Phantom Trains.

Gazette de Janesville (Wisconsin), 20 mai 1872 s1Clark, J.: "phantom train, Wisconsin, 1872", Magonia Exchange, 15 août 2007.

A few weeks ago the eastern papers came to us with lengthy accounts of the appearance of phantom trains on some of the Pennsylvania railroads. Since then we have heard nothing regarding these singular atmospheric freaks until yesterday when a gentleman from Beloit related that twice within the last three weeks similar apparitions have been visible on the Madison division of the Chicago & North Western railroad, between Roscoe and Beloit[,] and each time at about the same spot. On both occasions the phantom train was seen by the engineer, conductor, brakesmen [sic] and passengers on the evening express from the south and it appeared to be moving at a moderate rate of speed a short distance ahead of the express train. So close was their proximity that the latter was stopped for fear of a collision and in a brief space of time the vision disappeared entirely from view. Enquiry at the stations along the line satisfied those who had witnessed the spectacle that no real train was within twenty-five or thirty miles of them, and they are at a loss to account for the singular illusion. The superintendent of the road recommends his men to change their whisky, but they have little faith in his suggestion, because they never drink. The affair has created no little consternation in the minds of the superstitious, and a proportionate amount of curiosity has taken possession of those who believe that there is a natural cause for every unaccountable occurrence. The killing of a man by the evening express, last Saturday night [May 18], at the very spot where the phantom train is said to have appeared on two different occasions, is a triumph for the former class, who could scarcely wish for more direct evidence of supernatural agency in connection with the ghostly visitation. Like phantom ships at sea, to their minds this phenomenon is a presage of death.