Short Stories of the Weird, Wicked and Warped

Ghost Light

There was folklore about a signalman who lost his head when he was hit by a train in the middle of the night. There are several stories from different states, such as Texas, Arkansas, and North Carolina. The accidents happened between 1856 to the 1930s, some being an accident and others caused by murder. They always involved a railroad worker and the head was never found.

There was one fellow signalman who quit a couple of weeks after I started that had told me about the story first. He told me that there was an old man who had always been so careful in following safety protocols.

It was his job to light the lanterns at the station and all along the tricky turns on the rail lines in his section. In the thirty years that he worked for the company as a signalman, there had been an accident on the lines.

As with any job back in the day, there were always murders that looked like accidents so that someone could move up in position. Jealousy and grudges made for dangerous workplaces back then.

No one knew what truly happened that night but it did seem strange. Some thought that a rival co-worker had pushed him onto the tracks to get his job, some say that he died of a heart attack and some say that he just got old. No matter what the theory was, he was still dead and missing his head.

So, he was buried without it and rumors are that to this day still looks for his head. It didn't take long for his ghost light to be spotted along his section of the tracks. Every night when a train would come around the forested bend, a strange light would appear. It would be so bright that the conductors could see the tracks for hundreds of feet ahead of the train.

It got the name ghost light from the locals. The story of the light spread across the young nation, and people from all over would come out to look for the light. One night, a young man got too close to the tracks following the light and was hit by a coal train. His head was missing the next morning when the authorities came out to investigate.

Many of the locals said that it was the old man looking for a new head. The ghost of a man was soon seen walking along the tracks, stumbling as if blind. After that accident, no one stayed on the job for long for fear they might lose their head.

Eventually, the company closed that part of the line because everyone refused to work it. The trains were rerouted to another track on the other side of the mountain. The towns along the abandoned tracks dried up and became ghost towns. It wasn't until about ten years ago that a new company bought the lines and reopened them for trains.

New railroad workers came in to upgrade the old tracks, install new signals and crossings, and built new stations. The small towns started to prosper with new people moving in, jobs created by the railroad company, and tourists coming to see the old ghost towns. Most had never heard of the ghost light or the ghost.

It took many years for the ghost and ghost light phenomenon to be forgotten, only labeled an old urban legend.

That was until he was spotted roaming the lines again. After the first sighting of a faint haze floating beside the tracks, the ghost light started appearing. I never believed the stories until I was on the job in Arkansas and saw the ghost myself.

So here is my story on how I lost my head and became a ghostwriter.....lol.....get it.

I'm a ghost and I'm writing a story.....Ah well, some found it funny and died of laughter. Buh bum dum. Ok enough with the bad dad jokes, they are killing me...

Okay, Okay, don't leave. I swear that was my last one. At the risk of losing my head, I won't tell any more jokes.

You got to admit that was a good one...What? you didn't like it. Well, I guess not everyone has good taste in jokes.