Ghost Train
An Alberta Ghost Story
retold by
S. E. Schlosser
I was a railway fireman back in those days, working on the CPR line in Alberta. I did a hard day's work and earned me a fair wage. I was young then, and my pretty little bride was just setting up housekeeping in the little cottage that was all we could afford. Life was good, and I thought everything would continue rolling along that way.
Then came that fateful day in May of 1908. I was working nights that month, and my buddy Twohey was the engineer. We were about three kilometers out of Medicine Hat when a blazing light appeared in front of the engine. It was another train on a collision course with us. Twohey yelled at me to jump, but there was no time. The light was right on top of us. I thought we were dead. Then the oncoming train veered off to the right and ran passed us, its whistle blowing and the passengers staring at us through the windows. But there was only a single track in that stretch of hills, and it was the one we were on. I looked over at the shrieking, rumbling Ghost Train and saw that the wheels were not touching the ground!
Well, we were mighty spooked by the incident. Twohey decided to take some time off from engineering and began working in the yard; but I kept working the night shift as a fireman, not wanting some Ghost Train to drive me away a job I enjoyed.
A few weeks later, I was stoking the fire for an engineer named Nicholson when we heard the shrill whistle blast through the calm night air. We were on the same single track just outside of Medicine Hat, and the brilliant light of the Ghost Train burst out of nowhere, blinding us. Nicholson gave a shout of terror and I thought my heart would stop. As before, the Ghost Train veered off to the right at the last possible second. I saw it race passed us on tracks that did not exist, its passengers staring curiously at Nicholson and I from out of the windows.
That did it. I wasn't about to go back on the tracks after that. I did yard work for the rest of the month of May and a few weeks in June. Finally, I decided that enough was enough, and I gritted my teeth and resumed my role as fireman.
I was firing up an engine in the yard one evening in early July when the report of an accident came in. The Spokane Flyer and a Lethbridge passenger train had a head-on collision on the single track three kilometers outside of Medicine Hat, on the exact spot where the Ghost Train had appeared. The Lethbridge locomotive had derailed and its baggage car was destroyed. Seven people were killed in the accident, including the two engineers. One was my buddy Twohey, and the other was Nicholson.
You can read more Canadian folktales and ghost stories in Spooky Canada by S.E. Schlosser.
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Comments
it is not a true story according to me
Posted by: talha | July 31, 2010 03:31 AM
its good;
Posted by: pranesh | August 6, 2010 12:40 PM
Very Freaky!!
Posted by: sydney | September 2, 2010 10:49 AM
alright
Posted by: me | September 7, 2010 05:55 PM
its great
Posted by: kia | September 16, 2010 05:35 PM
what the? so all this time they were dead?
Posted by: werewolfgal | September 26, 2010 04:06 PM
wicked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Anonymous | September 29, 2010 10:55 AM
very scary and freaks me out
Posted by: Anonymous | October 14, 2010 05:55 PM
Nice,nice.. ^_^
Posted by: dolphinhui | October 15, 2010 01:44 AM
its great
Posted by: Andrew | October 25, 2010 09:03 PM
Very nice psychological trick to fade the truth that actually those two engineers were ghosts all along
Ver very nice...I like that
Posted by: samuel | October 27, 2010 06:41 PM
never knew they were ghosts all the time
Posted by: Anonymous | November 2, 2010 11:33 AM
...i dont understand
Posted by: Holly | November 6, 2010 10:30 AM
wow that was freaky and awesome
Posted by: Rickella | November 11, 2010 01:20 PM
They were ghosts the whole time? I must be brain dead.
Posted by: Anonymous | November 27, 2010 05:44 PM
it was a good story
Posted by: dyylan | December 7, 2010 07:17 AM
All I can think about when I read this was that song Ghost Train, by the Gorillaz
XD
Posted by: Jess | December 13, 2010 08:28 AM
That was creepy!
Posted by: Anonymous | January 21, 2011 11:49 AM
That was creepy!
Posted by: Anonymous | January 21, 2011 11:50 AM
omg wow if it is a true story im sorry but thats a good story imma tell it to my friends
Posted by: raindrop | January 22, 2011 04:11 PM
It's like the train is giving the man a warning
Posted by: dream | January 30, 2011 08:08 PM
I don't think they were dead it was a story of things that were gonna happen remember in the end his friends were working and were killed while on the job after his encounter with the ghost train
Posted by: Jan | February 5, 2011 06:56 PM
no. they're not ghosts. the accident happened in a July. the apparition of the ghost train happened in May and in June... right?
Posted by: joem nubla | February 9, 2011 05:02 AM
The engineers were not dead the first time they saw the ghost train. It was a premonition of what was to come. The author just happened to ride with the two ill-fated engineers on those two nights.
Posted by: Minerva | February 17, 2011 04:56 PM
That was creepy, I didn't know they were ghost. i thought it actually happened.
Posted by: Rachel | March 2, 2011 06:17 PM
weird but good story
Posted by: bowen | March 9, 2011 12:38 PM
woa,that is scary and i mean scary
Posted by: charlotte | March 13, 2011 12:05 PM
Where is this i want to see if this is real. . . but i think this is fake.
Posted by: A nobody | March 20, 2011 08:17 PM
its a good ghost story
Posted by: Anonymous | March 22, 2011 06:32 PM
nice
Posted by: Anonymous | May 17, 2011 09:59 AM
Good story, Crazy how the train showed before his fellow engineers died..Maybe a Death Omen and he was just there to see it happen to them..?
Posted by: PheeGo | June 4, 2011 03:38 AM
Wow that waz cool
Posted by: kiki | June 5, 2011 01:53 PM
yo, that did not make sense to me, but it was weeeiiirrrddd!!!!
Posted by: Anonymous | July 8, 2011 10:37 AM
"I see dead people"....now that was a GOOD movie.
Posted by: Rooney | July 24, 2011 08:46 PM