'Westbury Railway Station'
Story by 'anonymous'
The photograph shows a return special charter train that stopped at Westbury on 21st October 2006 on its way back from Penzance to Paddington around 2110-2115.The locomotive is D1015 Western Champion, a former British Rail Class 52 diesel-hydraulic type 4, one of 74 such locos in use between 1961 and 1977. They were extremely common at Westbury, and from the early 70’s worked store train to and from the Somerset quarries, being sub-based at the now demolished diesel depot where Westbury BR staff are maintained them.D1015 is the only one of the 7 remaining examples left to be certified for main line use and it only makes very occasional visits to Westbury, maybe once or twice each year.
There was several rail enthusiasts present and being night-time it was necessary to use tripods and time-exposures to get decent photographs. For the Class 47 shots, three appeared perfectly normal, the loco view is not interrupted and the figures by the first coach were seen standing there at the time.
The Western photo is most interesting. The time exposure period was 30 seconds meaning that the shutter was open for half a minute. There was a group of approximately 9 people with cameras/tripods formed in a short line each side of me. No one- absolutely no one- came into the area next to the loco whilst my camera was ’open’ - if they had there would be a distorted streak across the picture with a solid outline where they stopped - of course with so many people assembled taking photographs nobody else would dare walk into view.
The shadowy figure to the right of the iron column is still, it does not appear to have a head and it leaves no shadow towards the camera position, which a solid object or person would do. This figure cannot be explained. I saw nothing while I was stood looking at the loco which remained in the position for 2-3 minutes. I only took the one photograph. Nobody else said anything. My wife and daughter are standing to the left of the column, they were the whole time and moved slightly, hence the fuzzy distortion to their images. No one entered or left the loco cab.
The figure appears to be a person stood looking at the loco, maybe perhaps it is the sprit of a former Westbury driver or fitter from the days when ‘westerns’ were seen everyday doing their daily tasks, maybe in charge of the 0642 to Paddington, taking commuters up to London for a days work, or about to set off for Theale, Acton or Luton on yet another load of yeoman store. I hope this is the case because it is certainly something or somebody whose presence that October evening cannot be otherwise explained.
Could this be a ghost? Join my messageboard and tell me what you think.
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