Ghost train stories? - Trains Magazine

Another GREAT ghost story in my personal opinion is the ghost of Silver Run on the former B&O mainline west of Grafton.  Supposedly, starting around 1910 or thereabouts, the specter of a beautiful young girl with long, black hair and a long, flowing white dress was seen near Tunnel #19 on the B&O by a number of B&O crews.

This story was also printed in Tony Reevy’s super fun book Ghost Trains. Sadly, the former B&O mainline across West Virginia was abandoned in the mid 1980s by CSX.

The old right-of-way is now a "Rail Trail" and since abandonment several hikers and cyclists have also claimed that they have seen or heard her.  This is really weird.  What is the explanation?  There is none!

Each individual will simply have to decide for themselves if she’s real or not.  As for me, I’m super skeptical but want to keep an open mind.

If you do a search for "The Lady in White of Silver Run" you can find quite a few references to it.  Some of the details of the story vary somewhat. By one account, she was riding on the pilot of the locomotive wailing and screaming in pain.  By another account she was seen on the pilot having a great time while waving at people.

Here is one version of the story as copied and pasted from a website:

"The North Bend Rail Trail in West Virginia is known for its tunnels. Especially its haunted tunnels. 

The tunnels on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad line between Grafton and Parkersburg, West Virginia were built just after the Civil War, between 1867 and 1870. By the late 1950’s, railroad freight cars were getting taller and wider. The narrow, low tunnels on the B & O line were creating a problem area referred to as “The Bottleneck” by railroaders because of the difficulty of getting the larger trains through the tunnels. B&O decided to do a “clearance” project, widening the tunnels and raising the roofs to accommodate the new trains. 

Some of the tunnels were “daylighted”, or had their roofs removed so they were open cuts instead of tunnels as part of this project, but ten of the original tunnels remain today. Hikers and bikers pass through them regularly, most unaware of the ghostly legends connected with several of the tunnels—stories of grisly deaths, apparitions, strange noises, and frightening experiences. 

The Lady in White

Of these tales, the most well known by far is the Silver Run Tunnel’s Lady in White. Silver Run, or Tunnel 19, is located not far from the little town of Cairo, which was once famous for its marble-making industry. Today, the Silver Run tunnel and its resident ghost attracts hundreds of visitors annually to tiny Cairo.

According to the legend, a young woman waited for her betrothed at the Silver Run station. She was to be married, and was wearing a long white dress as she watched for her lover. 

…”a young woman waited for her betrothed at the Silver Run station.”

He never came. Did she fall accidentally? Or did she jump in grief and despair when she realized she’d been jilted? No one knows, but not long after her death whispers began to spread that her ghost had been seen in the tunnel. One night, an engineer reported a woman in white who appeared at the tunnel entrance just as his train was approaching. The engineer tried to stop, but there was not enough time. The train struck the woman, sending her flying off the tracks.

When the train finally stopped, the engineer and his crew searched in vain for the young woman’s body, but it was nowhere to be found. After that report, engineers regularly reported seeing the woman, and tried to avoid hitting her. Each time, the story was the same. She vanished into thin air.

One engineer decided he would not stop for the apparition. When she appeared in front of his train, he blew the whistle but did not brake. The train smashed into the woman and she sailed up and over the engine.

The telegraph office in Parkersburg began getting strange messages for every station between the office and Silver Run. A woman in white was riding on the cowcatcher of an incoming train! As the train pulled into the station, a crowd was waiting. But there was no woman in white, only a pale-faced engineer who looked like he’d seen a ghost.

Regards,

Fred M. Cain