Deltic Ghosts

Kevo00 · Post by **Kevo00** » Tue Jun 04, 2002 5:27 pm

Wasn't the class 91 involved in the Hatfield derailment the same one as was later involved in the Great Heck derailment? This was a story ran by the Daily Star, not that one should seek to make light of such tragedies.

eddief · Post by **eddief** » Tue Jun 04, 2002 5:28 pm

You seem to have most of the Stories I have Rob.

basildd · Post by **basildd** » Tue Jun 04, 2002 5:51 pm

91023 was renumbered upon rebuilding as 91132 rather than 91123 as it would have taken, having indeed been involved in both incidents. One would have thought that changing the number to 91123 would be enough, but as Rob said, it didn't work with 47299. However, I don't think putting the County of Doom name on 91132 was necessarily a good idea. (County of Doom is what railway staff have named her instead of County of Durham).

Goingnorth · Post by **Goingnorth** » Tue Jun 04, 2002 5:53 pm

Erm yeah they come out of railway ghosts and phantoms by WB Herbert. Someone bought me it years ago.

Yep the 91 in Hatfield was the same of Gt Heck and the coaches at Ladbroke grove same as at Southall. And I think the 47 at Eltham well hall was involved with something else too.

Of-course all the recent accidents involve either the GWL or ECML. Mainly at two signal boxes King's cross and Slough New.

_________________
http://www.eastcoastmainline.com

[ This Message was edited by: goingnorth on 2002-06-04 18:56 ]

Timcourt1 · Post by **Timcourt1** » Tue Jun 04, 2002 9:35 pm

Nene Valley tunnel at Wansford is allegedly haunted, as many who work on the line will tell, hadnt seen anything myself but its damn spooky in there.

The home owner on the former Stamford and essendine railway at belmesthorpe Rutland late at night years ago reported hearing al loud rumbling noise in the middle of the night on numerous occasions

The house was built on the embankment over the river Guash next to the old level crossing and station in the village.

cadet200 · Post by **cadet200** » Tue Jun 04, 2002 10:16 pm

i have an interesting story to tell. when i lived in germany i lived next to a military railway line which was used in ww2 to transport jews to belsen concentration camp which was 6 miles away. on certain nights a train can be heard approaching at around 1130 but never seen. the noise gets louder until it passes whereupon you can hear the cries and screams of dozens of doomed prisoners. as i say, this "ghost train" is heard rather than seen and is quite distressing. i heard it once when i was little but not knowing the story i thought nothing of it. when i got to around 11 years old my dad told me the story and that we had heard it when we were on the balcony.

Goingnorth · Post by **Goingnorth** » Tue Jun 04, 2002 10:40 pm

Yep, Yarwell tunnel on the Nene valley is haunted by the navvies who built the tunnel. Many met their death there. It's also haunted by a cat called snowey that met its death in there.

That thing in Germany is similar to the screams and cries of people heard every so often at St Johns Wood. Killed in the fog-bound London of the 1950s. A viaduct crushed some of the coaches of a train that overan red signals in the cutting at the junctions near Lewisham.

eddief · Post by **eddief** » Tue Jun 04, 2002 10:48 pm

1 of the worst 1's I read was a girl was killed on the railway line when going to see her lover (who was the signalman) and years later the guard of a freight train saw a girl fall on the track and when she got up she had no head (the girl who was killed has her head cut off). Not very pleasent some of these stories.

basildd · Post by **basildd** » Wed Jun 05, 2002 8:42 am

The 47 in the Eltham Well Hall derailment (D1630) survived to become 47849, which was again to continue a new life as one of the new batch of Class 57's - however, Falcon Works (Loughborough) have discovered that the damage sustained in the derailment all those years ago means it is not suitable for rebuilding and it will now be cut up.

Continuing on the Southern theme, my Grandfather was the guard of the Electric Train involved in the Lewisham distaster - well he was until just before departure - a colleague from Plumstead depot asked if he would swap over with him as he had to get finished earlier due to an important engagement. My grandfather duly obliged and the guy he changed with, kept the important engagement - with the grim reaper...

nwallace · Post by **nwallace** » Wed Jun 05, 2002 3:03 pm

are there any web sites out there on the subject currently having no luck with google

He asks as he walks into a site

http://danger-ahead.railfan.net/

[ This Message was edited by: nwallace on 2002-06-05 16:19 ]

ChrisEllis · Post by **ChrisEllis** » Thu Jun 06, 2002 3:08 pm

spooky

Electricfox · Post by **Electricfox** » Thu Jun 06, 2002 7:08 pm

I seem to recall stories of a victorian train and corpses in a semi-sealed tunnel under Crystal Palace park.
Anyone heard of that one?

spartacus · Post by **spartacus** » Thu Jun 06, 2002 7:51 pm

If you want grim sights, theres the story of a 91 driver who saw a guy trying to commit suiside infront of him. He ALMOST had enough time to stop. When he climbed down from the cab, he stepped down onto the guy's back. Head was under the first wheel. Wonder if that was County of Doom too? From what I heard the driver, unsurprisingly, never worked again.

Goingnorth · Post by **Goingnorth** » Thu Jun 06, 2002 8:14 pm

Could tell you a lot about suicides, but to be honest it would just be in bad taste.

But, the railways get a lot. A hell of a lot.

It's the most undignified end imaginable.

I think you find most trains out there have hit at least one person - it's that common.

Kids with school things like school bullies is the worst. But it's all very sad.

Yes, by all accounts a train load of corpses was found under the park near crystal palace. Some sort of weird experiment by all accounts.

_________________
http://www.eastcoastmainline.com

[ This Message was edited by: goingnorth on 2002-06-06 21:16 ]

basildd · Post by **basildd** » Thu Jun 06, 2002 10:03 pm

When I was Area Ops Supervisor at Woking back in 1989, I attended 9 suicides within 3 months, all within 3 stations of Woking. (Many in the run up to christmas). It provokes a morbid sort of curiosity but you do become detached from it - carrying body parts soon either makes you immune or you'd have to give up. It didn't help that there was a mental asylum at Brookwood nearby - one man I went to had a fish in his pocket from a failed attempt at drowning himself in the canal alongside the railway.

I was fortunate in that they were all males and none were accidents. fortunate in the sense that it is easier to deal with a malethan a female and if they were suicides, they at least found what they were looking for. I was called to attend a young girl at Walton on Thames that a down train reported as having run over. We borrowed a Class 50 and ran light engine to the site. Luckily, only her coat was on the line - the train (A 100mph Wessex Electric had passed right over her and she escaped that and electrocution. That was the only time I have ever felt really queasy at the thought of what I might find.

Perhaps the most bizarre one I was involved with was when a shunter found an arm in the points by Basingstoke West yard. I spent 3 hours with a team of people searching for the victim. It transpired that he had been hit by a cross country train north of Leamington Spa and the arm had somehow got transported by the undergear of the 47 or the train.

Where drivers are concerned, they seem to take it two ways. Some are deeply affected by it and the trauma prevents them from doing their job, while others accept it as an occupational hazard - I was in thecab of a VEP at Chertsey and had the misfortune to hit a teenager who was being pushed by his mate but lost his grip andthe poor unfortunate fell in front of us. The driver was very philospohical about it and it didn't affect him at all.

If you ask any railwayman with a little bit of service behind them, they would be able to write a book about the things they get involved with on the railway. To me, it is no surprise at all that the railway and ghostly sightings are commonly connected.

[ This Message was edited by: basildd on 2002-06-06 23:06 ]

[ This Message was edited by: basildd on 2002-06-07 15:43 ]