Zero Tolerance Magazine • View topic

(sorry about the HR reference)

Call me a liar or a fool if you like but I very possibly for the first time ever in my life might of seen a ghost. Let me explain (its really not a dramatic as i'm making it out to be) :wink:

I went to Walsall today to visit the New Art Gallery. Now the trip consisted of two fairly short train journeys which together took about 55 minutes. From Tamworth - Birmingham New Street and then from that station to my destination via the Rugely Trent Valley service. On the second train between Hampstead and a place called Bescot Stadium (I think) was a few disused industrial carrier trains on the left-hand side of the line.
There was one 3 carriage train that had been taken off the rails (which in themselves were disused or currently inactive) which had a drivers section atb the front. Now my train wasn't travelling very fast, but i'm still willing to admit that I might of mistook what I saw in the drivers seat. For a half second i'm sure I saw a man sitting in it. These trains weren't that old, i'd estimate they were in commision during the 70s-80s max. However he was dressed in what i'd consider quite old fashioned working class clothing with a cap and a dog-earred tweedy jacket. He was looking out the front of the window and although I didn't see his features or face in much detail he seemed to be of a sullen disposition.
Strangely enough it wasn't a frightening or shocking experience. Its hardly the ghostly phenomena of Fortean standards but somehow he (presuming he wasn't just the fleeting fancy on my part) seemed strange and out of place.

I'd like to make it clear that I don't believe in ghosts or spirits or any sort of an afterlife, nor am I in agreement with the more unusual ghost theories like 'psychic imprinting' or time slips. I think its all nonsense. Despite his strange attire he didn't otherwise seem ghostly so he may of well of been entirely alive! But if thats true it doesn't account for he he was doing there. A few dozen feet away from the afforementioned disused train there were workers so he might of been with them. But they were all wearing hi-vis jackets, hard hats and steelcapped boots. My mysterious man wasn't dressed like that at all and if he was working there wouldn't he be required to wear that equipment for health and safety reasons?
Personally I think my 'ghost' was visual miscalculation on part of my mind. I've been reading lots of ghost fiction and a limited edition Fortean Times booklet called 'It Happened To Me'. I haven't been to Walsall since I was a child and I tend to get mildly paranoid and nervous when i'm alone in a unfamiliar place. Something OCD related i've inherited from my mom I think

I think my spectre was an example of a very complex example of combining the blur of the trains motion and my mental state. What do you think?

< Non-music ~ "That a ghost?"