Ghost Trains & Haunted Railways | Moonville Tunnel, Silverpilen, and the Phantom Lines of History: Part 1

0:00 Speaker 1: Hello, dear listeners, and welcome aboard Spooky October. Please mind

0:04 Speaker 1: the gap between this world and the next. I'm your host, Amy,

0:08 Speaker 1: and tonight we're hopping on a train that doesn't believe

0:11 Speaker 1: in arrival times or mortal limits. We're talking haunted railways,

0:15 Speaker 1: locomotives that keep rolling long after their engineers have clocked out. Permanently.

0:21 Speaker 1: Grab your lanterns, your courage, and possibly some sage, because

0:24 Speaker 1: this episode is going off the rails.

0:27 Speaker 2: The Silver Train of Stockholm, Sweden.

0:30 Speaker 1: Stockholm's metro system, known for its art covered tunnels and

0:34 Speaker 1: spotless design, hides a darker story. Late night commuters in

0:39 Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies began reporting a mysterious train unlike any other,

0:43 Speaker 1: metallic silent, unnumbered and completely unstaffed. It gleamed silver instead

0:50 Speaker 1: of the usual green or red, and its lights flickered

0:53 Speaker 1: with a strange hum. Witnesses called it Silver Peelean, the

0:57 Speaker 1: silver Arrow. Some said it stopped for no Others swore

1:01 Speaker 1: they saw passengers inside, pale faced, unmoving, as though they'd

1:05 Speaker 1: been writing for decades. The legend grew from truth. Stockholm

1:10 Speaker 1: did have a few unpainted aluminum prototype trains in the

1:13 Speaker 1: nineteen sixties. One of them, Train C five number one

1:18 Speaker 1: three zero zero, was occasionally used for testing. Because it

1:22 Speaker 1: lacked normal markings and interior ads, it gave off an eerie,

1:26 Speaker 1: sterile vibe. Over time, tales of a ghost metro spread,

1:32 Speaker 1: and one urban myth claimed it carried lost souls to Kimling,

1:36 Speaker 1: a station, an abandoned, unfinished stop where only the dead

1:40 Speaker 1: get off. Sweden is known for punctuality and minimalism, but

1:45 Speaker 1: apparently not ghost control. A Stockholm transit worker once told

1:49 Speaker 1: Doggin's Nihater newspaper he entered an empty silver Peelan train

1:54 Speaker 1: parked for maintenance, only to hear faint, murmuring voices in

1:58 Speaker 1: the cars, though the doors were locked and power was off.

2:02 Speaker 1: He left immediately, and so would I.

2:05 Speaker 3: This haunting ride is brought to you by Phantom Pass.

2:09 Speaker 3: Tap once for the afterlife, tap twice if you regret.

2:12 Speaker 3: It works in all Underworld stations except Kimling.

2:16 Speaker 2: Moonville Tunnel, Ohio, USA.

2:20 Speaker 1: Tucked deep in the Zeleski State Forest, lies the Moonville Tunnel,

2:23 Speaker 1: one of Ohio's eeriest relics of the nineteenth century railboom.

2:28 Speaker 1: The town of Moonville, once a mining community, disappeared in

2:32 Speaker 1: the early nineteen hundreds, leaving behind little more than gravestones,

2:37 Speaker 1: and this two hundred and fifty foot stone tunnel carved

2:40 Speaker 1: through the Appalachian Hills. In eighteen eighty, a brakeman was

2:45 Speaker 1: killed while walking the line through the tunnel, struck by

2:48 Speaker 1: an oncoming train as he tried to signal another. Ever since,

2:52 Speaker 1: hikers and ghost hunters have reported a lantern wielding figure

2:56 Speaker 1: who appears in the dark, waving frantically before vanishing into things.

3:01 Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty nine, a local resident named Mary Fouch

3:05 Speaker 1: reported seeing a man holding a dim lantern in the tunnel.

3:09 Speaker 1: He was there for a second, she said, then gone,

3:13 Speaker 1: I ran so fast, I probably broke a track record.

3:16 Speaker 1: Others have photographed strange mists and lights inside with no

3:20 Speaker 1: logical explanation. Paranormal groups like Haunted Ohio have recorded electronic

3:26 Speaker 1: voice phenomena EVPs near the tunnel, one of which allegedly

3:30 Speaker 1: whispered watched for the train. I'd argue that's excellent advice,

3:34 Speaker 1: Ghost or.

3:35 Speaker 3: Not sponsored by Brakeman's Blend coffee, The only bruce strong

3:39 Speaker 3: enough to keep you awake through the graveyard shift or

3:43 Speaker 3: the graveyard.

3:44 Speaker 2: The L and N Ghost Train Kentucky, USA.

3:49 Speaker 1: The Louisville and Nashville Railroad was one of the South's

3:52 Speaker 1: most vital lines, but it's also the source of one

3:55 Speaker 1: of America's most chilling phantom train tales. Locals in ether

3:59 Speaker 1: Kentucky claim a full locomotive glowing faintly white thunders passed

4:04 Speaker 1: at midnight. The first report dates back to the nineteen twenties,

4:09 Speaker 1: when residents heard a train barreling down the tracks on

4:12 Speaker 1: a line that had been dismantled years before. In nineteen

4:16 Speaker 1: thirty two, a newspaper in Bowling Green reported that multiple witnesses,

4:22 Speaker 1: including a sheriff's deputy, saw a lighted engine pass through

4:26 Speaker 1: town without a sound. No steam, no smoke, no crew,

4:31 Speaker 1: the article read, and it vanished before our eyes. Some

4:35 Speaker 1: historians believe the haunting traces back to a fatal derailment

4:38 Speaker 1: in nineteen oh five near the same stretch of track,

4:41 Speaker 1: where an engineer named William H. Floyd was killed instantly

4:45 Speaker 1: when his engine overturned. Locals say his spirit still drives

4:49 Speaker 1: the route he never finished. Now that's workplace dedication. He's

4:53 Speaker 1: been on call for over a century.

4:56 Speaker 3: Tonight's spectral segment is sponsored by Ghost Line insurance. Accidents

5:01 Speaker 3: happen even after death. Protect your phantom fleet with us today.

5:06 Speaker 2: The Gunkodor station, West Bengal, India.

5:10 Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty seven, a railway worker at Begunkodor station

5:14 Speaker 1: in Perulia District reported seeing a woman in a white

5:18 Speaker 1: sari near the tracks. Days later, the station master and

5:22 Speaker 1: his family were found dead in their quarters. The cause

5:26 Speaker 1: officially a heart attack, but villagers claimed it was fright.

5:31 Speaker 1: Terrified railway staff abandoned the station, refusing to work night shifts.

5:36 Speaker 1: Trains were rerouted. For forty two years, Bagunkodor became India's

5:41 Speaker 1: most infamous ghost station. In two thousand and nine, the

5:46 Speaker 1: station reopened after local politician Mamata Banerjee challenged the superstition.

5:51 Speaker 1: A reporter from the Telegraph India rode the night train

5:54 Speaker 1: and found the place silent and overgrown. Locals told him

5:58 Speaker 1: they still heard a woman's voice called from the platform.

6:01 Speaker 1: We don't go there after dark, said one porter. She

6:04 Speaker 1: asks for a ticket, No one dares to give it.

6:08 Speaker 1: If a ghost wants to buy a ticket, I say

6:10 Speaker 1: sell it. That's good revenue.

6:13 Speaker 3: Begunkador's spooky tale is sponsored by Spectral Sorry dry cleaners.

6:18 Speaker 3: When you've been haunting since the nineteen sixties. A little

6:22 Speaker 3: starch goes a long way.

6:24 Speaker 2: The Gurden Light, Arkansas, USA.

6:28 Speaker 1: Near the small town of Gurdon, a mysterious blue, white

6:31 Speaker 1: light floats above the old railroad bed. The legend dates

6:35 Speaker 1: back to the nineteen thirties, when a railroad worker named

6:38 Speaker 1: Will McLain was allegedly murdered by a co worker during

6:41 Speaker 1: an argument over a lantern. Locals say his restless spirit

6:45 Speaker 1: still searches for his missing head, carrying his spectral light.

6:50 Speaker 1: The NBC show Unsolved Mysteries filmed the phenomenon in nineteen

6:55 Speaker 1: ninety four. Crews saw the light appear and hover eight

6:58 Speaker 1: to ten feet above the track. Scientists suggested pizzo electric

7:03 Speaker 1: effects from quartz crystals, but couldn't reproduce the light elsewhere.

7:08 Speaker 1: Dozens of witnesses over decades describe it the same way, flickering, color, shifting,

7:13 Speaker 1: and moving with intelligence. I'm not saying it's a ghost,

7:17 Speaker 1: but it's definitely not swamp gas doing choreography.

7:21 Speaker 3: Brought to you by railbright the only flashlight with a

7:23 Speaker 3: ghost repellent guarantee. Because when you're alone in the Arkansas woods,

7:27 Speaker 3: you don't want your batteries or your bravery dying.

7:31 Speaker 2: The phantom funeral train of Abraham Lincoln.

7:35 Speaker 1: When President Abraham Lincoln's body was carried from Washington, d c.

7:39 Speaker 1: To his hometown in Springfield, Illinois, in April eighteen sixty five,

7:44 Speaker 1: thousands lined the rails in mourning, but witnesses since then

7:48 Speaker 1: claimed the train still runs its route each April, right

7:52 Speaker 1: on time. Called the Lincoln Ghost Train, it's said to

7:57 Speaker 1: glide through Albany, Buffalo, and Springfield on moonlit nights. The

8:02 Speaker 1: engine is jet black, draped in crape and flowers, with

8:05 Speaker 1: an honor guard of spectral soldiers saluting silently. A nineteen

8:10 Speaker 1: twenties New York rail worker named Frank Geiger swore he

8:13 Speaker 1: saw it. It made no noise, but the air grew

8:17 Speaker 1: cold as it passed. The lights of my lantern went out.

8:21 Speaker 1: When I ReLit it, the tracks were frozen with frost.

8:24 Speaker 1: Newspapers in the late eighteen hundreds also recorded similar reports

8:28 Speaker 1: from night watchmen in upstate New York. Even in death,

8:32 Speaker 1: Honest Day runs on time. Imagine haunting Amtrak today. The

8:37 Speaker 1: delays alone would kill him all over again.

8:40 Speaker 3: This segment is sponsored by honest Abe's After Life travel agency,

8:44 Speaker 3: where every route is direct, dignified and slightly depressing.

8:49 Speaker 2: Blackpool's Cloggy Ghost Train, England.

8:53 Speaker 1: At Blackpool Pleasure Beach. The ghost Train ride opened in

8:57 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty, the world's first to use that name, but

9:00 Speaker 1: in the nineteen forties a worker nicknamed Cloggy maintained the

9:04 Speaker 1: ride until his death. Ever since, employees swear the attractions

9:09 Speaker 1: truly haunted. They hear his distinctive wooden clogs echoing down

9:13 Speaker 1: empty corridors, tools move on their own, lights flicker right

9:18 Speaker 1: before breakdowns. A security guard in the nineteen nineties told

9:22 Speaker 1: Lancashire Live that he locked up the ride one night,

9:25 Speaker 1: only to hear laughter inside when he opened the doors.

9:29 Speaker 1: No one there, but the ride had powered itself on.

9:33 Speaker 1: Investigators with Most Haunted filmed there in two thousand and

9:36 Speaker 1: four and claimed to record footsteps and a voice saying

9:40 Speaker 1: still working. So to be clear, it's a haunted ride,

9:44 Speaker 1: haunted by its haunted maintenance man. That's basically the British

9:48 Speaker 1: version of overtime.

9:51 Speaker 3: This ghastly segment brought to you by Cloggy's industrial footwear

9:55 Speaker 3: for ghosts who refused to rest and mortals who just

9:58 Speaker 3: loved the sound of a good creek.

10:00 Speaker 1: So, dear passengers, we've reached our final stop, from Sweden's

10:05 Speaker 1: Ghost Metro to Kentucky's Phantom Freight. One thing's clear when

10:10 Speaker 1: it comes to trains. The schedule may end, but the

10:13 Speaker 1: stories keep rolling until next time. Keep your lanterns lit,

10:18 Speaker 1: your tickets handy, and remember, if you hear a train

10:21 Speaker 1: coming down an abandoned line, don't wait to wave run.

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