Haunted Rails Ghost Train 2012

On October 26th the Shadow Chasers working with Townsquare Media Utica hosted the first ever 'Haunted Rails Ghost Train' on the Adirondack Railroad based on the CNY Paranormal series.

Together with Terri Garofalo of Indy Paranormal/My Ghost Story Biography channel we told stories and disembarked the train in Remsen to explore three historic haunted sites

Remsen Stone Meeting House

  Capel Cerrig (Stone Church) was built in 1831, and is located in downtown Remsen. The church was built out of stone, and has remained unchanged since it was built, with the exception of a new slate roof in 1888. The Stone Meeting House, as it is now named, has often been thought to be haunted. Reports of strange lights, and feeling watched have been reported by many. Investigations of the building have revealed that those reports most likely are accurate. Photographs have been taken of the building that show a shadowy figure of a man in a top hat. Audio recordings made on the site indicate that there are at least two spirits present, a chatty female spirit and a sarcastic male spirit. [Read More...]

Train Depot

Remsen Depot, originally a union station for the Utica & Black River and the New York Central Railroad was constructed in the late 19th century serving for many years before it was torn down in 1964 and subsequently re-built in 1999. The Depot has had many late-night ghostly accounts at the stations and tracks. Reports of feeling watched in the station, the ghostly figures walking the grounds or a vanishing conductor that greets would-be passengers as they enter the station. [Read More...]

Remsen Art Center

The Remsen Art Center was originally a Baptist Church dedicated in 1893 and served for many years before being decommissioned and re-purposed multiple times over the subsequent years. Many report of organ music, phantom noises and fleeting shadow figures while in the building at night. [More Info...] 

Hosts

 

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Terri Garofalo – artist, cartoonist, Co-founder of the paranormal team IndyPara, Terri investigates and cartoons the paranormal through her comic strip Entities-R-Us  that appears in Paranormal Underground Magazine, as well as many other publications and websites devoted to the paranormal. Terri has appeared on Big Guy Media’s Paranormal Valley episodes as well as Biography Channel’s My Ghost Story. Her first book, Entities-R-Us, Ghost Hunter Comic – Paranormal Humor for the Ghost Hunters Soul was released in the spring of 2010.

 

 Shadow Chasers

The Shadow Chasers have been investigating the paranormal for the last 10 years and have been featured multiple times in the media, most prominently in Cheri Farnsworth's Haunted Northern New York series, as well as in a series of documentaries produced by PBS Television. The team were the PBS TV Ghost Hunters for 3 years before partnering with Lite 98.7 WLZW. Founder PW Creighton is Author of the new supernatural thriller series Nightfall released in the spring of 2012.

Co-Founder Katya Von Heuser is the author of Chasing Shadows: New York Ghosts released Sept 2012.

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The Event ~

The event began with the team meeting with Terri and Townsquare staff at Union Station in Utica. Which was a bit confusing for parking and complicated for transferring our needed supplies to the train.

We managed to get everything together and with some finagling we got everything on the train situated.

When we crossed back to the station we found we had acquired quite the crowd. Grand total was over 250 people for the train-tour!

Katya and Phil attempted to tell the local history of Union Station, the ghost stories associated with it and of the rail disasters that had occured in the Utica area over the last one hundred and fifty years. 

Unfortunately, we discovered that the station was so loud that we probably should have used a PA system between the train announcements, bus announcements and the general info constantly filling the air. It also didn't help that 250 people can't really crowd together close enough to hear under those conditions. After we concluded our review of the history a stray announcement started everyone for the train.

Aside from a few stray technical glitches the ghost train turned out to be an amazing success. Everyone learned the history of two of Remsen's strongest historic sites. Polly Wogg caught a number of Orbs at the Depot and more than thirty people witnessed shadow apparitions moving through the trees and a number of people actually captured spirit photos at the Stone Meeting House.

Terri is currently showcasing her experiences with the Ghost Train in her web comic series and was actually able to investigate the haunted hotel utica... check out her recap... 

 

We'll see you next year on the Ghost Train at a new stop with more exciting talent and adventures!