and he came in contact with overhead lines.

Edited (very much late) because I couldn't believe that I wrote 'break' instead of 'brake'!:comphit:
 
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Yesterday I was told a yarn about a railway depot near Hereford where goods used to be delivered by horses and carts. Apparently the long-dead animals still sometimes arrive via a particular yard gate!

I was on my way out of the office at the time and was so intrigued that I forgot my kit bag and my manager had to run out after me with it! It was his own fault for telling me ghost stories. He knows I love them.

Today I'll pop back and beat more details out of him.
 
The yard and shed at Haworth are reputedly hunted by a bloke that
got crushed by a wagon, he did not work for the railway but had a habit
of trying to direct operations they tried to get him to stop but the in
the end it cost him his life, Bankcroft Binns rings a bell but could be wrong.
 
Bit over the top, but if that works, I guess it's OK. :wink2: Could just ask though...

Manager successfully cornered and interrogated!

Here's the story - it's not exactly as I remembered it! -

The car park at Hemel Hempstead station (he thinks it's that one) used to be part of the old main road, where the stagecoaches went to and from London. Now and then, one of the stagecoaches with the horses pulling it is seen charging through.

The person who told my manager saw one while being driven there in a taxi and gaped in astonishment. The taxi driver said 'Oh, did you see the coach? We're always seeing it!'
 
Good luck! I have the W. B. Herbert book that has the two tales in it and they've always seemed to me to be among the more 'investigatable' stories.

Some of the other stories in the book are literally just tales with a minimum of checkable facts.
 
I have to visit Shankend this year it has a bit of a reputation
for ghostly happenings and has been mentioned in a few books
often to do with Railway ghosts, the link leads to a railway
site were they are discussing it, the visit is on another matter
but will keep eyes and ears open.
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/42262-shankend-legend/

Interesting link. Did you get to Shankend this year, and if so; what did you think?

I visited a year or two ago (it being in my neck of the woods) and combined it with a visit to Whitrope Tunnel (now closed off because of a partial roof collapse), and Hermitage Castle (a place with an uncanny and supernatural reputation of it's own).

I didn't experience anything out of the ordinary at Whitrope, but it really is remarkable how this relict of Victorian industry just seems to appear out of nowhere in the middle of the relatively unspoilt moors, and standing on top of it and considering how top or the line steam and diesel-electric locomotives used to roar over it all those years ago is mind-boggling.

BTW: I tried to locate the AA book that one of the posters in the thread you linked to mentioned; but couldn't identify it. One for me to watch out for in future: "Tales of Britain's Railways." (AA) by Julian Holland,
 
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