The Story Of The 311

This story is not true, nor is it my own. WraithMike is the original creator of the story, I just added what I felt sounded cool. Feel free to comment and make suggestions and fill in the blanks with your own theories. Part two will get to the actually haunting, and the plot depends on what you say I should do. Enjoy!


The year is 1952. Clinchfield railroad is at its peak, and its locomotive roster is rather large. Around 8:00pm, on October 31st, a Baldwin 4-8-2 locomotive, numbered 311, waits patiently for its engineer. The strong engine seems to pant at the arrival of its master. A middle-aged engineer (his name will not be said) climbs the ladder and enters his beloved locomotive. He doesn't seem happy today, as he looks down at the scar on his hand. He looks out the window, and stares at the man who gave it to him. "Someday, someday." He looks down at his instructions.


1: Connect to logging consist parked just outside the logging camp


2: Depart logging camp


3: Take the Trestle Branch Line to Dooly Lumber Inc.


4: Leave the log cars on the Dooly Siding and return to engine shed


"Ok, not to difficult,I guess." As 311 departs, the whistle is blown three times. Two hours later, The 311 runs at around 50mph through heavy rain, wind, and total darkness with a fully loaded logging consist of 19 cars. The driver gently applies sand, as he knows that the infamous trestle is near. Unknown to him, the swelling river has kinked the rails on the bridge. Disaster is calling the 311, and 311 answers. As the train rounds the corner, the engineer spots the kinked rail under the 311's headlight. He immediatly applies the brakes. The force of the tender smashing backwards into the log car snaps the coupler and applies enought braking force to stop the cars. The engine, however, races forward. As his last words, the engineer yells out, "I CURSE THIS ENGINE TO ROAM THIS RAILWAY UNTIL THE END OF TIME!" As he says this, the train slams into the kinked rail and plummets off the bridge, landing in the river below.
The next day, an SW7 switcher discovers the abandoned cars of 311. The word goes out, and a memorial is held. Attempts were made to salvage the engine, but neither the train nor the engineer were ever found. A year later, on October 31st, a F7A freight drives down the tracks over the bridge. Something appears at the end of the bridge. It looks like a steam train, but it's headlight is blood red, as well as the steam. It suddenly disapears, and the freight engineer continues, unable to forget what he just saw. As he passes an abandoned track, someone watches. Something watches.


To Be Continued...
 
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Here's a short one...

"Once, an engine attached to a train was afraid of a few drop of rain. It went into a tunnel, and squeaked through it's funnel, and wouldn't come out again." I'll let you guess where this took place.
 
Thanks. If you can, please reply with ideas for the storyline of part 2. It depends on what you guys think I should do. It will be posted here, along with all the other parts.
 
Very ghostly happenings, I'm not sure if there is a Part 2 in this story, is there, you seem to have rounded things off quite nicely, unsure what else you can add.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.
 
Many things wrong with this story.
Yes I know it is fiction but:
A 4-8-2 "Mountain" is used for a local run of log cars in 1931? Probably not even in 1951.
There were no SW7s in 1931, or F7s in 1932.
The breaking of the coupler on the back end of the tender leaving the string of cars and presumably an occupied caboose behind is a tad hard to believe.
"I CURSE THIS TRAIN..." Only the locomotive and tender crashed and vanished, right? NOT the "train"?
 
Many things wrong with this story.
Yes I know it is fiction but:
A 4-8-2 "Mountain" is used for a local run of log cars in 1931? Probably not even in 1951.
There were no SW7s in 1931, or F7s in 1932.
The breaking of the coupler on the back end of the tender leaving the string of cars and presumably an occupied caboose behind is a tad hard to believe.
"I CURSE THIS TRAIN..." Only the locomotive and tender crashed and vanished, right? NOT the "train"?


1: This type of train is modeled after a frisco loco. The frisco was made to pull passengers, but the 4-8-2 model was for freight.

2: I made an error on that part. This happened in 1952, and I will edit it and fix it.

3: Hard to believe, maybe, but not impossible!

4: I will change it to "I CURSE THIS ENGINE."
 
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I like how you made it into an interactive story. However the original story goes like this.

October 31, 1948, Clinchfield Railroad #311 loads up logs at highland forestry. At 9:13 pm the train departs, heading towards the lower highland yard. At around 9:30 it began to rain, and the fog rolled in making it hard to see the tracks ahead. Due to the large downpour, rocks alongside the river were knocked loose and were pulled downstream into the wooden trestle. Since the trestle was old, when the rock hit the lower supports of the bridge they snapped which cause the bridge to give way. The engineer and firemen could not see the disaster until they were right ontop of it. The locomotive and crew plumeted into the freezing water below, the cars however remained on the tracks. When cleanup crews were called in to clear the wreck out of the water, the locomotive and crew were no where to be found. Its said that every year on Halloween, when it begins to rain and the fog rolls in, the ghost of 311 can be seen attempting to cross the bridge, but as it reaches the other side, it fades into the fog.
 
... the plot depends on what you say I should do.

Borrowing from other, similar stories: A train approaching the trestle sees a headlight on the track and brakes just in time to avoid a collision. An angry crew jumps from the train and approaches the locomotive to find out what the devil the engineer thinks he’s doing. As they approach the light and the locomotive disappear, but not before they have had chance to read the 311 on the number plate. In disbelief one of the crew walks down the track trying to see where the locomotive might have gone and finds that the trestle has been washed away.
 
Yes, like if a banker train is trying to go to the hill or somewhere where the engine is stuck, and the train rolls back down the hill, then THAT would be a bad crash. Or just waming into the back of a breakvan might be another. :hehe:
 
Err, if a train crashes badly, then maybe that's how it becomes a ghost.

Oh, I see....it crashes badly and the train dies and it's soul/spirit wanders about trying to find peace. So tell me, Z-boy...do you think engines are alive like on Thomas and Friends?
 
The trouble with ghost train stories is that no one explains how a train can become a ghost.....

Actually the train is only an extension of the engineer and/or others who died in the wreck. Most of the literature agrees that the spirit revisits the location where he died or one that he has a strong emotional attachment to (the major exception being those who appear in graveyards).
 
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