spooky railway locations

[sandwhich]

On another thread about the 1915 Quintenshill disaster there is mention of the distant sound of bagpipes that has said to have been heard in the far distance. This puts me in mind of the Charles Dickens short story "The Signalman", a film of this story starring Denholm Elliot was made in the mid 70s at the Severn Valley Railway and picked up the sometimes spooky atmosphere of quiet and isolated signal boxes with the wind blowing along the roof and the various creaks that could be heard. I remember a signal box at Connington North just south of Peterborough which was said to be haunted, there was an accident there during the 1940s and a car driver was killed there. Several signalmen were said to have heard the sound of an approaching car and when they looked nothing was to be seen and one signalman took his dog to the box on occasions and it was said to be restless and constantly looking out of the window at the crossing. Okay there could be explanations for this. The 1975 Moorgate disaster to which no explanation was ever found started the rumour stirred up by a national newspaper with the headlines "Did he see a ghost!" Getting desperate for a story no doubt.

[Mickey]

The Signalman was a pretty good television programme it starred Deleted Denholme Elliot as the signalman in this Charles Dickens story.

[PinzaC55]

One of the spookiest locations I ever visited was Bowes station, pictured by me in 1977. One writer described it sitting above the village "like a bleached skull with vacant black eye sockets, and you can hear the rattle of corrugated iron like chains in the wind" !

Bowes Station (1) 28.2.77 par PinzaC55, on ipernity

[Mickey]

Bowes is that on the NE?.

[sandwhich]

There used to be a signal box called Cemetery between New Southgate and Oakleigh Park as the name implies a cemetery was right behind the box, that must have seemed very spooky on occasions especially at night when a fog descended.
Mentioning earlier of Moorgate, the line from Drayton Park into Moorgate when it was part of the Underground was said to be haunted in a number of places, but over many years of driving down there since 1980 until 2010 nothing was seen by myself or as far as I know by nobody else either.

[strang steel]

There are more here - http://www.paranormaldatabase.com/reports/rail.php

Although a few seem to be rather far fetched.

[StevieG]

" There used to be a signal box called Cemetery between New Southgate and Oakleigh Park as the name implies a cemetery was right behind the box, that must have seemed very spooky on occasions especially at night when a fog descended. .... "

'Beg pardon Sirrr', (as I think Duck once said in the Rev. Awdry's Railway Series), but Cemetery box (...Up Box, as it once was) certainly was at one time quite close to part of a large area of land acquired for cemetery use and which was situate on either side of Brunswick Park Road (all of which, or a large part at least, was the Great North London Cemetery, much of which, all on the east side of Brun. Pk. Rd., still remains as Southgate Cemetery and Crematorium), but that was probably more than 70 years ago.

Also just south of the box's site, and which may well have led to the signal box's naming, was the special station of the 1860s/70s, with chapel, for the cemetery, sited on the Up side of the main line at the north end of its 'branch' track from New Southgate. This was used by the short-lived funeral train service from King's Cross 'funeral' station (situated up the Up side embankment above the main line at Belle Isle, and of which, much still stood until 1962).
[ A comprehensive account of the 'funeral' stations and services can be found in a book "The End of The Line: The Story of the Railway Service to The Great Northern London Cemetery", 2003, by Rev. Martin Dawes, 111 pp., pub'd by the Barnet & District Local History Society. ISBN-10: 0951334255 ; ISBN-13: 978-0951334256 : Can currently be found on 'Amazon'.]

But long before I came to know Cemetery box which was in the late 1960s, the cemetery land near the box had gone into other use (from about 1880?), and the 'Cemetery' funeral station area and much land around it had, in the fullness of time, been transformed into the large, prominent factory premises (1930s/40s?), with surrounding grounds, of Standard Telephones and Cables Ltd. (STC) (who manufactured quite an amount of telecommunications and train describer equipment for rail use), which still retained a rail-served goods platform along the main-line-facing side of the factory, the siding of which was connected with the Cemetery-New Southgate Up Reception line by two Annetts Key-released ground frame-operated points connections.

Something like 25 years ago, a significant central portion of the factory building was declared structurally unsafe. A temporary speed restriction was then imposed on all the main line tracks for many weeks, and at night, interior lighting made it possible to see, from passing trains, that a veritable forest of floor-to-ceiling 'Acrow' support props had ben erected inside the building.

A reduced part of the STC building survives today in other commercial use, much rebuilt and/or cosmetically modernised, and substantially screened off by a row of more recent trees (cyprus? leylandii?), though just possibly some vestige of the goods platform might survive.

The site of Cemetery box in the box's last years, as now, must have been about 600 yards as the fly crow's from the nearest part of the remaining cemetery land.

However, with Barnet Tunnel's three bores only about 100 yards away to the north, and being pretty dark at night, despite the factory, and the rear of much 1930s-ish housing opposite, I imagine the site could still be spooky for some.

[PinzaC55]

The NER had Cemetery North and Cemetery South boxes in Hartlepool and Gallows Close in Scarborough
Just found this picture BTW http://www.friern-barnet.com/picture/number571.asp

[sandwhich]

Thank you Stevie G for the full info as regards Cemetery signal box between Oakleigh Park and New Southgate.

[Mickey]

Cemetery box about midway between New Southgate station & Oakleigh Park station.

[Iron Duke]

A "spooky tale" about Barkston South has been covered somewhere on the Forum, but can't find it at the moment.
Further afield in Nottingham there are a few stories about Mapperley tunnel on the long closed suburban line.
I will look them up and add to this thread....

[Mickey]

Yes I've read about that ghostly happenings at Barkston South Junction box.

[strang steel]

You only need to follow the link that I posted earlier.

They are all on there.

[manna]

G'Day Gents

Walking through Potters Bar tunnel, about 1am can be a bit spooky

manna

[Iron Duke]

Thanks John,

Some interesting stories on that site.
I have found the previous Barkston post, it tells the story of a visit to signal box by Peter Handford.
Thought that it would be a good idea to send it in again.

Has anyone any other spooky railway stories, or stories in general relating to Grantham or the railways in the area?

Iron Duke
http://www.returntograntham.wordpress.com