The Haunted Railroad Crossing

Chelsey Watts

Railroads are never a safe place to cross, especially when it is foggy and difficult to see. Trains are constantly moving from station to station and a train going fifty fives miles per hour takes about a mile or more to come to a complete stop if their tires and breaks are in good condition. Trains cannot swerve; they can only follow the track. Never take chances when crossing a railroad, always look and listen to make sure one is not near by.
 
The Salt Lake Tribune says that on December 1 1938 in Salt Lake City, twenty-three students and one bus driver lost their lives due to an incident between and school bus and a train. A train crossed at 10200 South and 400 West in South Jordan during the first snowstorm of the year. The bus driver opened his doors to look for a train but saw nothing in the thick fog. The driver pulled onto the tracks at 8:34 a.m. and at that same moment, an 80-plus car "Flying Ute" train emerged from the storm traveling more than 50 miles per hour. The engineers slammed on the brakes, but it was too late — the train plowed into the bus. 

Ghost and Ghouls say that the legend happened on a rainy day in the 1930s (or perhaps 1940s) a crowded school bus stalled at a railroad crossing near San Antonio, TX. The train plowed into the school bus, killing a dozen children (give or take). Nowadays, if someone stops his or her vehicle on the same tracks, an unseen force will push the car to safety. If the person dusts their bumper with baby powder and then stops on the tracks, small handprints will appear. It seems the children killed all those years ago want to save others from suffering the same fate, or so the story goes. 

 

This is a picture of someone putting baby powder on their truck and the handprints showing up

But the truth says that there are reports of moving cars and ghost prints persist, the school bus accident never happened, at least not in Texas. If such an accident had occurred, it would have certainly appeared in newspapers. Yet, no articles exist. However, a horrific bus-train accident did occur in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 1938, 26 children died after a train struck their bus, which had stalled on the tracks. The accident resulted in days of nationwide coverage, and researchers believe this incident inspired the San Antonio legend.

I am from Texas and have lived there all of my life. I have never heard of such a thing happening in San Antonio. I live about four hours from San Antonio and I have visited there at least fifteen times in my life. The two articles that I read contradict their stories. The article that was written in Salt Lake City has a specific address, the time of day and the number of students that were on the bus. That article is very similar to any article that talks about the incident. I personally believe the incident happened in Salt Lake City. There might have been an incident similar in San Antonio and the railroad tracks there are haunted, but I think the incident that everyone says to of happened there really happened in Salt Lake City.

 

This is a picture of the railroad tracks at night and you can see the ghost.

Work Cited:
Brantley, Kanesha. “San Antonio “Haunted” Railroad Crossing.” Can of Mystery.  Web. 16 Oct. 2015.

Dalrymple, Jim. “Deadly Utah school bus accident remembered 75 years later. “The Salt Lake Tribune. 2 Dec. 20013. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.

Ghostghoul. “ Truth or Legend: Do Ghost Children Haut A Texas Railroad Crossing?” Ghost and Ghoul. 19 July.  2015 Web. 10 Oct. 2015.

Ghostghoul. “Ghost Picture Of The Day: Railroad Ghost Girl.” Ghost and Ghoul. 3 July. 2013. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.

Weiser, Kathy. “ Texas Legends: Ghost Children upon San Antonio’s Railroad Tracks.”  Legends of America. Sept. 2015. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.

Links for further research:
Miracle Hunters - "The Ghost Tracks of San Antonio": Hosted by Jonathan Levit
https://youtu.be/RJYuF2sYzGw
This is a video of a guy that goes to the site in San Antonio to give a tour of the areas and have people try out the “optical illusion.”

“Haunted” railroad tracks in San Antonio, Texas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-ZWdwPc2LA
This is a video of someone putting their car and neutral and seeing if the ghost will take them over the railroad tracks.

San Antonio Ghost Children
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/ghosts/handprint.asp
This article is about two kids that went to the railroad tracks and tried the illusion themselves. It also talks about the variations and origins behind the illusion. 

The Creepy Legend of The Haunted Railroad Crossing
http://paranormal.about.com/od/hauntedplaces/a/The-Haunted-Railroad-Crossing_2.htm
This article talks about the facts of the incident and also mentions “weird” things.

San Antonio “Haunted” Railroad Crossings

Author: Kanesha Brantley

Ghost lingering near the haunted railroad tracks of San Antonio

Back in the 1940s, in San Antonio, a school bus full of children was making its way down the road and toward the intersection when it stalled on the railroad tracks. A speeding train smashed into the bus killing 10 of the children and the bus driver. Since that dreadful accident many years ago, the legend has said any car that stops near the tracks will be pushed by unseen hands across the tracks to safety. They have said that the hands pushing the cars over the tracks are the spirits of children that died in the accident (Ghost Tracks). This myth is to help prevent another fatal accident. As the story progresses through the years, people all around the world will come to Texas just to experience the spirits push their vehicles over the tracks. In order for you to experience the spirits you will have to put your car in neutral when near the tracks and then you’ll feel the ghost children push your car uphill. Some have even covered their rear end with baby powder or flour, to see if any tiny handprints will appear. Many have reported that several handprints have appeared on their car. Others have heard the voices and laughter of the children while at the site. 

The allege fingerprints from the San Antonio ghost children
from Atimeforlove

However, there are no records of any such accident having ever occurred in the newspaper articles in Texas. In fact the San Antonio road is on a slight incline which could explain the cars moving by themselves (Ghost Tracks). In December 1938, in Salt Lake City, Utah, a similar accident to the San Antonio tracks happened. It involved twenty-six children, ages 12 to 18. They lost their lives when the school bus stalled on the tracks and was hit by a freight train (Mikkelson, San Antonio Ghost Children).

Fact or Fake Paranormal of the San Antonio tracks

Work Cited

“Ghost Tracks.” Scaryforkids.com. Scary Website, 2013. Web. 16 October 2013.

Mikkelson, Barbara and David P. “San Antonio Ghost Children.” Snopes.com. Urban Legends Reference Pages, 1995-2013. Web. 18 October 2013.

Links for Further Research:

San Antonio Ghost Children

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/ghosts/handprint.asp.

This gives a small summary about how people would put powder on the rear end of their car to see if they spot any fingerprints from the children pushing them over the tracks.

San Antonio haunted railroad tracks

www.examiner.com/article/san-antonio-s-haunted-railroad-tracks

Speaks on the legend of the school bus incident and states facts about how the car actually moves over the tracks.