Off The Rails

Down south our rail system is half in use and half ruins. I can imagine that further north, the rail system is an integral part of life. I can imagine that train hopping from place to place was much easier than it is now. Everything has security and a team of people to make sure there are no hitchhikers. Not to mention the dogs. This particular story is probably told in any town that has a train system. Being in an old mill state and where coal mining is still done in the mountains, we have train tracks that go far and wide.

Jason and I decided to stop at a cafe near our new studio space. It was quiet and relaxing. While there, we overheard a conversation two older gentlemen were having. They were talking about how great the train mural looks in the next town over. (I have seen the mural and it is pretty spectacular.)

I was caught eavesdropping. "An inquisitive young lady aren't you?" I didn't deny a thing.

"I'm sorry," I shrugged.

The gentleman nearest to me, who I will call Nathaniel, laughed and rubbed his massive beard. "It's all right. Youngins these days are always in their cellular phones. Those contraptions ruin conversation. Old people don't talk much though."

The other gentleman I will call Joseph chuckled in agreement and put his phone away. "Don't let him scare you, young lady, he's all talk and no bite."

We sat in conversation for a while and finished our drinks. We talked of what we are doing in the building and got back to talking about trains. They were surprised we weren't affected. Jason and I both grew up near tracks that still work.

"You remember that time the train derailed?" Joseph looked at Nathaniel. I sat wide eyed in morbid curiosity.

"Yeah. Old Martha Dover's cow got loose. The whole town went to look for it."

Joseph leaned back in his chair and looked at his empty cup. "That was a terrible night. The cow was the only thing that survived the train incident even if it lost part of its leg."

I tilted my head to the side like a dog. How on earth did a cow's leg derail a train?

Nathaniel took up the mantle of storyteller. "Old Martha Dover had a husband who worked out of town some weeks. She had 10 kids, but they all moved off. Bigger and better things if I recall correctly. It was cold and in November when we heard the screaming from Martha Dover. Her beloved Molly had gotten loose." He stopped to take a breath.

Joseph chuckled and shifted in his seat to lean on the table. "Back then, young lady, folk 'round here use to keep livestock as a livelihood. We didn't have these fancy stores and delivery like we do now. We either had it or we knew someone who did and traded. Molly was Old Martha's beloved pet and milk cow. Some of the sweetest milk came from that cow. She spoiled it like Martha birthed her. She was a friendly thing too."

Nathaniel let out a sigh. "That was why it was so important to find her. Martha Dover was half hysterical when we ran through the streets screaming for help. i remember my pappy waking my older brothers up to help look."

"It was the train whistle which scared everybody. They figured the cow wandered to the tracks and with the train a comin', doom and gloom was to follow." I looked at Joseph. He looked weary from the memory.

"What happened?"

"You see, around 1940, people worked together. I remember running out with my sisters when we heard the loud crash. I fell out of bed with my little brother when the house shook. He started screaming that the earth was going to swallow us whole." Joseph chuckled. "Poor fella. He lives over on Spencer Mountain now. Doing well. Great grandkids and all." He got up to get another coffee.

Nathaniel sat stroking his beard in silence for a while. "Now that he is out of earshot, let me tell you what happened." He leaned over and put an arm on my chair. "Molly was on the tracks, but just barely. The train was going much faster than it should have. It hit Molly in her hindquarters and slung her a few feet. The collision with the bovine is not what caused the wreck." He glanced over at Joseph chatting it up with the young barista. Apparently these two guys frequented the place. "He doesn't believe it, but we've heard stories about it all our lives. When they first built the tracks through, there was a flood of new menfolk come through. Women around here got a bad reputation for wanting to find a husband bad enough to get them out of these parts so they would throw themselves at any pecker that would look their way." Nathaniel examined me to make sure I wasn't offended and continued. "Some folk my age had parents that were results of such unions. Back then it was taboo for the woman to get pregnant before marriage. Some men stayed with their ladies. Other danced and left town to continue with the railroad." He leaned in closer. "One such union resulted in a disowning a daughter. Stephen McAuley was an asshole. He beat his wife and his daughters. He tried to raise his sons to do the same, but they were old enough to beat him. He beat his daughter and kicked her out. When his sons found out what he did they beat him up in return and kicked him out." He looked over his shoulder at Joseph. "She was Joseph's grandmother. No baby resulted from her union and she later happily married. Sometime years later, the trains started coming through regularly. When Stephen McAuley was old and decrepit, they found his sprawled out on the tracks with a look of surprise on his face. The train had hit him. I will spare you the details but you can imagine it was pretty instant. His wife had already died and all his kinfolk wanted nothing to do with him. No one knows how or why he was on the tracks. No one knows if someone put him there out of hatred for the piece of shit." He leaned back in his chair when Joseph returned.

Joseph sat down and eyed Nathaniel. "You told her, didn't you?"

The old men nodded at each other. A silent conversation happened between the two and joseph looked at me. "Great Granddaddy was an asshole. From what I hear he deserved it. Unfortunately since that night was killed, trains would derail regularly there. When they diverted the tracks, they stopped happening. The night Molly got loosed was just before the transferred the tracks over. She only lost her leg a few days after when they realized it was broke. That old cow outlived Old Martha."

I blinked a few times in disbelief. "So you're saying that the same place where he died is where Molly got hit and the train derailed? Every time the trains derailed was in that exact spot where he was killed?"

Nathaniel rubbed his beard again. "Give or take a few feet, but yeah. Around that part. No survivors. Fortunately it was only freight trains coming through instead of passenger cars. Them went on other tracks." He eyed me for a moment. "There's ghost trains now because of it. Engineers not making it to their destinations still trying to go. That part of the tracks is unused and you still hear the old steam whistles like a train is going to whirl by."

A bell dinged as someone else entered the cafe. We all looked up as if snapped out of a spell. Jason caught the time. We had been here for 3 hours talking with these guys. They laughed and shook our hands as we parted ways.

Nathaniel stopped just in front of his truck. "You might hear the whistles where y'all are. If you do, don't chase them. It's dangerous. If you hear em and then see em, go inside and batten down the hatches. You might feel a crash, you might not. I wish you young folk luck with your arts, see you around!"

Both gentlemen waved as they drove off in different directions. I was kind of left dumbfounded because I wanted to see a ghost train, but you don't follow ghost lights if you see them so why would you follow ghost whistles? I sighed and got in the car. This was going to be interesting.

Part of me can't wait to find out what a ghost train whistle sounds like.