Railroaders' Nostalgia > The Yale Ghost.

Yale BC is an historic little town in the Fraser River canyon that owes its existence to being the furthest navigable point on the Fraser River from Vancouver. It is on the main line of the Canadian Pacific.

The following is from a type written anthology by a CP Vancouver locomotive engineer, who has since passed on.

During the late 1940's, he transferred to Vancouver as a locomotive fireman and as luck and seniority would have it, he was able to hold down a job on a regular passenger run to North Bend BC on the main line.

He worked with an affable and smart locomotive engineer on the regularly assigned oil burning "Royal Hudson" steam engines assigned to the run.

On every eastbound run, which took place well after dark, as the train approached Yale, he noted that someone gave a "highball" signal visible only to the fireman on a steam locomotive. It was from a point away from the tracks so he thought it was simply meant as a greeting.

Every eastbound night time run, he saw the same thing. He asked others if they had seen the same thing and they said yes.

Finally, he asked the engineer about it. The engineer said, "Oh, that's old Charlie, pay it no mind". The fireman said, "Surely someone should talk to him about giving a proceed signal without authority". The engineer said, "That would be difficult. Charlie has been dead for forty years".

The fireman was a sensible man, not prone to believing ghost stories, and he believed the engineer was also a sensible person, but perhaps superstitious. Charlie's hiball signals continued every night.

This apparent ghost story weighed on the fireman's mind, and finally he decided to go to Yale by car one evening and confront Charlie. From his train journeys, he had figured out the exact location where the signal came from.

When he arrived, he discovered the location was the Yale graveyard. In time, the eastbound passenger train came into view. There was a curve just west of the graveyard on the railway, and the headlight of the locomotive briefly shone directly into the graveyard.

There was a black marble marker on one of the graves, in the form of a Greek column. As the beam from the headlight struck the column, it was reflected back by the polished stone in a way that resembled a "hiball".

The fireman went to examine the tombstone and it was inscribed "Charles ------, train conductor killed near Yale, 19--, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen".

Next trip with his regular engineer, the fireman mentioned his nighttime trip to Yale, and the engineer mentioned he had gone there in the past to solve the mystery too.

I have been to the Yale graveyard, which includes many old grave markers but I could not find Old Charlie or a black marble column.

Was this story fact or fiction? Those who recounted it originally have long passed on themselves.

Fascinating. I've driven through Yale a dozen times. It's not much more than a wide spot in the road. The cemetery is a historic site but I've never stopped to check it out. Might have to if I get the chance again.

You have outdone yourself with this tale.

Bob Wilcox
Charlottesville, VA
My Flickr Shots

I've checked out the location, it all works except for the absence of the black pillar. The grave yard is now an historic site, and the markers are restored. It could be that the pillar was damaged at some point and was not restored.

The person who put the legend to paper either actually lived the experience or had a very precise imagination.

Great story Phil, will have to check out the grave yard next time I get the chance.

Mike N.

Apparently some of the markers were washed away in the 1960s. It is certainly a good story.

There is a place along the Marion Branch in Indiana where it appears that there is an old Pennsy style signal showing approach (the Pennsy signals were replaced with NYC tri-lights years ago). I finally tracked that down to similar lights on different buildings that lined up.

Thanks for sharing the ghost story. I hope you don't mind, but since we're are telling railroad ghost stories here is one told by an engineer many years ago that worked on the B&O out of Garrett, Indiana. The location of the incident is in Northwest Indiana.

1893, April 28 - Ghost at Salt Creek?
Was It a Spirit?
The Strange Experience of a B. & O. Engineer at the Salt Creek Bridge.
The Fort Wayne News publishes for the first time the experience of C. W. Moses of Garret, Ind., who, by the way, is the son of a Methodist minister and himself a member of the Methodist church, and not a spiritualist, who narrated the following remarkable incident to a News reporter a few days ago. The incident occurred on the B. & O. at the Salt Creek bridge and perhaps some of the people living in that vicinity can recall the facts.

"It was in 1885," said Mr. Moses, "and I was running from Garrett, Ind., to Chicago on the night run and pulling the limited. I left Garret at 1 a .m. for Chicago on the night run in question. We left G. in good condition but a few minutes late and I endeavored to make up lost time on what is known as Suman's grade, which is some twenty miles long and terminates at Salt Creek. The last three miles is perfectly straight track. I noticed a white pillar or cloud occupying the place of the bridge and reaching quite high. I took it to be fog but neither above or below the bridge was the same visible. I asked my fireman if he saw it, and he said 'yes;' but thought it was fog. About this time I felt as if some one were in the seat behind me, but on turning around no one was visible. I then felt a hand upon my right shoulder and then heard my mother say" 'Charlie that bridge is burned.' I felt the fingers very plainly on my shoulder. I knew my mother's voice: can anyone forget the voice of a mother? At once I applied the air; or at least as soon as I recovered my astonishment. The train came to a standstill about twenty feet from the east approach to the bridge. I told my fireman that I would take my torch and walk across the bridge, and that he should not move the train until I signaled. I walked about fifteen feet when I came to the end of bridge, found that thirty-seven feet had been burned and dropped into the water and put the fire out. What I saw made me so week that I did not have any strength to move and sat down on the end of the remnant of bridge. The conductor soon came to where I was and I related to him what I have now told you."

Mr. Joseph Stewart was the conductor and is still living and a conductor on the Saginaw road. Mr. Moses' mother died in 1876.
Source: The Tribune, Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana [April 28, 1893; Volume 10, Number 3, Page 8, Column 4]

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/06/18 14:58 by wabash2800.