The Mystery of the Phantom Train
by Rishi - 3B

The passengers were grumpy and heavy - eyed as they boarded the train in Salisburry during the early morning of August 27, 1891. The train was headed to Ashville, and the riders settled into their seats and tried to catch a few minutes of sleep.

Around 3 am, the passengers were suddenly awoken by the sudden bucking and rocking of the train. The engineer fought to keep the train in control as the passenger train raced across the brick Bastian Bridge. Near Statesville, the train suddenly derailed. The chug and whoosh… of the rushing train was replaced by the screech of metal and the sound of the huge train falling down towards the creek bed sixty feet below the bridge. The horrible thunder of the train as it smashed into the creek was quickly replaced by the equally terrible sound of trapped passengers screaming and moaning in agony as the wreckage of the train was encompassed by the waters of the creek. Twenty two people were killed that night in the worst train wreck in the history of North Carolina.

Fifty years later, on the same day, a woman waiting by her stranded car near the Bastian Bridge in the early morning hours of the day saw a train come rushing down the track, its headlight gleaming brightly in the darkness and the whistle blowing as it raced across the bridge. It suddenly derailed, falling down into the creek. The woman was terrified! She ran towards the wrecked train and gazed down into the creek. She should have heard the frantic cries and agonized moans of the survivors.

At that moment, a car pulled up beside her stranded vehicle and her husband jumped out followed by the owner of a local store who had come to help them fix their flat tire. She ran towards them in frenzy, desperate to get help for the poor trapped passengers below. When they heard her story, the men ran to the edge and looked down into the creek bed. There was nothing there. The woman had seen the train wreck of Statesville
re - enacted before her very own eyes.