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admin sinfulldude
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London Underground & Rail Ghost Hauntings(was written and posted by madmart former forum's ADMIN )
London Underground & Rail Ghost Hauntings
Aldwych
This station was closed in 1994 (not because of ghosts) although it is still currently used for parties and trendy opening nights. However, the 'fluffers', people who clean the tunnels and stations, claim to have been scared by a figure who appears on the tracks at night. The ghost is that of an actress who believes she has not enjoyed her last curtain call, supposedly haunts the station. Aldywch used to be on the site of the old Royal Strand Theatre.
Bank
Workmen who were building Bank station in the last century roused the spirit of the so-called 'Black Nun'. The Nun's brother, Phillip Whitehead, was a cashier and was executed in 1811 for forgery. The Nun, Sarah, wearing black, waited for him outside the bank every evening for 40 years until she died. To this day, it said that she still searches for him along the platforms.
British Museum
A double whammy here - a ghost station and a ghost. British Museum station closed on the 25 September, 1933. There was a local myth that the station was haunted by the ghost of an Ancient Egyptian. Dressed in a loincloth and headdress, the figure would emerge late at night. The rumour grew so strong that a newspaper offered a reward to anyone who would spend the night there. No one attempted to do this!
The story takes a stranger turn after the closure of the station. The comedy thriller, Bulldog Jack, was made in 1935 which included a secret (fictitious) tunnel from the station to the Egyptian room at the Museum. The station in the film was called 'Bloomsbury', and in all likelihood was a stage set, but it was based on the ghost story of British Museum.
On the same night that the film was released, two women disappeared from the platform at Holborn - the next station along from where British Museum was. Marks were later found on the walls of the closed station. More sightings of the ghost were reported along with strange moanings from the walls of the tunnels. Eventually the story was hushed up as London Underground has always denied the existence of the tunnel from the station to the Egyptian Room.
However the lead character in Keith Lowe's novel Tunnel Vision resurrects the story to impress/scare his girlfriend with tales of tube horror.
He writes:
If you listen carefully when you're standing at the platform at Holborn, sometimes - just sometimes - you can hear the wailing of Egyptian voices floating down the tunnel towards you.
Covent Garden
A tall man in a frock coat, tall hat and gloves is said to be pacing the tunnels and has been seen since the 1950s. When he appeared in the staff rest room the staff demanded a transfer - no wonder they look so miserable.
The ghost is supposed to be actor William Terriss who was fatally stabbed near the Adelphi Theatre in the Strand in December 1897. Apparently William regularly visited a baker's shop which stood where today's Tube station was built.
Elephant and Castle
When this station is closed people say that you can hear the steps of an invisible runner, strange tappings and doors being thrown open. What follows is a genuine testimony from an h2g2 Researcher - a tube driver on the London Underground. He's actually seen the ghost but didn't appear to be all that impressed...
'Twas around six of the evening at a Bakerloo line Underground Station - about a week ago. I was in pursuit of my duties as an employee of London Underground (Northern Line - and I should apologise to all who are condemned to this line - not my fault Really. Heh! Heh!)
So I join the train at the terminus at Elephant and Castle and walk forward to the front of the train with a view to travelling with the driver. At this point the driver has not arrived so I put my bag down and move to the rear door to wait for him. While I am waiting a girl gets into the carraige - she walks straight through the carriage and I have to move aside making some muttered apology - I sort of have to do this since I was in uniform!
A minute or so later the driver turns up, and we move toward the front of the train. I notice that the girl is not in the carriage and this is a rather immediate cause for concern - she could not have left the train without passing me - I had full view of the carraige and platform at the time. My reaction was to inform the driver - the only place she could have gone was to have walked down the tunnel - not really what we want! The driver's response was unusual: 'Oh, her. We hear about her all the time - she's even been in the papers.'
Lovely - my first real ghost is a media celebrity, - and, it must be said, very, very boring indeed.
Farringdon
A 13-year-old trainee hat maker, Anne Naylor, was murdered in 1758 by her trainer and the trainer's daughter. People claim to hear her cries echoing down Farringdon Station. She has been nicknamed 'The Screaming Spectre'.
Highgate
In 1941 Highgate station was rebuilt to join an extension from the Northern Line. However, the project was abandoned and the cutting became overgrown. Nevertheless residents still claim to hear eerie sounds of trains going through the cutting.
South Kensington
Now here's a sighting of a ghost train. A passenger from the last westbound tube saw a train pull into South Ken station in December 1928. An ear-piercing whistle broke through the night and the passenger spotted a ghostly figure in a reefer jacket and peaked cap hanging from the side of the engine. Both the man and the train then vanished into the tunnel never to be seen again.
Freight Train
Location: Launceston (Cornwall) - Area near the old railway station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time reported: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Though the tracks have been removed, several people have reported hearing the phantom sounds of a long goods train passing through the area.
Overwhelming Presence
Location: Liverpool (Lancashire) - Walton Junction Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time reported: 1970s onwards
Further Comments: It is said that ever since the last steam engine left this site, an evil, repressive presence has descended upon the area.
Limbless Man
Location: Lurgan (Ulster) - Railway lines
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time reported: Unknown
Further Comments: A man struck by a train here His body being dragged several miles down the track, only some parts of his body were recovered. He now walks up and down the area looking for a couple of limbs which were never recovered.
Station Porter
Location: Lyonshall (Hereford & Worchester) - Disused railway station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time reported: 1940 onwards
Further Comments: Since closing, this station has become a haunt for a sad looking man, who is said to have once been a porter at the building.
Misty Female Figure
Location: Maldon (Essex) - Disused railway station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1950's onwards
Further Comments: Reports of a figure waiting on platform two, date back towards the end of the 1950's. The station is no longer there now; it had became a public house before being left empty and for sale for a long time, but the figure is still seen, making a strange groaning sound as it walks. An icy chill is said to denote her presence.
Footsteps
Location: Manchester (Lancashire) - Mayfield Station (now a parcel depot)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980's onwards
Further Comments: The footsteps have been heard echoing in the building late at night - they are believed to be those of a suicide (one of several which occurred here over the years), that occurred in the mid twentieth century.
Crying Baby
Location: Maryport (Cumbria) - Dearham Bridge railway station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A man once threw his newborn child under a train from the top of a tunnel entrance here, killing the infant. The father was hanged for the crime. Now, sometimes when a train is now about to enter the tunnel, the child can occasionally be heard screaming before it was hit.
Fred Nicholson
Location: Middlesbrough (Yorkshire) - Railway Station
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: Late nineteenth century
Further Comments: A young station boy reported seeing Fred, a signalman whom he knew, vanish in front of his eyes. He was told that Fred had fallen in front of a train a few hours earlier, dying instantly.
Steam Train
Location: N2 (Greater London) - East Finchley to Wellington Sidings underground
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This stretch of the Northern Line is reputed to be haunted by a spectral steam engine.
Sounds of a Train
Location: N6 (Greater London) - Highgate High Level Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Started during the Second World War, the station was never finished, though locals sometimes report the sound of a steam train along where the track was supposed to have been laid.
Silent Woman
Location: No fixed location (Greater London) - Railway line between London & Carlisle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early twentieth century
Further Comments: Dressed in black and wearing a veil, this figure has been seen sitting quietly on various trains and then disappearing without warning. She is believed to be a bride whose new husband had stuck his head out of a window of a train and was decapitated. Found holding his body once they reached London, totally insane, her spirit has been making the journey since.
Boadicea's Grave
Location: NW1 (Greater London) - King's Cross Station, Platform 10
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present?
Further Comments: The final resting ground of the warrior queen is reported to be under this busy platform. Where her ghost is reported to have been seen .
Nimbus
Location: Outer London: Barnet (Greater London) - Hadley Wood railway - south tunnel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980 onwards
Further Comments: Since being cut up for scrap in 1980, the diesel powered 'Nimbus' has been spotted running along the tracks.
Churchill
Location: Outer London: Queensway (Greater London) - Queensway Station, Northern Line
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980's
Further Comments: Witnessed waiting on the platform, Sir Winston Churchill once lived quite close to the station, where his ghost has been seen at this railway station.
Woman with a Red Scarf
Location: Outer London: Uxbridge (Greater London) - Ickenham Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Winter evenings (reoccurring), 1950's onwards
Further Comments: This ghostly figure stands at the end of the platform, close to where she fell and was electrocuted. She sometimes waves to people as if to find attention before vanishing.
Young Woman
Location: Pinmore (Ayrshire) - Railway line
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid twentieth century
Further Comments: the ghost of a girl who threw herself under a train just before the start of World War Two has occasionally been spotted standing by the tracks.
Porter
Location: Rothley (Leicestershire) - Railway Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early 1980s
Further Comments: A ghostly porter was spotted at the station by a member of the public returning from a party at 2am one Sunday morning. The building is also home to a ghostly dog and its owner - they were killed on the line a short distance away prior to the start of World War Two.
Soldier
Location: Rowsley (Derbyshire) - Rail station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2004
Further Comments: Members of the Society For Paranormal Research claimed to have seen a man dressed in soldier's uniform walking along the track, only to vanish when they went to investigate.
Tapping
Location: SE1 (Greater London) - Elephant & Castle Station, Northern Line
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Footsteps and rapping have been often heard in the station when it is closed - on investigation, no source can be found. Another story says the last train of the night is haunted by a lone girl who walks from the last carriage to the tip of the train, vanishing as she reaches the engine.
Cries of the Trapped
Location: SE13 (Greater London) - Lewisham Station, & St Johns area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 04 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A train crash in 1957, which was caused partly by fog, killed ninety people and injured over one hundred. It is their ghostly cries which can be heard on the anniversary on the accident.
Tube Traveller
Location: SE17 (Greater London) - Elephant and Castle Underground Station, Bakerloo line
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: Seen by both staff and commuters, this young woman is seen boarding the train, entering the train's carriages, but is never seen leaving it. Some also allocate the blame on the same entity when invisible footsteps are heard creating loud echoing around the station after hours.
Bricked Up Train
Location: SE19 (Greater London) - Area below Crystal Palace Park
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local legend states that there is a train bricked up under the park, complete with dead passengers and crew - it's said that sometimes the hands of the dead reach up from the ground and try to grab the living..!
Rail Worker
Location: SE24 (Greater London) - Tulse Hill Station, platform one
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Killed as he walked on the tracks, the worker's footsteps are sometimes heard echoing through the station late at night.
Big John
Location: Selside (Yorkshire) - Railway Line
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Sometimes seen on the track by signalmen, this large male figure would suddenly vanish without warning.
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massetXA
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Ghosts of London UndergroundGhosts of London Underground
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London Subterraneans
Location: All under London (Greater London) - No fixed location
Type: Other
Date / Time: Current
Further Comments: This legend, which seemingly 'does the rounds' every few years, states that a group of Londoners began to live underground in the late nineteenth century, and now they have mutated. These subterraneans live off the junk food we discard in the underground tube stations and the odd commuter if they are discovered alone on the train.
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Faceless Woman
Location: E11 (Greater London) - Beacontree Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1992
Further Comments: A station employee working alone heard the door to his office rattle several times. Unnerved, the man began to climb upstairs to find a colleague but felt he was being watched. Turning around, he saw a woman standing there with long blond hair but no face - her features were completely smooth. Talking to his colleague a short time later, the employee discovered that he was not the only person to have seen her.
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Cries and Screams
Location: E2 (Greater London) - Bethnal Green Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1981
Further Comments: A station master working alone in the station office late at night heard the soft sounds of children crying. As time went by, the cries grew louder and were joined by the screams of women. He ran from the office. One hundred and seventy-three people died in the station in a single accident during World War 2, the vast majority being women and children.
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Anne Naylor
Location: EC1 (Greater London) - Farringdon Underground Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The odd screams that have been heard in this area are attributed to Naylor, thirteen year old girl who was murdered on this site in the mid eighteenth century. She is now referred to as 'the Screaming Spectre'.
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Sarah Blackhead
Location: EC2 (Greater London) - Bank Station, Central Line
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Sarah seen late twentieth century, knocking in 1982
Further Comments: Possibly the same figure that haunts the Bank of England; in life this poor girl couldn't handle news that her brother had died, and returned daily to his office to meet him. Dressed in black clothing, she is affectionately called 'the Black Nun'. A worker once chased what he thought was an old lady locked in the station during the early hours of the morning, but she vanished down a corridor with no possible exit. In addition, at least one employee has reported something knocking on an empty lift door from the inside, way after normal closing time.
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Rebecca Griffiths
Location: EC2 (Greater London) - Liverpool Street Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Rebecca 1780 - 1812, man circa 2000
Further Comments: Once the site of the first Hospital of the Star of Bethlehem, an asylum for the insane, the area was haunted by the screams of Griffiths who was buried without a coin she compulsively held on to when locked away here. She also had the habit of exciting other inmates by peering through their cell windows. More recently there have been reports by underground staff of a man in white overalls on the platforms that can only be seen on CCTV.
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Old Woman
Location: EC3 (Greater London) - Aldgate Underground Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Mid to late twentieth century
Further Comments: This old woman was seen by an engineer as it stroked his friend's hair, seconds before the co-worker touched a live wire which sent 20,000 volts through his body. Remarkably, he survived. Phantom footfalls have also been reported coming from down the tunnel, abruptly finishing.
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Silhouette
Location: EC3 (Greater London) - King William Tunnel, Under London Bridge (disused underground tunnel)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990s?
Further Comments: An image taken by a photographer shows what appears to be a silhouetted figure along this tunnel, though no one else was there at the time. A medium called to the location claimed that the ghost was that of a man who died while breaking up a fight.
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Steam Train
Location: N2 (Greater London) - East Finchley to Wellington Sidings underground
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This stretch of the Northern Line is reputed to be haunted by a spectral steam engine. 
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Sounds of a Train
Location: N6 (Greater London) - Highgate High Level Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Started during the Second World War, the station was never finished, though locals sometimes report the sound of a steam train along where the track was supposed to have been laid.
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Boadicea's Grave
Location: NW1 (Greater London) - King's Cross Station, Platform 10
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Still present?
Further Comments: The final resting ground of the warrior queen is reported to be under this busy platform.
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Churchill
Location: Outer London: Queensway (Greater London) - Queensway Station, Northern Line
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980's
Further Comments: Witnessed waiting on the platform, Sir Winston Churchill once lived quite close to the station.
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Woman with a Red Scarf
Location: Outer London: Uxbridge (Greater London) - Ickenham Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Winter evenings (reoccurring), 1950's onwards
Further Comments: This ghostly figure stands at the end of the platform, close to where she fell and was electrocuted. She sometimes waves to attract attention before vanishing.
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Tapping
Location: SE1 (Greater London) - Elephant & Castle Station, Northern Line
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Footfalls and rapping have been often heard in the station when it is closed - on investigation, no source can be found. Another story says the last train of the night is haunted by a lone girl who walks from the last carriage to the tip of the train, vanishing as she reaches the engine.
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Nun
Location: SE1 (Greater London) - London Road Depot (Bakerloo Line)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This area is thought to be haunted by a nun who is connected to a nearby Roman Catholic school.
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Slamming Doors
Location: SE11 (Greater London) - Kennington Loop
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s onwards
Further Comments: All passengers disembark at Kennington and the carriages are checked just prior to trains turning in the loop. However, as the train drivers sit waiting in the dark loop tunnel, at least two have reported hearing the connecting carriage doors open and close as if someone is moving from the rear of the train towards the driving compartment.
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Cries of the Trapped
Location: SE13 (Greater London) - Lewisham Station, & St Johns area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 04 December (reoccurring)
Further Comments: A crash in 1957, caused partly by fog, killed ninety people and injured over one hundred. It is their cries which can be heard on the anniversary on the accident.
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Reflection
Location: SE17 (Greater London) - Bakerloo line, Elephant & Castle and other stations along the line
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It is reported that occasionally, while travelling northbound, some passengers can see the reflection of someone sitting next to them, even though there is no one in the seat.
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Tube Traveller
Location: SE17 (Greater London) - Elephant and Castle Underground Station, Bakerloo line
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Woman seen late twentieth century, photograph taken in 1980s
Further Comments: Seen by both staff and commuters, this young woman enters the train's carriages, but is never seen leaving. Some also allocate the blame on the same entity when invisible footfalls create loud echoing around the station after hours.
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Bricked Up Train
Location: SE19 (Greater London) - Area below Crystal Palace Park
Type: Legend
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A local legend states that there is a train bricked up under the park, complete with dead passengers and crew - sometimes the hands of the dead reach up from the ground and try to grab the living..!
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Rail Worker
Location: SE24 (Greater London) - Tulse Hill Station, platform one
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Killed as he walked on the tracks, the worker's footfalls are sometimes heard echoing through the station late at night.
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Monks
Location: SW1 (Greater London) - Jubilee Line, from Westminster to Stratford
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: Since the construction of the Jubilee Line, reports of phantom monks walking the tracks have begun to emerge. The sightings may be connected to the large number of graves which were disturbed while work was commencing.
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Tall Man
Location: SW1 (Greater London) - Vauxhall Underground Line
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1960's
Further Comments: This seven foot tall man was seen underground several times by diggers working on the line - he wore brown overalls and a cap.
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Workman
Location: SW5 (Greater London) - West Brompton tube station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A man dressed in dark, old looking workman's clothing has been spotted early in the morning and late at night. He walks to the end of the platform before disappearing.
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Worker in a Reefer Jacket
Location: SW7 (Greater London) - South Kensington Station, westbound line
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: December 1928
Further Comments: A witness leaving the last train in this station reported seeing a spectral locomotive and equally ghostly male figure on the tracks, both of which vanished into the tunnel.
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Workman
Location: SW9 (Greater London) - South Island Place, Northern Line, near Stockwell Station
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1984
Further Comments: A trainee manager sent to walk the line by himself as part of his training encountered an old man with a tilly lamp working at South Island Place. They exchanged a couple of words in passing. When the trainee reached Stockwell Station and commented that he had seen someone else along the line, a search party was dispatched to find the worker as no maintenance work was scheduled. No one could be found, and the trainee later discovered that the old man had been seen dozens of times over the years, and was believed to be the ghost of a worker killed on the spot during the 1950s.
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Footprints
Location: W1 (Greater London) - Baker's Street to St John's Wood, northbound tunnel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s?
Further Comments: Bill, an underground track walker, sat down for a break while patrolling the line. He reported disembodied footprints which crunched down in the ballast and appeared before him. The footsteps went straight past him and stopped ten metres from his position. When he finished his rounds, one of his colleagues said that other people had also encountered the footsteps, and they belonged to a workman killed in the area.
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Striding Grey Man
Location: W4 (Greater London) - Acton Green common, near Turnham Green tube station
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 6.45am, Thursday 12 February 2004
Further Comments: This semi transparent entity was observed walking parallel to the railway line, wearing a knee length cape. The dark grey figure vanished when the witness momentarily looked away.
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Egyptian Princess
Location: WC1 (Greater London) - British Museum Station (closed 1933)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Pre 1933
Further Comments: Connected to the 'curse' of the Amen-Ra's tomb, this Egyptian Princess would return from the grave late at night and would wail and scream in the tunnels. A more recent report states that these sounds can now be heard further down the track, in Holborn station.
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Displaced Actress
Location: WC2 (Greater London) - Aldwych Underground Station (no longer operational)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Built where the Royal Strand Theatre once stood, it is thought the female ghost seen standing on the tracks migrated from the original building to the station shortly after it became operational. She is normally reported by cleaning staff working the night shift.
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William Terriss
Location: WC2 (Greater London) - Covent Garden Station, Piccadilly Line
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Around midnight, winter months (reoccurring). Last seen 1972?
Further Comments: A theatre manager, Mr Terriss was stabbed to death in December 1897 at a nearby theatre. His ghost, tall in stature, has been seen dressed in a grey suit with white gloves, standing on the platform late at night.
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Oppressive Feeling
Location: WC2 (Greater London) - Embankment Station - Page's Walk
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000
Further Comments: Staff who walk along the long dark tunnel known as Page's Walk complain of cold winds, doors which open and slam shut, and an oppressive feeling.
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Freebird
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Birmingham Snow HillBirmingham Snow Hill is a railway station located in the centre of Birmingham, England, on the site of a much larger station, built by the former Great Western Railway (GWR). Though only a shadow of its former self, it is still the second most important railway station in Birmingham after the former LMS New Street Station. It is also the current terminus of the Midland Metro light rail line from Wolverhampton (via Wednesbury and West Bromwich), pending the line's extension.
The reopened Snow Hill station has three platforms used for National Rail trains. It used to have four, however one was converted to be used by Midland Metro trams. However, the planned extension of the Midland Metro through Birmingham City Centre includes a dedicated embankment for trams alongside the station, which will allow the fourth platform to be returned to main line use.
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Services
Snow Hill is the principal destination of the Chiltern Main Line which links Birmingham with London (Marylebone). Express services from London are operated by Chiltern Railways, with some Chiltern services continue onwards to Kidderminster.
Snow Hill serves as the hub for a number of local train services which are operated by Central Trains, including:
local services to Dorridge, via Solihull (with some peak time services going on to Warwick and Leamington Spa)
local services to Stratford-upon-Avon via Shirley;
local services to Worcester via Smethwick Galton Bridge, Stourbridge Junction, Kidderminster and Droitwich Spa.
Most of these services operate as through services, for example from Dorridge or Shirley to Stourbridge Junction.
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History
The site of the station was originally occupied by Oppenheims Glassworks, however this was demolished. Many parts of the building and machinery are believed to be underneath the station and car park therefore, during the development alongside the station, the area was designated the title of site of archaeological importance by Birmingham City Council. The station was opened in 1852 on the Great Western Railway (GWR) line from London (Paddington) to Wolverhampton Low Level Station. It originally bore the name Livery Street Station and was merely a simple large wooden shed. It was renamed Snow Hill in 1858; and the Great Western Hotel added in 1863. By 1859 it was possible to travel from Snow Hill to London in just under three hours.
Snow Hill station was rebuilt in 1871 to accommodate longer trains. The new station consisted of a huge iron arch with a glass roof, with a simple wooden overhead bridge linking the two platforms. It was never intended to be the main station but political gaming between the railway companies prevented the railway reaching its original intended end at Birmingham Curzon Street.
Trains arriving from the south first passed through Snow Hill Tunnel, built by the cut-and-cover method, and then a cutting from Temple Row to Snow Hill. The cutting was roofed over in 1872 and the Great Western Arcade built on top.
In 1906 reconstruction of Snow Hill commenced and this was not completed until 1912. The new station building was intended to compete with New Street, which at the time was a much grander building than it is today. The rebuilt station consisted of a large booking hall with a glass roof arch. It contained lavish waiting rooms with oak bars. The bottom end of the station contained fish platforms (Birmingham was and still is a major participant in the seafood industry) and cargo storage. The station was twice as long as the one that stands today.
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Closure
As part of the Beeching axe closure programme in the 1960s, it was decided that Snow Hill station was unnecessary. Snow Hill was recommended for closure, and all the services were switched to New Street station.
An original entrance in Livery StreetExpress services were diverted via New Street from 1967. Local services north from Snow Hill to Wolverhampton, and a largely unpublicised four trains per day service to Langley Green, via Smethwick West railway station (using Class 122 units nicknamed bubble cars), were the last to run and ended in March 1972.
Despite a huge public outcry the building was not preserved. The Great Western Hotel was demolished in 1969 and the station was largely demolished in 1977, when the dangerous state of the building was revealed. The ironwork of the station roof was badly corroded in several places and the station had begun to literally slide down the hill due to unstable ground and foundations.
A few items including the original gates and booking hall sign were saved and later used in the Birmingham Moor Street railway station restoration. The site was for many years used as a car park.
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Ghosts
The old snow hill station had its share of ghosts, there have been reports of the sound of ghostly stream trains being heard after the station closed in 1977 and the area was used has a car park, also the sound of what people have describled has marching soliders climbing aboard trains have been heard plus the ghostly sighting of a tall gentleman wearing a tophat walking along the area where the old platform number 5 once was.
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I WONDER IF THE GHOSTS STILL HUANT THE STATION NOW ITS BEEN REBUILT ? 
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san4uzel
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Rothley Steam Railway Station, LeicestershireRothley Steam Railway Station, Leicestershire
Rothley station on the Great Central Railway is haunted by a phantom Station Master, along with several ghostly figures in Edwardian dress.
“There have long been legends about the ghostly figure of an old signalman who used to work at Rothley station, but we certainly didn't expect the report to uncover quite as many spectral passengers waiting for our steam trains!” marketing assistant Lynn Hill.
The unexplained ghostly presence of a man in his fifties dressed in braces and a white shirt, has also been reported on the platform. In the Victorian waiting room two ghostly apparitions have been seen. One a young female carrying a parasol, and the other an older lady in Victorian dress, sitting in a chair by the left hand side of the door. The station it seems is a centre for paranormal sightings. Witnesses have reported seeing a phantom a party of schoolboys with their teacher, on the platform waiting for a train.
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Helena
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Railway ghostsCharfield's Ghost Railway Children - Gloucestershire
A Leeds to Bristol mail train crashed in Charfield, in dense fog, at about 5.30am on October 13th, 1928. Fifteen people were killed and 23 badly injured, two small bodies remained unidentified. One body was a child (of about five), and the other of a child between twelve and seventeen. A granite cross was erected as a memorial to the victims. On it's front ten names were inscribed followed by the poignant inscription "two unknown".
From about 1929 a strange woman dressed in black visited the graves of the two unknown children. She continued her visits right into the 1950s, Joe Kloiber saw the woman:
"The poor lady is at rest now I suppose... All I can tell you is that she was frail, always dressed in black, and came to the grave two or three times a year. She always arrived in a chauffeur-driven limousine, the car was not black, but I cannot remember the colour. She would put flowers on the grave and prey there. "
Two lonely and lost ghostly railway children, walking hand in hand have been reported near the site of the crash.
Molly The Tea Lady - Yeovil Railway Station
The ghost of a tealady who used to work in the buffet, has been encountered at Yeovil Station. The woman named Molly died on the station platform in the 1960s, but she loved the station so much she now haunts it in spirit form.
Although never seen, some of Molly's tricks are swapping cutlery around and turning things on and off. However when asked to stop her mischief, she does so.
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Charfield's railway childrenCharfield's railway children
Fifteen people were killed and 23 badly injured when a Leeds to Bristol mail train crashed in Charfield, which today lies on the border between Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire.
Every year villagers in Charfield lay flowers at a memorial to those who died. But, in spite of the passing of the decades, nobody has ever been able to identify two of the victims of the carnage.
There have been plenty of theories bandied about the village since the crash, which happened in dense fog at about 5.30am on October 13, 1928. Were they men? Were they children? Or, bizarrely, were the charred remains nothing more than those of a ventriloquist's dummies?
More than 50 passengers were sleeping on the Leeds to Bristol night mail train as it headed for Charfield at 60mph.
The site of the Charfield rail crash, which claimed 15 lives.
In the village signal box signalman Henry Button accepted the mail train from the Berkeley Junction and put the distant signal to danger.
That should have halted the express until a freight train had reversed into sidings.
But driver Henry Aldington and his fireman, Frank Want, both read the distant signal as clear instead of danger and ran headlong into horror.
The goods driver had almost cleared the line when he saw the mail train bearing down on him.
The express crashed into the goods tender and then ploughed off the line and hit another empty goods train head on.
The engine of the express fell on its side among the splintered waggons and hot ashes sprayed from the firebox around the line.
It was an appalling scene as the tangled wreckage settled and the hiss of steam mingled with the desperate cries of the trapped and injured.
Moments later, the crash scene erupted into a ball of flame and became a furnace.
Gas, which fuelled lights in the coaches, escaped from supply pipes fractured in the impact.
As it came into contact with the hot ashes it turned the wrecked coaches into a massive funeral pyre.
Villagers awakened by the noise of the crash and the exploding cylinders raced along the cutting to find flames licking along the coaches where passengers were trapped.
Locals, railwaymen and passengers who had scrambled clear made frantic efforts to free those trapped by the fire.
Within 20 minutes the flames were leaping 40 feet high above the cutting and rescuers were driven back by the fierce heat.
Firemen from Bristol, Gloucester and Stroud fought the blaze for five hours before they were able to bring it under control.
But it was several hours after that before anyone could begin the grim task of sifting through the smouldering wreckage to recover bodies.
The victims who died were so badly mutilated that identification was almost impossible. In most cases it was the recognition of a ring, a watch, a cigarette case or a distinctive piece of clothing that put names to them.
But two small bodies remained unidentified and unclaimed in spite of worldwide inquiries.
Down the years, folklore and legend has built about who they were. The most popular belief is that they were children, but there have rumours that they were dwarfs, jockeys - even ventriloquist's dummies.
Then there are the stories of a mystery woman in black who paid several visits to the grave in which 12 of the victims are buried. The granite cross built as a memorial to the victims records ten names followed by the poignant inscription "two unknown".
Since the crash there have been occasional reports of sightings of the ghosts of Charfield's two lonely and lost railway children - often seen hand in hand near the site of the crash
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