# Haunted train station



## RAXL (Jul 9, 2004)

Experts search for Dales ghosts
A GROUP of paranormal experts are trying to prove whether or not Rowsley train station is haunted.

The Society For Paranormal Research, a national group, have also visited Darley Dale station after a number of ghosts were spotted.

The ghostly figure of a soldier is said to haunt Rowsley and a fireman is believed to haunt the sheds at Darley Dale station.

Jack Phillips, vice-president of the paranormal group, which was at Rowsley last weekend, said: "It was absolutely fantastic. Suffice to say there was enough going on. We are going back again. It's the strangest place I have ever been to in 20 years of paranormal investigation."

The group managed to gain photographic evidence of strange phenomena and audio recordings of voices answering questions. In addition, Mr Philips claims the group heard the sound of a steam train thundering along tracks that have not been used for years.

Jackie Statham, managing director for Peak Rail, said: "In Darley Dale there's always been the story of a woman who committed suicide on the railway line. I've looked into some records but I've never found any evidence.

"We have the 1940s weekend every year and last year members of the paranormal group saw a soldier walking down the track.

"It had gone midnight and they thought it was a person in costume but when they got closer he just vanished."

The group used a professional medium to help with their investigation and coincided their Saturday night researches with a 1940s weekend which was happening in Darley Dale.

Mr Phillips believes the nostalgia weekend was a good opportunity for a 'time-slip'.

He said: "This is when everything goes blurred and you're transported back in time for a couple of seconds and it's you who appears as a ghost in another time."

The group use trigger objects to stimulate the appearance of ghosts.

Mr Phillips said: "Trigger objects could be anything relevant. For example, if we were dealing with a child then we may place a toy."

He added: "As a parapsychologist I wouldn't say that there is a ghost. But I am satisfied that Rowsley train station is paranormally active. It is definitely worthy of further investigation."

By Tim Cunningham
10 August 2005


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