A 29-year-old man was killed by a Norfolk Southern train near Statesville, North Carolina, while he was trying to catch a glimpse of a famous “ghost train” which supposedly runs through there every August 27. He was one of about a dozen people on hand at 3am, hoping to see or hear something paranormal.

On August 27, 1891, a passenger train fell from the Bostian Bridge near Statesville, about 40 miles north of Charlotte, killing about thirty people. Legend has it, on the wreck’s anniversary you can hear the screech of the wheels and the screams of the doomed passengers, and you might even see a ghostly figure in a railroad uniform holding a gold watch. The location has become a small destination for ghost hunters on each anniversary of the crash; in 1991, on the 100th anniversary of the crash, over 150 people showed up.

Unfortunately, this year, a Norfolk Southern train with three engines and one car came towards them on the track. Standing on a bridge, the watchers had no choice but to try to run the 150 feet to the other side of the bridge. All but two of them made it: one was Christopher Kaiser, who was killed when he was struck by the train and knocked off the bridge, and the other was his girlfriend, whose life he apparently saved by pushing her off the bridge just before impact. She fell about 35 feet but survived.

The most vivid account of a ghost came from the first anniversary of the crash, when a group of people nearby heard a train crash. Fearing there had been another catastrophe, they rushed to the bridge, where they met a man in a railroad uniform with a gold watch, who asked them for the time. They went past him and, finding no wreck, went back to him, whereupon he tipped his hat and vanished into thin air. The story goes that his new watch, a gift for his 30 years of service and pending retirement, was showing the wrong time just before the crash, and he had asked a passenger for the correct time just before the train derailed on the bridge.

If you are interested in learning more information about the ghost train, please visit www.creepync.com

On June 25th, I visited Strasburg Railroad in Pennsylvania to see the progress on the restoration. I only live about 30 miles away from the railroad in Lancaster County, PA.

They offer shop tours everyday at noon. The tender shell is sitting outside the shop on cribbing and has not been worked on as yet. The boiler is inside and is totally stripped ready for repair and reassembly. The frame is next to the boiler and is being prepared to have two new sections welded in. The left side is getting about a 6’ section and the right side is getting about a 10’ section. The frame is braced so everything stays square when the new sections are installed. One of the photos shows the frame with the bad sections cut out and the new sections on the floor next to it. The drivers have been worked on and I was informed that they are all reusable, They just need new tires.

The guide (who is doing a lot of the work himself) said that it is going to be 12 to 18 months until it is completed. Below are photos of the progress.