Final Journey

The final-journey ghost appears as an unmanned vehicle traveling at high speeds over its final route. The most common final-journey ghosts are phantom cars, trucks, motorcycles, trains and horse-drawn carriages. These ghosts are a peculiar enigma because physical objects such as vehicles are not alive and do not have souls. However, because there is not a visible apparition operating the vehicle does not necessarily mean that there is not a real ghost at the controls. Phantom vehicles appear as solid objects emanating bright lights and can be seen traveling several feet above the ground. Phantom vehicles seem realistic to witnesses who believe them to be real until they vanish into thin air.

There are phantom black gangster cars from the early 1900’s speeding recklessly down deserted back roads where gangsters dumped their victims. In some southern parts of the USA, there are reports of phantom horse-drawn carriages that bolt wildly down old dirt roads with phantom horses. There are even phantom steam-engine locomotives that rocket through empty cornfields at the site of terrible train derailments. Phantom vehicles are seen driving off the road and crashing violently. Witnesses report hearing the awful sounds of twisting metal and seeing fires and smoke rolling from the accident scene, which dematerialize soon afterwards. Why these phantom vehicles continue to haunt their last route with this type of aggression is unknown. The final-journey ghost is most active on the anniversary of their crash or disaster.

Story of a Final Journey

The strangest experience in Professor James’s life happened to him while living in Provo, Utah. The professor was driving home late one night. The railway crossing gates lowered signaling that a train was approaching the intersection. The professor waited patiently for the train to pass. He could see a bright light in the distance and he heard the train whistle go off twice as it approached the crossing, but he could not hear any other sounds. He found the lack of noises odd because the trains that run on these tracks create a thunderous sound and shake the ground. Normally, the professor would have been able to hear the rumbling of the train’s iron wheels rolling over the tracks and ground vibrations as the locomotive approached. Strangely, he could not hear any of the typical noises. It was eerily silent.

The professor continued to wait on the train. He watched the light in the distance grow brighter as it moved closer. He lowered his car window and listened carefully but there were still no sounds. The train was only about one hundred yards away. As the single bright light moved closer, he finally heard a noise. There was a horrible noise resembling metal banging into metal coming from the train as it continued to speed toward the crossing. The noise changed into a grinding sound. Professor James was starting to panic. He did not know what was happening to the train but those noises were not normal. The train must be in trouble.

The locomotive was seconds away and moving fast. The train’s light was blinding. It hurt the professor’s eyes, but he could not take his eyes off the light. The noises were deafening. The professor put his hands over his ears to block out the screeching metal sounds. He watched helpless and in complete horror as the train light jumped off the track and came directly at his car. The professor screamed in terror. He thought that he was about to die. However, instead of demolishing his car and killing him instantly, the light passed straight through the car and vanished on the other side. The horrible sounds of twisting metal faded away to silence. The ordeal had ended and the crossing gates raised back up.

The professor was alone on the road. He was covered in sweat and hyperventilating. He was in a state of shock and he could barely drive. He does not remember the drive back to his home. The professor spent the next week locked inside his house. After the encounter with the phantom locomotive, the professor scoured public records and old newspaper articles searching for evidence of a past train derailment. He never found evidence of a train derailment, but admits that documentation about historical events is difficult to find. Professor James considers himself an educated and rational person and before that night he did not believe in the existence of ghosts or the paranormal. All of that changed when a phantom train drove though his car.