Local History: Looking for Ghosts

An area as rich in history as Essex County also boasts a good deal of ghostly lore, perfect for Halloween. As darkness comes earlier, the wind blows harder, and the bats circle my neighborhood, it’s easy to imagine a spirit lingering from our long local past. Indeed, the New Jersey Ghost Hunters Society, the state’s largest paranormal investigating and training organization, is an active group. One legend they pursued was the Ghost Train of Old Penn Station.

Newark’s Pennsylvania Station as travelers and commuters know it now is a grand building. Designed by McKim, Mead and White, the station is a mixture of Art Deco and Neo-Classical, both popular architectural movements in the 1930s. The main waiting room has medallions illustrating the history of transportation, from wagons to steamships to cars and airplanes. The first regular train to use it, a 10:17 New York-Philadelphia express, charged out of the station on March 24, 1935, leaving behind a ghostly past.

For the new Penn Station replaced an older building, from which a mysterious train is said to leave once each month. According to the New Jersey Ghost Hunters Society, legend has it that regularly on the 10th day of each month, “a ghost train pulled into this Victorian railroad depot… Hundreds of witnesses reported hearing the engine's whistle and the screeching of iron wheels against the rails as the invisible train passed through the station. On one occasion, nearly six hundred people witnessed the phenomenon, but fortunately, the so-called ‘Express Train to Hell’ never stopped to pick up passengers." The train is said to date from the 1870s.

A member of NJGHS investigated, learning that the old station is located around the present Track 5. At midnight on July 10, 2001, he investigated. He heard the sound of a steam locomotive. He reported, “I was on the platform for Track 1 and the sound was coming from the area of Track 5, inside the station. There were several people on the platform with me that were waiting for the Amtrak train to D.C. They were all somewhat mystified, as there was no train to match this sound in the station.”

So adventure seekers, ghosts hunters, weary commuters, what’s your explanation for the eerie sound and non-appearance in Penn Station? Records of The New York Times and local papers offer no reports of missing trains or significant mishaps in Newark stations. Still, the old saying is that journalism is the first draft of history. Perhaps the first draft is incomplete, and it falls to us to finish the tale. I welcome your explanations for the mystery of the ghost train, Track 5, Penn Station, audible at midnight on the 10th of the month. E-mail your stories and speculations to marciaw@patch.com and together we’ll investigate our eerie past. 

Here's a recording captured by the New Jersey Ghost Hunters Society of the ghost train. And here's another.

About this column: This local history column considers life in the area from first settlement to the recent past. Questions and comments are welcome. A guide to researching the history of your own home is here: http://patch.com/A-qsl