Saturday, October 2, 2010

Perkasie Tunnel Ghost Train - Perkasie, PA

The Perkasie railroad tunnel in Perkasie, PA apparently handles more than just your average train passing through. The tunnel was constructed from 1853 through 1858 to bridge the railroad gap between Fort Washington, PA and Bethlehem, PA. 



Perkasie Railway Tunnel circa 1912
Perkasie Tunnel Today

In it's early days the tunnel handled two tracks and was a very narrow squeeze for trains.  As the story goes, long ago during the steam era in the 1940's, an engineer stuck his head out of the side of the locomotive at the wrong time.  He was decapitated by a passing train.

It is said that late at night,if you travel to the north side of the tunnel and hold your ear to the rail and wait long enough, you can hear a train coming.  The longer you wait, the louder the sound will get as the ghost train approaches, manned by the headless engineer.  Legend has it that you start running toward the south side of the tunnel to try and out run the train.  If you don't make it to the end of tunnel before the train reaches you, the engineer will cut off your head!  This could be quite the challenge since the tunnel is a half mile long!



8 comments:

  1. May 18 1944 The engineer, Charles L. Krous lost his head hitting it on the South Portal abutment(Perkasie side)of the tunnle. Engineered Headless, The train traveled all the way up through Quakertown before the firemen took notice where he quickly applied the brakes after passing through Quakertown Train Station. The legend is true because it has happend to me except in a different manner.

    August 10 2006, roughly around noon I was railfanning on the South end of the Perkasie tunnel awaiting East Penn to come through so I could snap a shot of the train coming out of the tunnel. I've railfanned this tunnel plenty of times and even been in it when East Penn has gone through so I know what to expect and listen for. But on this particular day when I was approaching the tunnel I heard the familure sound of a train going through with the feel of the rumble, the sound of wheel grinds, pulsating bell, but a long long short long whistle, not a horn. As soon as I stepped into the south portal enterance, the sound stopped and I walked far enough to peer on the other end and nothing was coming through so disapointed in not catching my train for pics I thought it was a fluke. When I walked away and was about a good 50 meters away from the tunnel it happend again but with the sound alot louder and the rumble more powerful that it made my insides of my heart and stomach vibrate. I sprinted back and checked again and as soon as I stepped into the south portal... nothing... I was pissed because I didn't catch my train for pics, but was very curious and overwhelmed with what I was lucky witness. I've went back plenty of times since then to try and capture another experience but haven't been lucky. So there's my Ghost train experience of the Perkasie tunnel. -Mike Musiowski

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    1. Man, that sounds like an experience. I never had an experience there though, but I live near Perkasie. I think the Ghost Adventures Crew should go there and see if it's true or not. Quick question, even though it's been almost six years, you said you heard a whistle, but did you hear any chugging?

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  2. walked through today and it was scary!!!!!!!!!!!! every so often you would here the banging of walls right next to u n wen u stopped to look it was nothing. not much but creepy.

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  3. Having grown up in Perkasie I must have been in,through,and over the tunnel a hundred times during the 70's and 80's. The tunnel was a regular route for us to get from town to the other side of "the Ridge", and vice versa. We would stand in the tunnel as the trains passed through pressed up against the wall. Even at a very young age I was traveling through the tunnel with my older brothers. In all those years we never saw or heard anything strange or out of the ordinary. Maybe that is because we didn't know about the supposed haunting? Funny how the mind works. :)

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  4. my friend and I walked through the tunnel (we both live in perkasie) and I felt something grab my ankle

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  5. I saw a black conductor on an old brownish maroon colored steam engine car. His light came on
    and he proceeded to his journey
    through the tunnel. The engineer
    told us that we were trespassing
    and to keep walking and we should
    find our way out.
    Well he was a good engineer but that did not stop me from shaking like a full body wave! I couldn't
    Climb up the embankment if my life depended on it, much too dangerous to try and not only that, we had to turn around and
    re-trace our journey back through the and out of the tunnel and pray to the Lord the conductor wasn't going to come while we were trying to exit a little
    clearer and sure.
    Was it a ghost or actually just famuliat maintenance?

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  6. Does an old running train with a Black Man for a conductor in the train tunnel mean a ghost or like someone doing maintenance?

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  7. When I was a teenager myself and three other friends went in the tunnel really late at night. We were all laughing and carrying on. I was fairly new to the area and didn't believe them about the stories. I think they didn't even fully believe. All of a sudden we heard a train barreling down the tunnel, even saw a light of some sort. The whistle was blowing. We turned to run out. I tripped and fell but one of my friends literally dragged me out of the tunnel. There was no train. We didn't see anything come out as we caught our breath outside. Definitely one of my terrifying Perkasie paranormal experiences.

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