Ghostly Folklore - The Phantom Train of Dunphail
The Grey Ghost Train - Beware…
The ghost train is an iconic kind of haunting - although I would suggest an uncommon one. The idea of a spectral steam engine, charging through the night, belching flames and smoke, terrifying onlookers, only to vanish before their very eyes, instils that pleasing terror that lovers of spooky folklore regularly quest for.
In Northern Scotland, in Moray (Scottish Gaelic: Moireibh or Moireabh.) There runs the Old Dava Railway line. This section of track was opened in 1863 and ran over the old Dava Moor, for a while this was the main route to London. Sadly the line did not survive Mr Beeching’s axe and was closed down in 1965. The Dava Way, is a modern Railway walk, managed by The Dava Way Association (DWA.) Thanks to this hardworking group, you can trek the route taken by those old time trains today. However, to take this journey at night might require a little liquid courage (Whiskey) beforehand.
The Legend of the Grey Train of Dunphail.
Dunphail Railway Station, near Forres, is the scene of a terrifying haunting, folklore suggests that a locomotive carrying cattle met a fiery end nearby, and that this has resulted in its ghostly apparition being spotted intermittently since the 1920s, with sightings even as recent as the 1960s.
Sightings
On a clear winter’s night, John Macdonald was heading home along a path close to Dunphail railway station, when a locomotive with a full head of steam, pulling four carriages, appeared and rushed past the startled local. MacDonald claims the train was travelling around 2ft above the tracks. The date of John’s sighting varies depending on the source, with claims it was sometime between 1917 and 1920.
Two men alleged to have witnessed a strange bright light on the track whilst in a railway cutting. Eventually it faded away. One of the men reported it to the Stationmaster the next day, and discovered that many other people had encountered this unexplained illumination.
One evening in 1949, a woman was returning home after visiting a relative, she was walking along the track, secure in the knowledge that no trains ran at that time of night. To her surprise she claimed to hear a steam engine coming up the line. The noise grew louder and she looked over her shoulder, to her horror she saw the spectral grey train approaching her at full steam. In a panic the poor woman scrambled up the bank and fell to the ground whilst the phantom locomotive raced through the night below her, she reported seeing the fierce glow of the firebox reflected in the pall of smoke from the chimney, and brightly lit carriages streaming behind, all of which were some two feet off the ground!
If you would like more information on the old railway line and its history I enclose a link to the Dava Way website below, it is well worth a visit.
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog my friend. If you enjoy stories of ghosts, monsters, and the uncanny, please consider supporting me by purchasing a copy of my book ‘Fireside Horror,’ a novel told in short stories, each one certain to send a shiver down your spine. Available on Amazon and Audible, Link Below.
Until next time, stay spooky.
