This was posted on one of my lists. I thought it was a great Halloween
story so am forwarding it on.
Maggie
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FORWARDED MESSAGE - Orig: 30-Oct-98 11:58
Subject: A Phantom Engineer
From: 4fergie(a)gte.net
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Thought since Halloween is here, that this would be enjoyed.
As reported in the Erie County Reporter January 23, 1890
Trainmen on the Lake Erie & Western railroad, between Findlay and Fostoria
are greatly disturbed over what they claim is the ghost of a dead freight
conductor, who was killed one night last November, about eight miles east
of the former city, by his train breaking into two sections, and then
coming together suddenly throwing the conductor from the car on which he
was standing to the track below, where he was beheaded by the merciless
wheels before the train could be controlled. This accident occurred near
the village of Arcadia, at a point where dense woods almost form an arch
above the track; and here it is that the ghost of Jimmie Welsh, the
mutilated conductor makes its appearance nearly every night, as the
midnight passenger train from Sandusky going west reaches the spot where he
met his fate on that gloomy, autumnal night less than three months ago. The
engineer and other officers of the train assert that scarcely a night
passes but what a headless apparition can be seen coming out of these
woods, as the train nears the scene of the accident, carrying in its
bloodless hand, something that looks like a lantern, which it waves
backward and forward in a measureless sort of a manner as though searching
for some lost object.
The train men have no sort of doubt but what it is the ghost of Jimmie
Welsh, hunting for its lost head. The phantom is plainly visible until the
engine with a scream of terror, voicing the feelings of the engineer,
endeavors to escape from the horrible sight, then it turns, and walking
into the woods slowly fades away into a blue mist. Two crews have already
abandoned this road on account of the ghostly vision and have been
transferred to other divisions of the road: and the present engineer in
charge of the train was so badly frightened one night that it was with
great difficulty he was persuaded to remain on his engine until relieved at
Lima. He said he would not make the run again for all the money Senator
Calvin S. Brice, the president of the road, possessed. The conductor and
brakemen on this train confirmed the engineer's story and said they saw the
ghost nearly every night, always seemingly engaged in the hopeless task of
hunting for its head. On bright moonlight nights the apparition is not so
plainly outlined as when the nights are dark and rainy, as has been the
rule the past month. On such occasions the phantom conductor comes out
clear and distinct having all the resemblance of a man minus his head,
while the lantern in his hand gives out a fitful, uncanny sort of
illumination that freezes the blood in the veins of the boldest railroader
on the line. No other train is annoyed by this ghostly form, but this is
explained by the fact that no other train passes the spot where Jimmie
Welsh was killed, at the time of night when he was decapitated by the
wheels of his car. The mater has thoroughly alarmed the employees of the
road, and unless the spirit of the dead conductor is appeased in some way
it will be difficult to get men to make the midnight run between Sandusky
and Lima.
Leora
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