The ghost train of Ambergate - and other Christmas stories...

COLLECTION OF LOCAL SPOOKY TALES WITH A FESTIVE TWIST BY CITY HISTORIAN

- By ZENA HAWLEY

IT’S Christmas Eve in the 1950s and a lone railway worker is walking on night patrol near Ambergate when he is struck by how silent the night is compared to normal - no wind, no hum from the telegraph lines and no calling foxes.

But then came a distant sound he could not place - the faint noise of a train taking the curve from the north - yet none were due.

The sound grew louder, the rails began to tremble and the glow loomed around the bend - so he stepped back to give it room.

The train came on but its motion was wrong. There was no steam and although people seemed to be on board they were just sitting, not talking.

As it passed, the railway worker saw there was no driver in the cab and it carried on into the tunnel nearby. He waited for an echo but there wasn’t one.

As he neared the tunnel, the tracks ahead appeared dry and clean, untouched by the snow that had been falling all evening.

He went home at dawn and put it all down to tiredness, without mentioning what he saw to anyone. The following Christmas Eve, he saw the same thing happen again but never at any other time of the year.