What do you think?
Rate this book
Railway Ghosts and Phantoms
With over 90 ghost stories from railways throughout Britain and the Isle of Man, this collection of railway ghost stories also has extracts from two other books. From the Elephant & Castle to Furness, Tulse Hill Station to Grimsby, this book recounts apparitions and mysteries on the railways.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1989
3 people are currently reading
11 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 31, 2024
Railway Ghosts & Phantoms
This is a book containing 100 short chapters of allegedly ‘true’ experiences of supernatural phenomena on or around the UK’s railway network and the London Underground. Time wise, they range from the late 19th century up into the 1980’s and are presented in such a way as to allow the reader to make up their own mind.
But who has not stood alone, on a lonely platform, late at night and felt a strong sense of unease and dread as the tracks begin to hum and a distant light begins to draw nearer. I was reminded of the classic ‘Sapphire & Steele’ episode in which a First World War soldier waits at a deserted railway station in some of the chapters.
Isolated rural signal boxes feature heavily along with jinxed locomotives and level crossings with tragic histories. I can just about remember steam trains and Dr Beeching’s over enthusiastic cuts which closed many stations. In one chapter, after their car breaks down, a family take refuge in a derelict country railway station to discover that a former member of railway staff was still on duty despite being dead.
Manned signal boxes have been replaced by centralised automation and so a lone signalman is a thing of the past. There are several chapters devoted to the experiences of these men who were not always alone as they sometimes had a spectral companion or visitor. Who do the ghosts haunt now? Empty, often vandalised, redundant signal boxes can still be seen from the train as it races past them.
I have seen glimpses of the abandoned and very overgrown Highgate High Level station – it’s just visible through the trees and bushes surrounding it and even from a distance it felt eerie. I had the same feeling about the tunnel at Crystal Place High Level station.
Some locomotives don’t seem to realise that they are no longer operational of that the tracks on which they appear to run on don’t exist. At Shankend, a phantom train with no passengers was apparently seen in full flight and several cases appear in the book of locomotives being seen even as they were being cut up for scrap.
There is also the still unsolved case of the unknown children involved in the Charfield accident which is recounted and, sadly after all these years, it seems unlikely to ever be solved. It seems strange that no one ever came forward to claim the bodies and there must have been someone waiting for them at the other end of their journey. There is also the case of the old skull that thwarted the building of a proposed new railway line and the question is posed about where did all the steam locomotives go?
The writing conjures up the rural isolation of signal boxes and station so evocatively in one passage near the end:
‘Due to the installation of automatic barriers in 1966 the crossing became unmanned. Gone was the gateman of the little old cabin; gone too were the unexplained sounds of the phantom footsteps for there were no gatemen to feel the hair rise of the back of the neck as the measured tread approached the cabin. But people remember the lonely crossing keeper crouched in the little cabin waiting for the sound of the indicators to warn him of an approaching train, and they remember the dreaded sound of the wind across the winter landscape.’
This is a book containing 100 short chapters of allegedly ‘true’ experiences of supernatural phenomena on or around the UK’s railway network and the London Underground. Time wise, they range from the late 19th century up into the 1980’s and are presented in such a way as to allow the reader to make up their own mind.
But who has not stood alone, on a lonely platform, late at night and felt a strong sense of unease and dread as the tracks begin to hum and a distant light begins to draw nearer. I was reminded of the classic ‘Sapphire & Steele’ episode in which a First World War soldier waits at a deserted railway station in some of the chapters.
Isolated rural signal boxes feature heavily along with jinxed locomotives and level crossings with tragic histories. I can just about remember steam trains and Dr Beeching’s over enthusiastic cuts which closed many stations. In one chapter, after their car breaks down, a family take refuge in a derelict country railway station to discover that a former member of railway staff was still on duty despite being dead.
Manned signal boxes have been replaced by centralised automation and so a lone signalman is a thing of the past. There are several chapters devoted to the experiences of these men who were not always alone as they sometimes had a spectral companion or visitor. Who do the ghosts haunt now? Empty, often vandalised, redundant signal boxes can still be seen from the train as it races past them.
I have seen glimpses of the abandoned and very overgrown Highgate High Level station – it’s just visible through the trees and bushes surrounding it and even from a distance it felt eerie. I had the same feeling about the tunnel at Crystal Place High Level station.
Some locomotives don’t seem to realise that they are no longer operational of that the tracks on which they appear to run on don’t exist. At Shankend, a phantom train with no passengers was apparently seen in full flight and several cases appear in the book of locomotives being seen even as they were being cut up for scrap.
There is also the still unsolved case of the unknown children involved in the Charfield accident which is recounted and, sadly after all these years, it seems unlikely to ever be solved. It seems strange that no one ever came forward to claim the bodies and there must have been someone waiting for them at the other end of their journey. There is also the case of the old skull that thwarted the building of a proposed new railway line and the question is posed about where did all the steam locomotives go?
The writing conjures up the rural isolation of signal boxes and station so evocatively in one passage near the end:
‘Due to the installation of automatic barriers in 1966 the crossing became unmanned. Gone was the gateman of the little old cabin; gone too were the unexplained sounds of the phantom footsteps for there were no gatemen to feel the hair rise of the back of the neck as the measured tread approached the cabin. But people remember the lonely crossing keeper crouched in the little cabin waiting for the sound of the indicators to warn him of an approaching train, and they remember the dreaded sound of the wind across the winter landscape.’
December 1, 2021
The Railways were once the primary mode of travel and were at the very heart of communities, so it's perhaps not surprising that ghosts can often be associated with them.
This book contains 100 stories and legends of ghosts and other supernatural occurrences, some I've already heard in a book I read earlier in the year (they both were compiled from the same sources presumably?).
The phenomena vary from human & animal spirits, strange mists & sounds to actual ghost trains...
Now, the latter has always surprised me, but there's enough alleged to have occurred in this book, with plenty of witnesses seeing & hearing them - including the author and one other, who experienced animals around them reacting to the sound of an approaching ghost train, that it makes it seem very plausible.
I found the Isle of Man's ghost train incident very intriguing, as I can't really recall any major accidents and most of the IOM steam fleet survives in one way or another.
And whilst not sounding all that paranormal, I also enjoyed reading about the legend of steam locomotives in strategic reserve, seems very plausible to me.
Very enjoyable read, the only thing that slightly annoyed me was some typing errors that made some words have capital letters in between letters. A nice touch to have Isle of Man's Beyer-Peacock N°5 Mona on the cover, as she by all appearances could be called ghostly by how she looks currently.
This book contains 100 stories and legends of ghosts and other supernatural occurrences, some I've already heard in a book I read earlier in the year (they both were compiled from the same sources presumably?).
The phenomena vary from human & animal spirits, strange mists & sounds to actual ghost trains...
Now, the latter has always surprised me, but there's enough alleged to have occurred in this book, with plenty of witnesses seeing & hearing them - including the author and one other, who experienced animals around them reacting to the sound of an approaching ghost train, that it makes it seem very plausible.
I found the Isle of Man's ghost train incident very intriguing, as I can't really recall any major accidents and most of the IOM steam fleet survives in one way or another.
And whilst not sounding all that paranormal, I also enjoyed reading about the legend of steam locomotives in strategic reserve, seems very plausible to me.
Very enjoyable read, the only thing that slightly annoyed me was some typing errors that made some words have capital letters in between letters. A nice touch to have Isle of Man's Beyer-Peacock N°5 Mona on the cover, as she by all appearances could be called ghostly by how she looks currently.
May 13, 2025
An enjoyable book of supernatural sightings associated with the railway in the UK. We have faces appearing at railway compartment windows, phantom trains travelling on non-existent tracks and victims re-visiting the site of accidents.
Too often the author is vague about the times in which sightings were first experienced. I am aware that this adds to the atmosphere in which such tales are couched, but saying something happened 'some years ago' isn't really on.
A major drawback is the lack of an index to places. A glossary of railway terminology would also be helpful.
Good as it goes, but it could have been so much better.
Too often the author is vague about the times in which sightings were first experienced. I am aware that this adds to the atmosphere in which such tales are couched, but saying something happened 'some years ago' isn't really on.
A major drawback is the lack of an index to places. A glossary of railway terminology would also be helpful.
Good as it goes, but it could have been so much better.
May 27, 2015
A good selection of stories.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews