So no pics tonight, but on the way to Norwich, a driver I know reminded me of a topic we have spoken of before, and I know full well there will be an even split of oooooh good idea and snorts of derision! When I was a driver, and indeed Conductor I had several incidents and sightings that relate to ghosts and the unexplained. Now I know that Yarmouth depot is meant to be haunted by old tram fitters making metallic banging noises at night for example, so I would like as many of you as possible to send in your transport related ghost and supernatural stories for a special around Halloween,. How many parts it turns into depends on the number of stories I receive, Stories to the usual email address please.
To give you a flavour of what I'm after: when I was working for Boro'line in the very lste 80's I was driving a bog standard Optare bodied Leyland Olympian on a very quiet circular route from Eltham via Chislehurst and Sidcup (the 328 for those who need to know). I was driving up a street in Chislehurst when I heard footsteps upstairs. Assuming someone wanted to get off I pulled up at the next stop only to realise I had an empty bus. I put it down to lack of concentration and carried on. An hour later, on my next trip I got to the same place and heard footsteps upstairs, and the sound of someone coming downstairs then losing their footing and clatterting down the stairs. Now anyone knows there is no sound like that so I didn't even bother lookng in the mirror - I just pulled over, opened the doors, and yet again discovered I had an empty bus.
When I got back to the depot I asked to see the vehicle records to see if anyone had ever died on the bus etc but rather annoyingly nothing of note was there. So why I heard all that on that particular night I have no idea. Anyway that's the sort of thing I'm after, so now it's down to you my friends - there's an Anglian driver who loves these kind of things relying on it!
Picture this if you can,as a lad in the 1950's i was out in the middle of no where camping with 2 mates we decided to take a wander where we came across a bridge with a river slowly flowing through it,after a short walk we were on our way back as the evening light was falling,we got to the bridge again and coming towards the bridge we saw the small boat with a slightly swinging lantern at the rear,the boat was shrouded in a sort of mist as it got closure there was this figure sculling at the rear looking rather ghostly, we kept real quiet,we all thought it was just the light from his lantern as the boat past beneath us he looked up,we hoped he hadn't seen us,to say this was scary to us youngsters was an understatement,when we looked the other side of the bridge there was no sign of the boat,i wasn't the eldest nor the bravest at 11 years old,but one of my friends who was 14 went down to the rivers edge and looked under the bridge absolutely nothing,we cacked ourselves,packed up our tents and left,to us that was bl**dy spooky..
ReplyDeleteaha it were a dark bleak night the wind be a howlin,the trees were a ruslin,the dogs were edgy they new something was about to appen, i'll stop there i'm scaring myself it is midnight after all...lol..
Nice one Jim! The ghostly boat. It's amazing how all,those experiences stay with you forever and are never forgotten.
ReplyDeleteNo snorts of derision from me, I love this sort of thing.
ReplyDeleteSadly my nearest transport related one is one that happened when I was on a school trip (we used a coach to get there - tenuous link I know, lol) so don't know if that would count.
Of course it counts but can you email rather than comment or everyone will have seen it before the Halloween post goes up:) cheers.
ReplyDeleteWill do. I'll need to type it up first :) cheers Steve.
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