Post by Morgan Sierra on Dec 26, 2010 14:19:49 GMT -6
Just south of San Antonio is the most famous railroad crossing in Texas. It is just a quiet little crossing intersecting a lonely little street next to a residential neighborhood, but it has earned quite a reputation for itself. In fact, many people claim that it is haunted.
The story goes that sometime long ago, possibly in the 1930s or 40s, there was a horrible accident where a school bus got stuck on the tracks. The driver of the bus went for help leaving the kids behind, and as they waited a speeding freight train came along and plowed into the bus killing ten of the children.
Legend has it that the ghosts of the innocent kids now haunt the area protecting people from the same grisly fate that they met. According to local stories, if a car is stopped just before the railroad crossing and left in neutral it will mysteriously roll up and over the tracks as the little ghosts push it out of harm's way. Supposedly this is an impossible feat for a car to accomplish by itself because the road leading to the crossing is level, with a slight rise just before the tracks.
Some people even claim that they have seen ghostly hand prints on the back of their cars, proving the story to be true. Others say they have heard children's voices and joyful laughter coming from the invisible kids. Animals are said to be terrified of the area.
Many ghost hunters have come to the site and declared the story to be true, while skeptics naturally have claimed the opposite. So what exactly is the truth?
This is one of the very first cases that I ever investigated long, long ago and it was actually pretty easy for me to reach a conclusion. Upon arriving at the scene I immediately noticed that the road, which was supposed to be level, was actually a slight downhill decline leading towards the tracks. Having done a lot of mountain climbing and long distance running I am pretty good at recognizing a hill when I see one.
Since I wanted to prove it conclusively one way or another, I decided to go ahead and test my theory out. First I went ahead and stopped the car before the crossing and left it in neutral, and sure enough, it did start rolling just as I suspected it would on a decline. Then I tried it again, this time moving the car even closer to the tracks and leaving it sitting right at the very edge of the so-called uphill portion just before the crossing. This time it sat there...and sat there...and did not move. That slight uphill rise was enough to prevent the vehicle from rolling downhill, thereby once again confirming that the story obviously isn't true. If it had been, the ghosts definitely should have pushed it out of the way since that close to the tracks was actually a very dangerous position for a vehicle to be in.
Wanting to somehow test my theory of the decline out I found a neat little inexpensive scientific method of doing it. I poured some water on the road, and sure enough it all flowed downhill towards the crossing. That pretty much confirmed my suspicions. Later tests by other investigators using expensive scientific instruments have determined that the road is actually a two degree decline, thus confirming my inexpensive non-scientific water test. I was pretty satisfied with the results.
I came to a few other conclusions also. The ghostly hand prints that show up on the backs of the cars are nothing more than human finger prints that dust adheres to as you drive around. I see hand prints on my vehicles all the time when they are dusty...that doesn't mean that ghosts have been crawling all over them. I was also able to disprove the theory about animals being afraid of the area. There were a couple of horses munching on some grass in a field right next to the crossing. They did not look too afraid to me.
This is a nice little legend, and a fun place to go on Halloween night if you are a drunken, horny teenager, but unfortunately, I don't think it has anything to do with ghosts. Still, I did notice one strange thing that occurred while I was there.
As I was getting ready to leave I had my pickup sitting in front of the crossing at the place where I had stopped it where it wouldn't move. The engine was running and the transmission was in neutral, and I got out to get something out of the back. You can imagine my surprise when my truck suddenly took off driving on its own! The transmission somehow slipped into gear and the truck motored up and over the crossing while I ran like a maniac trying to catch it, which I finally did right as it went into a small ditch. Maybe the ghosts were getting their revenge against me for not believing in them!
The story goes that sometime long ago, possibly in the 1930s or 40s, there was a horrible accident where a school bus got stuck on the tracks. The driver of the bus went for help leaving the kids behind, and as they waited a speeding freight train came along and plowed into the bus killing ten of the children.
Legend has it that the ghosts of the innocent kids now haunt the area protecting people from the same grisly fate that they met. According to local stories, if a car is stopped just before the railroad crossing and left in neutral it will mysteriously roll up and over the tracks as the little ghosts push it out of harm's way. Supposedly this is an impossible feat for a car to accomplish by itself because the road leading to the crossing is level, with a slight rise just before the tracks.
Some people even claim that they have seen ghostly hand prints on the back of their cars, proving the story to be true. Others say they have heard children's voices and joyful laughter coming from the invisible kids. Animals are said to be terrified of the area.
Many ghost hunters have come to the site and declared the story to be true, while skeptics naturally have claimed the opposite. So what exactly is the truth?
This is one of the very first cases that I ever investigated long, long ago and it was actually pretty easy for me to reach a conclusion. Upon arriving at the scene I immediately noticed that the road, which was supposed to be level, was actually a slight downhill decline leading towards the tracks. Having done a lot of mountain climbing and long distance running I am pretty good at recognizing a hill when I see one.
Since I wanted to prove it conclusively one way or another, I decided to go ahead and test my theory out. First I went ahead and stopped the car before the crossing and left it in neutral, and sure enough, it did start rolling just as I suspected it would on a decline. Then I tried it again, this time moving the car even closer to the tracks and leaving it sitting right at the very edge of the so-called uphill portion just before the crossing. This time it sat there...and sat there...and did not move. That slight uphill rise was enough to prevent the vehicle from rolling downhill, thereby once again confirming that the story obviously isn't true. If it had been, the ghosts definitely should have pushed it out of the way since that close to the tracks was actually a very dangerous position for a vehicle to be in.
Wanting to somehow test my theory of the decline out I found a neat little inexpensive scientific method of doing it. I poured some water on the road, and sure enough it all flowed downhill towards the crossing. That pretty much confirmed my suspicions. Later tests by other investigators using expensive scientific instruments have determined that the road is actually a two degree decline, thus confirming my inexpensive non-scientific water test. I was pretty satisfied with the results.
I came to a few other conclusions also. The ghostly hand prints that show up on the backs of the cars are nothing more than human finger prints that dust adheres to as you drive around. I see hand prints on my vehicles all the time when they are dusty...that doesn't mean that ghosts have been crawling all over them. I was also able to disprove the theory about animals being afraid of the area. There were a couple of horses munching on some grass in a field right next to the crossing. They did not look too afraid to me.
This is a nice little legend, and a fun place to go on Halloween night if you are a drunken, horny teenager, but unfortunately, I don't think it has anything to do with ghosts. Still, I did notice one strange thing that occurred while I was there.
As I was getting ready to leave I had my pickup sitting in front of the crossing at the place where I had stopped it where it wouldn't move. The engine was running and the transmission was in neutral, and I got out to get something out of the back. You can imagine my surprise when my truck suddenly took off driving on its own! The transmission somehow slipped into gear and the truck motored up and over the crossing while I ran like a maniac trying to catch it, which I finally did right as it went into a small ditch. Maybe the ghosts were getting their revenge against me for not believing in them!