The Ghost Train Of '55

It was a foggy night in 1955 when the Toofan mail had halted upon the Lucknow-Bareilly line, being unable to proceed in the thickest of the sudden fogs that come upon the northern part of the Indian subcontinent in the winter months. At about 00:15 hours, the driver and fireman of the Toofan Express's Pacific-type steam Locomotive heard a chugging sound in the distance, as if some other train was moving in that dangerous nil-visibility environment. In a matter of seconds, the chugging sound grew nearer and they realized that the other train was on the same track as theirs. A ghastly whistle was set off which shook the very spines of all those on the Toofan. The driver and fireman of this train were so shaken by that whistle that they were unable to get the engine to move backward in time and the incoming train with the ghastly whistle charged straight at them.

Was there a collision?—No, and that is exactly the most puzzling thing which must have been the indication of supernatural activity on the Lucknow-Bareilly line. However, none of these thoughts ever occurred in the brains of those on the mail as this train just whizzed through them. Some say they had closed their eyes anticipating a collision, others buried their heads in pillows while the most brave group of passengers claim to have the impression of many people in compartments quite dissimilar to theirs, rushing through themselves. What further boosts our idea of paranormal activity was that some passengers could swear that they saw blood-red eyes looking at them for a split second and then passing by, or rather through, them. They were haunted by that scene for the rest of their days. Many did not believe this tale.

What changed their view was four successive sightings occurring repeatedly in that season on four similar nights of such sudden thick fogs, with different trains each time. People were really concerned and many of the night trains were avoided. However, the news spread like wildfire and the ones wishing to spot paranormal activity were the only ones who rode on the trains on the Lucknow-Bareilly line on nights when the fog was predicted. However, what was unknown was which train would experience it next, so some had their luck to experience the first ever supernatural occurring on Indian Railways while others did not.

For the next four years (1956-1959) not a single sighting was reported though the fog still appeared in the winter months. People started to move on, giving the incident the label of an old railway myth. However, on the 10th of November, 1960, the myth reverted back to reality as once again the Toofan mail experienced the same thing as they had five years prior with the exact same atmosphere and occurings. The interesting facts which were noted about these occurings were that they were occurring once every five years, that too, exactly five times in a year, on dates which are divisible by five. What is more, is that on the 10th of November, the Toofan is targeted by the supernatural phenomenon (or whatever one elects to call it), on the 20th the Doon Express followed by the Lucknow-Delhi Mail on the 30th of November after which The Lucknow-Bareilly Passenger and the Lucknow-Kathgodam Mail on the 10th and 20th of December respectively. By the end of 25 years since the first encounter, people had accepted these occurrences occurring with a five-year policy as normal on the Lucknow-Bareilly line and nobody was much concerned about it because these incidents provided no one any harm.

However, this all changed in 2005, 50 years after the reported first sighting by the Toofan mail. Two youths on the same train developed the notion of photographing for the first time 'the ghost train of the fog' as it was popularly called. As soon as the train stalled at midnight, the two daredevils, armed with weapons in the form of cameras, descended onto the ballast. Both started to film from that point in time, one on either side of the train's luggage cum brake van after the engine. At exactly fifteen minutes after midnight, it was heard.

The "supernatural" train burst out of the fog (the last thing to be captured by the cameras) before a great gust of wind and a strange type of power toppled down both the youths. After the train had passed and the second whistle sounded to further acknowledge this fact, the guard (who had seen the youths descend from the Toofan) himself descended sensing something was not right, and imagine his surprise when he saw both youths—one of them had just got up from the ground, shaken but unhurt. His camera lay, half-broken, on the ground beside him. The other daredevil, however, was not so lucky and he was found lying on the ground, eyes wide open, bathed in a pool of blood in the cold damp weather of the foggy night. His camera was nowhere to be seen...

The very prospect of rushing him to the hospital was canceled as, firstly, the nearest hospital would be a dozen kilometers away (unreachable through the fog) and, secondly, any hope of the youth to live was gone, or rather never occurred, for who is he but an immortal who looks like a hundred elephants pounded his heart, squeezing his very existence out of him and still continue to breathe?

The sorry-looking body (that would be an understatement) was brought to the coach. The broken-hearted friend was crying for all he was worth, exclaiming that it was because of his praying for protection while the train approached which saved him, else he would have ended up with his friend. The body moved along with the train and a team of police officials, forensic chemists and the youth's despaired family members (he was the only child) were awaiting them at Bareilly. The kinsmen were understanding though heartbroken and had no reason to put the blame on the railways as such an event of death by unexplained forces had never occurred in this country before.

The authorities did not know what to think of the matter and the then prime minister, H.E. Dr. Manmohan Singh, and railway minister, H.E. Lalu Prasad Yadav were informed, as was the Supreme Court. The national intelligence agencies as well as the private company 'Detectives of the Supernatural' were put into the case. The Camera Bureau of Intelligence examined the camera (of the youth who was alive) by the 15th of November whose roll revealed some important footage.

It was the first time this apparition was captured on camera. The dark outline of this train appeared through the fog and just a glimpse of the engine was captured before a huge gust of wind had toppled the youth with the camera. That glimpse provided sufficient information. The engine was a prototype A1 class of the London and North-Eastern Railway, the class that would later go on to be modified as the famous Flying Scotsman. The intelligence officers hunted for historical records from the times of the British Railway about the existence of such an engine in India while the Supernatural Detectives questioned the people of the villages near that sector of the Lucknow-Bareilly line. Both provided great information whose reports are given below:

Questionable LNER-A1 Report, Railway Police Force, Government of India: (Dated:18-11-05)

Accounts of the Privately-owned Lucknow-Bareilly Railway which was later added to the Northern Indian Railway, state that an LNER A1 Class Locomotive was acquired in the year 1925 for express services between Lucknow and Bareilly It arrived in Lucknow on the 31st of October. It was most probably the first of its kind in India

Trial runs took place the same year, between the 5th and 7th of November and it was deemed fit to run. The first express, known as the Bareilly-Lucknow Special was scheduled on the 10th of November. It started on its maiden journey on time from Bareilly, exactly at 22:30 hours. The Viceroy of India and several other important British officials partook in the maiden journey. However, the train never reached Lucknow. A very dense fog had descended at midnight when the train was supposed to reach the station of Hardoi. The station master at Hardoi reported that he had switched the signal to green and that the tracks were definitely set correctly. From dawn, the entire line was searched but there was not a single clue regarding an accident or of what might have happened to the train having so many important people of the administration on board. This was kept out of the public eye.

No other information or account is present in the records.

Ranjit Coomar Upadhyay

Officer in charge of Lucknow-Bareily Sector, RPF.

Supernatural Activity New Insight: Supernatural Detectives, Pvt. Ltd. (Dated:19-11-23)

A 90-year-old man from Atva Asigaon, located five kilometers from the spot of the recent occurrence and

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five-hundred meters from the railway line, claims to have an insight into the disappearance of the train hauled by the A1 Locomotive which had Viceroy, the 1st Marquess of Reading on board.

He was a nine-year-old at the time and had emerged from his house on 10th November 1925 at approximately midnight at a time when the characteristic dense fog had descended. The village had (and still has) a pond separating it from the mainline, beside which he sat down partly because he was not feeling sleepy and partly because he knew that the new locomotive would pass and he wanted to see it. A few moments later, he remembers the fact that there was a deep, out-of-the-ordinary whistle and caught a glimpse of a train bursting out of the fog at full speed, derailing and, quite surprisingly, dashing into the pond and seemingly disappearing with a flash into it, splashing water all over him. He recalls how, as he sat for some time dumbfounded and wet, a man wearing old-fashioned royal apparel approached him with a towel which he provided to him without speaking a single word. The old man as a boy had informed his father, who was the porter at Hardoi but his words were not paid heed to by anyone, and neither was the pond checked. He claims to be quite forgetful but those events that occurred in 1925 are as clear to him as if they occurred in the very near past.

The findings from the pond (obtained by diving into the 10-feet deep waterbody) are as follows:

I.A valuable Necklace

II.A rifle

III.A rusted pocket watch marked with the emblem of the Viceroy of India.

IV.A rusted portion of an engine's piston.

V. A few bits and pieces of glass.

VI.A small steel snuff box, the contents of which included a small piece of paper that had the words 'N_N_ S_HIB' that can be made out

Seven officers have elected (only upon being granted the permission of authorities) to keep watch upon the area where this apparition was last seen on 10-11-05 and five others shall be stationed at Atva Asigaon. All passenger trains are requested to be suspended for tomorrow night—20-11-23.

Radhapada Majumdar,

CIO, Supernatural Detectives Pvt. Ltd.

The plan was put into action the next night after 21:30 hours. The fog had descended at 20:15 hours. The investigators were equipped with all the precautions to counter supernatural forces (and by that, I am once again referring to the Hanuman Chalisa). Both contingents of Supernatural Detectives were assisted by a doctor and a nurse close by (out of sight of the rail line) to prevent any more fatalities. An Inspection coach containing some RPF officers was stationed on the track merely a few hundred meters from the pond at Atva Asigaon (also assisted by the doctor and nurse). Cameras were in place in all three locations. While the Supernatural detectives were somewhat at ease with the task at hand, the same could not be said for the RPF officers. Even the Officer, Mr. Upadhyay was fearful that he might not live to see the coming dawn. All stationed officers became alert at 23:45 hours. At 00:00 hours, the surroundings started to grow colder and contained a gloomy atmosphere. The contingent of Supernatural Detectives at the spot of the recent fatality heard the deadly whistle exactly at 00:15 hours. They braced for any danger that might occur to them (with the accompaniment of Tulsidasa's Shri Hanuman Chalisa of course) and caught sight of a shadowy train, hauled by the LNER A1. They counted ten coaches in total before the shadowy thing disappeared into the mist, whistling furiously, in the same manner as it had done that night in 1955. The train was captured wholly on camera and had a total of 13 coaches. In those days, the last coach was usually a brake van but in this case, it was observed that there was another coach attached after the brake van, distinct from the rest and thus amounting the number of coaches to 13. It passed without any harm occurring to the supernatural detectives. They alerted the RPF and the other contingent at Atva. Sometime later, the apparition could be seen through the fog whistling in the same manner as before. Just as the old man had described, the train derailed and went rushing into the pond, with a splashing, At that very instant, the old man screamed louder than he possibly could from the direction of the village. (which was out of sight of the rail line) The doctor and nurse, as well as all the people in the radius of 500 meters, rushed to the old man's house to see what had befallen him. They were greeted by a terrible sight—bathed in a pool of blood lay the 90-year-old man who had seen the disappearance of the train all those years ago, that too without any evidence of an attack on him. It appeared that his circulatory system had burst. The incident shocked all those who were present and led to the creation of an atmosphere of extreme terror and fear in the village. However, the camera which had Mr. Upadhyay filming the scene (the others had rushed off leaving him alone in the coach) had captured an interesting thing—the thirteenth coach of the train derailed in the opposite direction to those of the other coaches, and had strange markings on them. These were common in buildings of long ago but never before had anyone seen them on a coach. A man dressed in royal apparel, just as the recently deceased old man has described, descended from the coach (which disappeared just after) and looked in the direction of the village from where the scream came at the time. His face appeared saddened and he seemed to mutter something under his breath. He turned away and began walking away from the pond and the rail line. Mr. Upadhyay feared for his life but gathered what little courage he had, which was boosted by the approach of a supernatural detective, who, quite like Upadhyay, was attending to the camera while the others rushed off, went off with him in the direction the king or whoever he was. They caught up to him in a little while—a tall dark figure in the fog which suddenly stopped. Hesitatingly, the courageous duo approached him. When they were barely meters from him, he turned around and said in the Hindustani language (translated for your benefit), 'So you come searching for a meaning to this mystery, dear children. In that case, let me tell you the things you saw today and the past occurring one by one. First, let me tell you who I am—I am the last Peshwa of the once great Maratha Confederacy.'

'Nana Saheb!' exclaimed the two investigators together.

'Yes, I am Nana Saheb. You might know that I was in hiding in the jungles of the Terai before my death there. Well, the truth is, that was what I had planned to do if not for a traitor to me who killed me while I was asleep one night, not unlike this one, when the War was still ongoing. He threw me into that pond over there where that train disappeared and left my body to rot. Then he put on my attire and began to call himself Nana Saheb. He was none other than my twin brother. Yes, I had one whom you will never hear of because he was a complete lunatic and was kept out of the public eye. He had teamed up with the sly British just to take over my position and he did just that. That twin of mine was the sole reason we lost the war because I had a foolproof plan to defeat the British and he destroyed it. After my death, I was destined to haunt this area. On that night in 1925, I had boarded the last coach of that train which the Viceroy and other important officials were on, and caused havoc in it, causing it to derail and disappear into that pond. This scene is reenacted every time as the souls of all the passengers as well as my own soul have found no peace. It is my request not to interfere with the supernatural. As for the old man who was the only one who saw the disappearance, he is none other than my nephew, the son of my twin brother. He was destined to die on this very day."

"Saheb, what about your brother, the traitor?"

"I killed him not long after he went to hide in the Terai under my disguise." Came the reply.

"Why did you kill the youth who saw the train?"

"He was interfering with the supernatural. I could not kill the others because they had the protection of God."

Then the last Peshwa of the Maratha Confederacy vanished into the fog, leaving Mr. Upadhyay and the supernatural detective astonished after their adventure. They had filmed it all and Nana Saheb's voice was captured but the camera did not show any man, just a dark outline.

Thus, the mystery was solved and it became customary for the stretch from Lucknow to Bareilly to remain suspended for all rail journeys between 10 pm to 2 am on the 10th, 20th, and 30th of November, 10th, and 20th of December every five years.