Haunted Henry
At Vicarstown, there is an abandon branch line. Up until it's untimely death in 1960, the line serviced a dairy farm, a paper mill, coal mine, refinery, a steelworks and scrap yard. The line was staffed by: a London Midland Scottish Railway 8F 2-8-0 tender engine, SDJR/LMS 7F 2-8-0 tender engine, LNER J78 0-6-0 Crane tank, LNER J92 crane tank, Southern Railway Z Class 0-8-0, Southern Railway Q1 0-6-0 tender engine, Great Western Railway 7200 2-8-2 tank engine and a Great Western Railway 5700 class pannier tank, British Railways Standard class 3 2-6-0 tender engine a British Railways Standard Class 4 2-6-4 Mixed Traffic Tank engine.
There were two engines built as experiments by the Southern Railway and Great Western Railway. One was built to the specifications of a Southern Railway Q1, except that the engine had the 4-6-4 wheel arrangement, and was called Q1x. The second engine was a Great Western Railway Cathedral Class 4-6-2. Both engines were built and being tested in 1935.
During the war, the line was pushed to it's limits and beyond. After the war ended, goods traffic on the line decreased when lorries came in. Buses took the passengers and final, deadly blow came on the 16th of July, 1960.
The line had been fitted with track circuit, which means that when a train is in section, an electrical current shorts through the trains metal wheels and changes the signals to danger. When there is no train in section, then there is no short, meaning that the signals are reading Line Clear.
In the early hours of July 16th, a signalman reported that there was a short outside of the tunnel just beyond the station before the top station. Both tunnel portals are protected by track circuit signals and with the short, they were both showing red. The first train, a passenger train ran passed the Danger Signal. The locomotive and it's crew weren't attentive and missed it. Only when the brakes were applied on the coaches, did they realise their mistake.
Meanwhile, at the box on the Vicarstown approach, a workman was looking at the track circuit's breaker box, to see where the short was. He had a screwdriver, and was going to use it to remove the faulty circuit. However, that never happened. As the man went to work, the signalman called to him, saying that head office wanted to have a word with him.
He set his screwdriver on the rails and ran to take the call. Nobody noticed that the signals were set to green. At the top station, a fuel train was waiting to depart. The passenger train, pulled by the Cathedral was sitting in the tunnel. The fuel train, being pulled by the Q1x, was getting the "Off". The drivers, firemen and guards would work for the last time.
The Cathedral was waiting in the tunnel and everyone was blissfully unaware of the fate that awaited them.
The Fuel train, which had five thousand tonnes of fuel, was accelerating through a "false off" and by the time the driver of the fuel train had seen the tail lamp, it was too late. There was an ear piercing screaming crash. An explosion followed, bringing with it the screams and cries of the injured and trapped.
When the wreck was cleared, the two engines involved and all the wagons and coaches that were mangled and blown to smithereens were taken to the scrap yards and melted down. During the whole crash and clean up, an owl was watching them.
The signal engineer could only cry when he realised he caused the accident by leaving his screwdriver on the rails. The engineer was so distraught that he became stressed and the stress mounted and eventually caused his heart to fail. The engines were sheeted and locked in the shed and the line was closed. Scrap merchants were meant to come and cut all the engines and rolling stock up, but they were busy cutting up other engines and rolling stock at scrap yards around the mainland.
Years went by until the Fat Controller decided to reopen the line and restore the engines. The line's top station terminated at a huge wooded lake. It was a huge tourist attraction. One morning, BoCo took a train of platelayers to mend the line and get it in working order.
The men started at the bay platforms, where trains from the branch line would meet up with the main line trains. Henry and Hank were bringing in supply trains. It wasn't the best job, but if Henry could be excused from his other duties to do this, then it pleased him.
One night, Henry was collecting some wagons from Wellsworth yard. Edward was shunting nearby when an owl hooted. Edward reversed and faced Henry.
"Be careful," Edward said. "They say that when an owl hoots, a whistle will sound followed by an explosion."
"Oh stow it, you senile old fool!" Henry roared. "I'm fed up with all of your rotten ghost stories. GHOSTS DON'T EXIST!"
With that, Henry stormed out of the yards. BoCo looked over at Edward. The old engine sighed and went about his shunting and preparing for a night goods to Brendam bay.
Henry stormed down the mainline, his anger affecting his judgment.
"That Edward, he's been soft in the boiler since 1922. Ghosts, pah!" he snorted.
Henry's driver was concerned, but said nothing as they reached Vicarstown and were switched onto the line that was being restored. The rails up to the first station had been restored and Henry had brought the supplies to restore the line up to the second station, as well as add a couple of loops between the two stations and two waiting sidings. Henry simmered indignantly while the men sorted the supplies.
"What's bitten you?" his driver asked.
"Edward," Henry retorted.
"You mean his ghost stories?" quizzed the fireman.
"Yes!" snapped Henry.
"Well, the ghostly legend on this line is actually true. Many of my ancestors have seen the specters," Henry's driver told him.
Henry's left eye twitched. His driver also believed in this ghost malarkey as well? Was everyone going mad? If he was under his own power, then he'd leave his crew alone. The driver could see the look on his engine's face and began laughing heartily.
"You remind me of a few anime shows I watched as a kid, where the main characters would twitch their eyes when they were confronted with something strange," he said.
Henry snorted and closed his eyes. The work seemed to take forever, but he was soon able to reverse to Vicarstown and steam home. As he puffed homeward, Caitlin roared passed with a passenger train to Barrow, where her shed was located.
When Henry reached Tidmouth, he shunted his wagons into the wagon and carriage shed, then backed into the empty sheds.
"Peace at last," the green engine sighed and drifted off.
The next morning, Henry was taking a train of workmen and tools up to restore the station where the new rails had been laid. He was able to rest and forget the ghost stories. When he was woken again, the brig green engine was being shunted back to Vicarstown.
"What's going on?" he asked his driver.
"Your to take a train of sleepers, ballast and rails to repair the rails from where the repaired rails ended in at the first station up through the second station, tunnel, third station and the top station. You'll be staying here tonight," his driver replied.
"Great," the green engine growled. Tonight was not going to be fun at all.
When he arrived at Vicarstown, the train had been marshaled and waiting for him. Once he was coupled to it and steamed away. When he returned, the sun had completely disappeared and a full moon took it's place. The driver looked up and sighed, in defeat.
"No stars, so I can't stargaze."
Henry kept his eyes on the rails. When he arrived, the workmen began to unload the rails and sleepers. Other workmen began to remove used ballast and rusted rails. It seemed to take forever, but soon Henry reached the tunnel. A creepy, almost sinister feeling fell over the big green Black 5.
Just as Henry began to nod off to sleep, he noticed a strange green locomotive. He thought it looked like a Great Western King or a Castle or even a Hall. The engine was dozing in the tunnel when a screaming whistle sounded and the engine jolted forward. Suddenly, flames leapt forward and before Henry could say anything, a pale looking man ran forward.
Henry let out a terrified scream and closed his eyes tightly. His driver, fireman and the workmen were cowering in the coach.
"That was…that was…get me out of here!" Henry wailed in terror.
His driver didn't agree and when the men got over their scare, they went back to work. However, as they went about it, they were wary of their surroundings, which made the work go by very slowly.
"This is agony," Henry thought.
Soon though, the men had the rails up to the station through the tunnel laid and Henry continued up through to the top station, where Henry ran round the train and was coupled to the rear of the train and went to sleep. When morning came, Henry reversed down the line with the empty wagons. He was so scared that he refused to work on the line for the rest of the restoration project. Hank took over his jobs and Henry went back to pulling heavy goods trains and passenger trains.
However, he was still haunted by what he saw. He wondered if his mind was slipping, but we know that what Henry saw was real.
