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This is the clearest I can get to a clear shot.
Spooky, but probably an innocent bystander.
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I agree that's a much more probable explanation, but where does he appear from and disappear to, if so? Like I said, it does give me a bit of a shiver that he doesn't leave the scene by leaving via one side or another of the frame.


yep. his movement is very unsettling. It's like he steps into view backwards side-on, faces the camera and scarpers. Like he's doing it on purpose and knows where the camera is rather than some guy in his garden hearing a noise and having a quick peak. Decided to leave a message for the guy on youtube to see if he knows anymore information as he seems to have been there at the time.
 
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Is there any chance it could be a fault on the video cassette? (I'm assuming from the opening titles that the footage was shot on video tape rather than film.) If it was some bloke running a second business/hobby, is it beyond the realm of possibility that he re-used a video cassette, and this is a trace of a previous recording?
 
I doubt it as these people tended to take their interest seriously although who knows?. I'm guessing the original mastertape is much better quality for the time and it's a shame its some 3rd generation copy from what the railwaymen saw. From memory you used to get tapes about a 3rd of the size of a normal VHS tape that fitted in the video camera, but what quality the mastertapes are i'm not sure. Probably not that great compared to a cheap phone now,
 
see my edit above. It helps if you don't concentrate really hard and not look right up close at the screen. first time i did i saw nothing.. maybe its just me but i can clearly see his ear side-on to start with, then his eyes, ears, nose and whats left of his hair round his ears etc when he looks directly at the camera EDIT - i've managed to freeze it at 15.04 and the line of the video goes directly through the top of his head (the numbers of the length of the video (51:26) are just above his eyes and nose
This was brilliant, Aspergriswoldbacon!
It took me a few times to finally see it, but once I did—ooo! fun!
 
Heh, glad you enjoyed it. Have to admit it made me jump when i first saw him. I'm so used to seeing ghost footage that's basically either some vague mist floating on screen or hollywood horror style fakes, it's nice to see one that looks like an actual person, even if it is some guy disturbed while doing the gardening
 
I have mentioned on the Police Story thread reading Credible Witness: Paranormal Police Stories by Andy Gilbert.

One of the stories involved is actually railway based. More specifically signal box based. Even more specifically, Betley Signal Box, near Crewe (don't get too excited, Escargot).

Basically, the British Transport Police control at Birmingham receive a call from ambulance control that an emergency call has been received from this box, but the call was disconnected without the caller speaking. There are another three calls from the same signal box - but a voice speaks only once, saying, 'ambulance please'.

BTP then phone the box - that call is answered, but no-one speaks. On enquiry Network Rail confirm that the number is correct but that the signal box in question has not been used for several years. BTP make a further call to the box, the call is answered - a train is heard in the background and the person on the other end identifies themselves as a signaller - but their voice is described as 'strange', and the call is disconnected before the reason for the emergency call can be ascertained.

The peelers eventually visit the site in question - but turns out that the signal box no longer exists, having been ‘demolished’.

Notes: A quick online search suggests that the signal box was not demolished, as such, but closed in 2004, dismantled and moved elsewhere. The events related above allegedly took place in April 2011.

I don’t think having a phone number still registered to an obsolete site is as anomalous as it might initially appear – not within the context of a large and complex industrial network.
An interesting tale right enough. As I'm nightshift and have a lot of time on my hands I've taken the liberty of checking back in the Network Rail Control Log for LNW Route from January to June 2011 and can't find any incidents even remotely like what's described. That means it either wasn't reported to Network Rail Control (very unlikely if BTP were involved), wasn't logged (very unlikely, an incident like that would definitely go in the log) or didn't happen as described. Redundant phone numbers do still exist on the system but usually when a signalbox is abolished and control of the signalling is transferred elsewhere the previous signalbox numbers are reused to avoid confusion for staff.

Perhaps it's worth noting at that time 999 calls made on railway ETD phones went to the Railway Switchboard (run by Thales) and the Operator would speak to the caller first before putting the call through to BT for onward connection to the emergency services. The Railway Switchboard Operator was able to identify the internal phone circuit used very precisely - they would know exactly where the phone was located. This doesn't happen any more as the Railway Switchboard was done away with around 2015 to save money. BTP and the Ambulance services always inform the various Network Rail Controls of any call out to railway premises so it should have been logged at the time. However it does have an odd ring of truth about it...
 
Been there a few times to catch trains but never noticed anything.
 
I've just joined a Facebook group called "Railway Ghost Stories" (yeah, finally dragging myself, limping, into the 21st century). It's got some great first-hand accounts on it (as well as some of the usual 'dross'), such as this:

This is fresh off the press, last week I was driving a semi-fast service from Carmarthen to Cardiff, all stops to Swansea, then Neath. Port Talbot, Bridgend and Cardiff things running late and I had caught up with the 1910 stopping service from Swansea at Port Talbot, as they stop additional at Pyle I was not rushing as running on yellow signals, (chasing the dragon in driver speak!!!), on approaching Pyle station saw young chap on platform bit close to the edge, was only doing about 25 mph as next signal was out of sight round a bend and hidden by a foot bridge, he was texting and dressed very smart in chinos, nice mustard colour jumper and ox blood DM shoes, that is how good a look I got of him also had designer beard, as he was so close to track, I tooted my horn and he just disappeared !!, just went, was so shocked foot slipped of dead man's pedal and I stopped right where he was standing , no sign of anyone it was moonlit night and Pyle very well lit with new security lighting, rather shocked got back to Cardiff as end of shift and went home, did some digging on our drivers page and had a hit when a fellow driver, told me a young man had finished texting his family goodbye and threw himself under an HST about 10 years ago and his description matched what I saw!!!...

The group seems quite interesting.

(I hope it's okay, mods, to copy/paste from another group - if not then please delete this!)
 
I've just joined a Facebook group called "Railway Ghost Stories" (yeah, finally dragging myself, limping, into the 21st century). It's got some great first-hand accounts on it (as well as some of the usual 'dross'), such as this:



The group seems quite interesting.

(I hope it's okay, mods, to copy/paste from another group - if not then please delete this!)

Looks interesting I’ve ask you join too.
 
Saw him immediately first time and he couldn't be missed. He kind of 'slided' into view like a cardboard cut out or something.

Bit late to the party here but count me in as another one who finds the chap's movement appearance/disappearance somewhat odd. When I first watched the part ofthe video in question I was half expecting a simulacra / pareidolia of some sort but it isn't a trick of the leaves, it is definitely a man. He slides in sideways, you can see his right ear and hair on that side of his head, then somehow turns to face the camera, then slides sideways back again without turning this time.

Quite odd.
 
I've just thought of a railway ghost story told to me by some friends, not very scary but probably true. This happened and was discussed with me around 1989 though so details are a bit sketchy after 30 years. We were all about 17 at the time.

My friends had been out in Reading shopping for the day and were catching the local train back to Newbury. At certain times of the day back in the 80s the train company would use slightly older train carriages for this route. These were the old fashioned carriages where you had a passageway down one side of the train with the entrance doors and compartments to sit in with a closing door.

So, my friends got on and sat in a compartment where the only other passenger was a youngish boy who was sat next to the window. They started chatting and passed away the 20 minute journey without incident. When they got up to get off they realised that the other boy had vanished! He definitely hadn't got off as he would have had to walk between them to exit the compartment, but he was nowhere to be seen and they hadn't heard or seen him move.

They were still pretty freaked out when they came to visit me in the evening. Alas, I'm not in touch with either of them now to find out more details. I wonder if that kid haunted just the train carriage or the actual route? Never heard of again.
 
The Cleveland "Death Car". A train accident killed over twenty people on the car without damaging the car itself, via boiler steam blasting in.

 
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I was looking through the "Pictures" directory on my PC (I'm supposed to be 'working from home' - but, honestly, what are the chances of that!:crazy: ) and came across some photos that I took at Shankend viaduct (and also Hermitage castle) on the two occasions that I've been there (both were mentioned upthread). I'll add one or two below:

Shankend viaduct
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The trackbed of the viaduct (don't worry - I looked both ways before taking this!)
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The house near the viaduct which I assume is where the POWs were housed, actually photographed from on top of the viaduct.
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From "Railway Ghosts and Phantoms" by W. B. Herbert:

"Apparently, during World War I the mansion and its grounds were taken over as a prison camp for German prisoners-of-war. Following an outbreak of typhoid or cholera, in which many of the prisoners died, the bodies were buried more or less where they fell".

Hermitage Castle
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Closer up
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Hermitage certainly isn't your cuddly, picturesque, fairy-tale-like castle.:) It's not surprising that is has legends and hauntings associated with it.
 
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...Hermitage certainly isn't your cuddly, picturesque, fairy-tale-like castle.:) It's not surprising that is has legends and hauntings associated with it.

Yes, really sinister atmosphere about it, that place.

I've got it in my head that it was used for one of the castle's in Polanski's Macbeth - but I can't find any record of that, and am probably misremembering. Still, would have been perfect casting.

Edit: Apparently it was used in the 1971 film, Mary Queen of Scots - maybe I'm conflating it with that.
 
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I've got it in my head that it was used for one of the castle's in Polanski's Macbeth

It certainly may have been, as Polanski's Macbeth was filmed in the north-east of England - so not a million miles away. I remember that my geography teacher at school used to say that he was a extra in it.

Lindisfarne castle was definitely used in the film:

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