Haunted Railways of the World | Japan’s Shinagawa Specter Line, Ireland’s Banshee Train & Beyond: Part 2

0:00 Speaker 1: Welcome back, my fearless passengers of the Paranormal. It's spooky

0:04 Speaker 1: October and in our last episode we survived Sweden's Ghost Metro,

0:08 Speaker 1: Ohio's haunted tunnel, and one very fashion forward specter in Asari. Tonight,

0:14 Speaker 1: we're taking the Midnight Line around the world. So tighten

0:18 Speaker 1: your seat belts or you know, your seat belt of

0:22 Speaker 1: pure faith, because these next haunted railways make Amtrak delays

0:27 Speaker 1: look merciful.

0:29 Speaker 2: Japan's Shinagawa Spector Line.

0:32 Speaker 1: Tokyo's subway system is vast, efficient and haunted. In particular,

0:37 Speaker 1: the stretch between Shinagawa Station and Tamachi Station is said

0:41 Speaker 1: to run directly over a mass grave. The story goes

0:45 Speaker 1: that during construction of the Tokaido Line in the eighteen seventies,

0:49 Speaker 1: workers unearthed human remains from what turned out to be

0:52 Speaker 1: an Edo period burial site. They built the tracks anyway,

0:56 Speaker 1: because apparently respecting the dead was optional in the industrial age.

1:01 Speaker 1: Since then, commuters have reported seeing shadowy figures pacing the platforms,

1:06 Speaker 1: hearing sobbing from empty tunnels, and glimpsing ghostly faces reflected

1:11 Speaker 1: in train windows. In two thousand and three, a Tokyo

1:14 Speaker 1: train operator quit after witnessing a woman in white step

1:18 Speaker 1: in front of his train, but no impact was recorded

1:21 Speaker 1: and security footage showed no one there. Maintenance crews have

1:25 Speaker 1: also claimed to hear chanting in old maintenance tunnels near Shinagawa.

1:29 Speaker 1: Local folklore calls it noroy Resha, the cursed train. Japan's

1:34 Speaker 1: rail system is famous for running on time, even the

1:37 Speaker 1: ghosts punch in early.

1:40 Speaker 3: This spine tingling segment is sponsored by Tokyo Spirit railcards

1:45 Speaker 3: travel the afterlife with convenience and earn Karma points every ride.

1:49 Speaker 2: The Banshee Train of Ireland.

1:51 Speaker 1: In Ireland, they say the wail of a banshee foretells death,

1:55 Speaker 1: but in the nineteenth century people began hearing that same

1:59 Speaker 1: unearthly cry echoing from a train that never existed. The

2:03 Speaker 1: legend of the Banshee train began near County Claire in

2:06 Speaker 1: the eighteen seventies. Locals would wake to the sound of

2:10 Speaker 1: a roaring engine and a shrieking whistle, though no train passed.

2:13 Speaker 1: By the next day, someone in the village would die.

2:18 Speaker 1: In eighteen ninety three, newspapers in Limerick recorded a story

2:22 Speaker 1: of the phantom train of Ennistimone. Dozens of residents heard

2:27 Speaker 1: the thunder of wheels, felt the ground shake, but the

2:30 Speaker 1: line hadn't been used in weeks. Hours later, a farmer

2:34 Speaker 1: was found dead by the tracks. Even Irish rail historians

2:38 Speaker 1: acknowledged the legend, noting the connection between the train of

2:42 Speaker 1: death and the sound of wind in the Limestone Hills,

2:45 Speaker 1: though locals still swear the sound is too rhythmic, too mechanical,

2:49 Speaker 1: too real. It's comforting to know that even death has

2:53 Speaker 1: good public transport in Ireland.

2:55 Speaker 3: Sponsored by Banshee Rail, Ireland's fastest way to the other side.

3:00 Speaker 3: We'll have you howling with delight and mild existential dread.

3:04 Speaker 2: The Phantom Train of Saint Elmo, Colorado.

3:08 Speaker 1: High in the Rockies, the mining ghost town of Saint

3:12 Speaker 1: Elmo is frozen in time, and apparently so is its

3:16 Speaker 1: old rail line. In the late eighteen hundreds, the Denver

3:20 Speaker 1: South Park and Pacific Railroad ran through Chalk Creek Canyon.

3:24 Speaker 1: One winter in eighteen ninety nine, an avalanche buried the line,

3:29 Speaker 1: killing the crew of a supply train trapped inside the pass.

3:32 Speaker 1: When spring thawed, the snow rescuers found the locomotives still upright,

3:38 Speaker 1: with the crew frozen at their posts. Ever since, campers

3:42 Speaker 1: and hikers in the valley have reported hearing the low

3:45 Speaker 1: rumble of a train, the clang of a bell, and

3:48 Speaker 1: even seeing a glowing light on the old right of

3:50 Speaker 1: way where no tracks remain. In nineteen seventy four, a

3:55 Speaker 1: park ranger named Ed Thompson recorded the sounds of a

3:58 Speaker 1: train horn echoing through the canyon. There were no active

4:02 Speaker 1: rail lines for fifty miles. He played the tape back

4:05 Speaker 1: for the Forest Service and they couldn't explain it. Imagine

4:09 Speaker 1: hiking through the mountains, hearing a full locomotive and realizing

4:13 Speaker 1: you're the only ticket holder.

4:16 Speaker 3: This haunting brought to you by Rocky Mountain rail Snack's

4:19 Speaker 3: Ghost approved trail mix for the eternally Outdoorsy now featuring

4:24 Speaker 3: spectral amands.

4:25 Speaker 2: The Ghost Tram of Saint Kilda, Australia.

4:29 Speaker 1: In Melbourne's Seaside suburb of Saint Kilda, the trams still

4:33 Speaker 1: clatter along, but one line they say carries a ghost.

4:38 Speaker 1: According to local legend, in the early nineteen hundreds, a

4:42 Speaker 1: conductor named Thomas Burke fell from tram one six' four

4:46 Speaker 1: during heavy rain and was crushed beneath the. Wheels passengers

4:50 Speaker 1: reported feeling the, jolt but found no. Body his remains

4:54 Speaker 1: were discovered a mile away the next, morning still gripping

4:57 Speaker 1: his ticket. Puncher since, then late night riders have described

5:02 Speaker 1: hearing the faint ding ding of an invisible bell and

5:05 Speaker 1: glimpsing a man in uniform walking the aisle even when

5:09 Speaker 1: the tram's. Empty Melbourne's Herald Sun archives mention several eye

5:14 Speaker 1: witnesses who claimed to see a misty figure boarding trams

5:18 Speaker 1: At Aklan street during the nineteen. Fifties in the nineteen,

5:22 Speaker 1: eighties a driver reported seeing a man vanish in front

5:26 Speaker 1: of the driver's window after waving his hand in. Warning,

5:29 Speaker 1: today tram drivers still tell each other if you See Tommy,

5:34 Speaker 1: burke slow, down he's just making his. ROUNDS i love

5:39 Speaker 1: a ghost who's still dedicated to customer. Service that's the

5:43 Speaker 1: spirit of public. Transport.

5:44 Speaker 3: Literally this spectral segment is sponsored By, tramformers the world's

5:50 Speaker 3: first haunted transit, toys collect all five before they disappear from. Shelves.

5:55 Speaker 2: Literally The Blue Ghost train Of South.

5:59 Speaker 1: Africa in The Karu desert near the abandoned town Of,

6:03 Speaker 1: uniondale a legend persists of a blue lit passenger train

6:08 Speaker 1: that materializes on foggy. Nights locals call it the blue.

6:13 Speaker 1: Train according to, folklore it's connected to a nineteen fourteen

6:18 Speaker 1: accident that killed dozens when a passenger train derailed in a.

6:22 Speaker 1: Sandstorm witnesses claim to see the phantom train's headlights appear

6:27 Speaker 1: out of, nowhere then vanish across the, desert followed by

6:30 Speaker 1: the faint sound of. Crying truckers on THE n Nine

6:33 Speaker 1: highway have repeatedly reported seeing lights moving parallel to the

6:37 Speaker 1: road that suddenly vanish into thin. Air in nineteen sixty,

6:41 Speaker 1: five one driver swore he nearly collided with a train

6:44 Speaker 1: at a crossing that had been inactive for over thirty.

6:47 Speaker 1: Years South african railway historians admit there's no logical, explanation no,

6:53 Speaker 1: mirages no power, lines no. Reflection just when you think

6:57 Speaker 1: you've seen everything in the, desert the day desert sees.

7:00 Speaker 3: You Tonight's Desert, detour brought to you By Ecto, lube

7:05 Speaker 3: the only rail grease guaranteed to stop even ghostly, squeaks

7:09 Speaker 3: now available in spectral.

7:11 Speaker 2: Blue The ghosts of The Canadian.

7:13 Speaker 1: Pacific The Canadian Pacific railway was a deadly. Undertaking hundreds

7:18 Speaker 1: of workers, dyed blasting tunnels through The. Rockies in one

7:23 Speaker 1: particularly treacherous section Near, craiglaki where the last spike was

7:27 Speaker 1: driven in eighteen eighty, five workers began hearing phantom. Pickaxes

7:32 Speaker 1: long after construction, Ended trains passing through The Kicking Horse

7:37 Speaker 1: pass tunnel still report radio, interference sudden temperature, drops and

7:42 Speaker 1: shadow figures in the. Headlamps Engineer Douglas, kincaid interviewed in

7:47 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty, eight said he saw a man standing in

7:50 Speaker 1: the tunnel waving a. Lantern he hit the, brakes thinking

7:55 Speaker 1: it was a. Worker when he, stopped no one was,

7:59 Speaker 1: there only the smell of sulfur and a burned out

8:02 Speaker 1: lantern lying on the. Ballast i'd say he dodged a

8:06 Speaker 1: bullet or a very, old very judgmental.

8:09 Speaker 3: Ghost brought to you By Polar spirits vodka distilled with

8:13 Speaker 3: glacial water and a hint Of canadian, remorse perfect for

8:17 Speaker 3: thawing after a long night of.

8:18 Speaker 1: Haunting, so dear, travelers if you ever hear a whistle

8:22 Speaker 1: in the, night or see a flicker of blue light

8:24 Speaker 1: where no train should, be don't. Panic just remember you're

8:29 Speaker 1: part of a, long proud history of people who saw

8:32 Speaker 1: something unexplainable and decided to write about it On. Reddit

8:37 Speaker 1: From tokyo subway ghosts To Ireland's Banshee, express one thing's for.

8:42 Speaker 1: Sure the rails of history are haunted not just by,

8:46 Speaker 1: tragedy but by. Memory every, whistle every, lantern every clanging.

8:52 Speaker 1: Echo it's the past refusing to be. Silent this Is,

8:57 Speaker 1: amy your conductor of The, strange reminds you to, subscribe,

9:01 Speaker 1: share and keep your lantern, lit because next week we're

9:05 Speaker 1: exploring haunted, lighthouses the ghosts who never clocked.

9:09 Speaker 3: Out this episode was fueled by Speaker, express the only

9:13 Speaker 3: podcast platform where your stories can haunt The internet. Forever

9:17 Speaker 3: use code Ghost train for one FREE evp upload