Sitting out on the porch on warm Tennesse evenings with my Granny are some of my fondest memories. She would share her wisdom with us on something simple, like how tell if rain was coming. Then, she would nonchalantly slide into one of her ghost stories. She always swore that her stories were true. This one she said happened to Grandpa. My Grandpa worked for the railroad and had passed away several years before Granny. She said that he came home from work late one rainy night just shaking. Grandpa was a big man and didn’t scare easy. She made a pot of coffee and got him into dry clothes. He told her that he was out working the switches. They were getting ready to bring a load into the yard. He was watching down the rails as he worked to see how close the train was when he saw a lantern swinging back and forth, coming closer. He yelled out to let the man know that he had already turned the switches. The man didn’t answer but kept coming closer. He hollered again, no response. The figure kept coming towards him. The train was close enough to light up the area. Grandpa began yelling at the man as he stepped onto the rails. He could see in the light that the man didn’t have a head. He still kept yelling for him to move as he was too close to the approaching train. Grandpa said it felt like time stopped as he watched the light stop near the ground and the train go right through the man. He stood there in shock. One of his coworkers heard him yelling and ran over to him thinking he needed help. Grandpa told him what he had seen. His coworker told him that years ago a switchman had died near that switch. It was raining that night, and a train was coming in. The switch had gotten stuck. They couldn’t signal the train in enough time to stop. The switchman wouldn’t give up on trying to throw the switch. He didn’t get clear in enough time and was struck by the train, decapitating him. He couldn’t stop the train from derailing at the switch. They say on rainy nights he can be seen checking all the switches.
I spent most of my childhood afraid of getting stuck by a train at night. I was always looking for a light to come down the tracks. As I got older, I started to hear similar stories about headless railroad workers. To this day I don’t know if it’s just a common urban legend, or a true story. One thing is for sure, Granny was the greatest storyteller I have ever known.
