| The Headless Brakeman fiction written by Paul Warnock All characters & events are fictional, and any resemblance to anyone living or deceased is coincidental and unintended. We send our apologies to Washington Irvin and his novel “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” written early in the 19th century. |
|
|
This story takes place in Rockingham back in the early to
mid 1950’s. The cast includes all the members of the Sand
Hill Club, which are Frank, Chuck, Steve, Nathan, Harry,
and Henry. Plus there were Old Red, a Chow-mix dog
belonging to Steve, and Iky, a Spitz-mix dog belonging to
Harry. Please see my previous short stories “Hamlet or
Bust” and “The Clay Cipher” for more details about these
boys. The site is the railroad trestle across the Great Falls’
millpond, the old Great Falls Mill plus the adjacent tracks
and grounds.
The original Great Falls Mill was built before the Civil War.
It provided among other things clothing and backpacks for
General Lee’s Army fighting in Northern Virginia. Coming
north from Savannah, General Sherman’s Army made a
special visit to Rockingham about a month or so before the
end of the war just for the express purpose of burning our
mill. The mill was later rebuilt. Along about this time, they
had just built the railroad into Rockingham. The military
on both sides made widespread use of the telegraph during
the Civil War, but civilian use lagged until well after the
war. Once the war was over, most of the nation’s positive
energies were directed toward settling the West. But
slowly and gradually, the telegraph was expanded to just
about everywhere including Rockingham. In most places,
it was very convenient to install telegraph lines along the
railroad tracks. This made it easy for the railroads to use
the telegraph in their business. In fact, many telegraph
companies had their offices in or near the railroad depots.
It was near the end of the nineteenth century before the
telegraph came to small towns like Rockingham. When
they were putting the telegraph poles in near the old Great
Falls’ trestle, they had some difficulty getting everything to
work out just right. It seems the old trestle was not exactly
built according to code. Later, of course, they would
replace the trestle, but they had to do something for now so
they could get the telegraph up and running. One of the
poles had to be put fairly close to the tracks. They alerted
all the railroad crews, especially the engineers and
firemen; but, the brakemen, the ones who rode in the red
caboose, didn’t pay that notice as much attention as they
should have. There was just enough room for the trains to
pass, but not much more. There was a warning sign along
the track, but it was difficult to see at night as this was
before the time of electricity and incandescent lights. The
engineers and firemen knew not to put their hands out the
window in the vicinity of the Great Falls trestle. They had
plans to replace the trestle fairly soon, but as usual, it was
one of those budget items that was easy to postpone when
budgeting got tight.
The president of the railroad had his own personal train,
and it was really quite fancy. The boiler and metal plating
were painted dark green, and all the moving parts
including the wheels were painted silver. The silver looked
like stainless steel, but that was before the time of stainless
steel. It was cleaned spotlessly after each trip. It was a 2-
10-4 (refer to my nonfiction article on “Steam Engines”),
which is bigger and more powerful than most steam
engines of the day. It was scheduled to leave Hamlet to go
to Charlotte to pick up some rich dude and bring him back
to Hamlet. He was leaving with the president to go on a
long trip down south just as soon as the train got back to
Hamlet. Naturally, they went through Rockingham on the
way to and from Charlotte. The president was in a big
hurry, so they didn’t have time to call his regular crew
together. They just got the first qualified men they could
find and sent them on this special run to Charlotte;
besides, the regular crew needed to be fresh to take the
president on his high priority trip early the next day.
Normally, a crew stays together as much as possible. With
a mixed crew, there isn’t the sense of coordination and
smoothness as with a fixed crew. They had no trouble
going to Charlotte. But, while they were taking on water
for the return trip, the engineer fell as he was climbing
down from this huge steam engine (that he was not
accustomed to) and broke his arm. A doctor in Charlotte
near the station set his arm. They were in a hurry to get
back since the president was waiting on this train, but the
engineer couldn’t do his job properly with a broken arm.
They should have requested a substitute engineer, but
Charlotte was part of the Southern Railroad system;
whereas, Hamlet was part of the Seaboard Railroad
system. So, one of the brakemen who had ambitions of
becoming an engineer volunteered to take the controls on
the condition that the engineer station himself nearby
should anything go wrong. The engineer agreed to that
and strapped himself into a seat well back behind his
regular seat. The return trip was going smoothly until they
got back to the Rockingham area. This was late at night
and the train was going through here at full throttle since
they were in such a hurry to get back to Hamlet.
This was a beautiful clear late October night. It was a little
cold, but that doesn’t matter much when you are working
behind the boiler on a steam locomotive where it’s always
hot even in the middle of winter. There was a beautiful
silvery full moon. The old Great Falls Mill was particularly
attractive in the moonlight with a nice reflection on the
millpond. The engineer had fallen asleep since this was his
second run that day, and he was quite tired. Our
brakeman (playing engineer) was really impressed by the
image of the Great Falls Mill and put his head out the
window to get a second glance. As you are fully aware, this
was not a good place to put your head out the window
especially looking backward. I don’t think I have to tell you
what happened. The noise of this accident was nothing
compared to the normal noise level on a steam engine. So
no one paid any attention to it at the time. Anyhow, about
five minutes later as they were pulling into Hamlet, the
fireman yelled at our brakeman to slow down since they
were in the yard limits. When his yelling did no good, the
fireman got up to see what was the matter. When he did,
he was aghast at what he saw. He did manage to cut the
power to the drive shafts, and the train slowed to a stop.
About that time the engineer woke up. Movement and
noise didn’t wake him but non-movement did. He too was
shocked at what he saw. The brakeman was setting there
in the engineer’s seat, and everything looked normal
except he was missing a head. They never did find his
head. They dragged the millpond but to no avail. Some
people reckoned an animal or maybe a large vulture must
have carried it away.
There’s a legend around the county that the ghost of the
brakeman comes back looking for his head. Some people
have reported seeing the ghost as far away as the Great
Falls Mill, but mostly going up and down the tracks near
the trestle looking for his head. All those who claimed to
have seen the ghost reported that it didn’t have a head.
They still haven’t figured out how a ghost with no head, and
hence no eyes, could actually look for anything. But, it did
anyhow; no one ever said ghosts were logical or had to
make sense.
Now nearly sixty years later in the early to mid 1950’s, some
people still go out to the old Mill, which is currently in
disrepair, but is still being used for cotton storage. They
hope to get a glimpse of the “Headless Brakeman.” This is
especially true in late October in general, and on
Halloween night in particular.
At one of the regular meetings of the Sand Hill Club, the
boys started thinking what they should do for Halloween
this year. This was a few years before “Trick or Treating”;
however, that would have been a good idea to the boys had
they thought of it. Then they started talking about the
“Headless Brakeman.” There still are a few people who go
down to the old mill and the old trestle looking for the
ghost on Halloween. One of the boys said: “Maybe we
should supply them one?” These boys were much too old
to still believe in ghosts; that’s something for little kids and
superstitious adults.
The boys started discussing the logistics of their upcoming
prank. Since most people would walk down to but not
cross the trestle, and some would go to the grounds of the
old mill, the best place to station their ghost would be on
the far side of the trestle. One of them needed to dress up
in a white sheet that covered their head. Several of the
boys had football outfits. They reckoned two sets of
shoulder pads on a kid would give the impression of the
Headless Brakeman. They would cut two small holes in the
sheet for their eyes and hoped the spectators would be too
far away to notice. When they scouted the area, they found
there was a small patch of level ground, but much of the
terrain around there was hilly, bushy, or marshy. They
needed to hang a dark colored blanket so they could create
the illusion of disappearing when anyone went behind it.
They drew straws; the short straw had to be the ghost.
Frank drew the short straw. The boys weren’t planning to
tell anyone about their intended prank since it might alert
their intended victims. Frank was to leave just after dark
with all his equipment that included a flashlight since he
had to cross the trestle after dark. The other boys were to
come thirty minutes later and gather by the blinkers where
they were to wait for some unsuspecting fool (or fools) to
come along so they could encourage them to hunt for the
ghost. They didn’t have to wait long. There were many
people including women and children that came that
Halloween Wednesday. The boys asked if they could come
with them, as they were pretending to be afraid to go by
themselves. So this group of thirty to forty people left the
area of the blinkers and started walking down the tracks
toward the trestle. They decided it would be too dangerous
to cross the trestle at night, and they found a good place to
stand off the tracks in case a train happened to come. They
waited for about an hour or so, and they neither heard nor
saw anything. Then all of a sudden the ghost appeared and
was running up and down the tracks, but on the other side
of the trestle. Everyone thought this was fantastic. It was a
wonderful show, but it only lasted about thirty seconds
before it disappeared. Most of the children were starting
to cry with fear and wanted to go home. Most of the adults
were convinced they had seen a ghost. Of course our boys
knew better. So the group slowly walked back to the
blinker area, and all but the boys had left. It was about
time for the boys to leave, but they waited for Frank to
come back across the trestle before they headed toward
home.
They waited and waited, and they started to wonder why
Frank was taking so long. Then they saw someone coming
down Sand Hill Road (South Caroline Street) toward
them. They were surprised when they could tell it was
Frank. There was no quick way back except across the
trestle. They asked Frank how he had managed to get from
there to here so quickly without crossing the trestle. Frank
said his mother caught him right after dark as he was
leaving with all his equipment, and she wouldn’t allow him
to go out. Instead, she made him go to prayer meeting with
them over at the Pee Dee Church, and they had just
returned. You know, it’s a bad idea having Halloween on
Wednesdays, almost as bad as Sundays.
At first, the boys couldn’t decide whether to believe Frank
or not, but he had always been so reliable in the past. He
was true blue and would never tell a fib to fellow club
members. Then Harry said: “If Frank was at church all this
time, then who was it or what was it we saw down at the
trestle?”
mid 1950’s. The cast includes all the members of the Sand
Hill Club, which are Frank, Chuck, Steve, Nathan, Harry,
and Henry. Plus there were Old Red, a Chow-mix dog
belonging to Steve, and Iky, a Spitz-mix dog belonging to
Harry. Please see my previous short stories “Hamlet or
Bust” and “The Clay Cipher” for more details about these
boys. The site is the railroad trestle across the Great Falls’
millpond, the old Great Falls Mill plus the adjacent tracks
and grounds.
The original Great Falls Mill was built before the Civil War.
It provided among other things clothing and backpacks for
General Lee’s Army fighting in Northern Virginia. Coming
north from Savannah, General Sherman’s Army made a
special visit to Rockingham about a month or so before the
end of the war just for the express purpose of burning our
mill. The mill was later rebuilt. Along about this time, they
had just built the railroad into Rockingham. The military
on both sides made widespread use of the telegraph during
the Civil War, but civilian use lagged until well after the
war. Once the war was over, most of the nation’s positive
energies were directed toward settling the West. But
slowly and gradually, the telegraph was expanded to just
about everywhere including Rockingham. In most places,
it was very convenient to install telegraph lines along the
railroad tracks. This made it easy for the railroads to use
the telegraph in their business. In fact, many telegraph
companies had their offices in or near the railroad depots.
It was near the end of the nineteenth century before the
telegraph came to small towns like Rockingham. When
they were putting the telegraph poles in near the old Great
Falls’ trestle, they had some difficulty getting everything to
work out just right. It seems the old trestle was not exactly
built according to code. Later, of course, they would
replace the trestle, but they had to do something for now so
they could get the telegraph up and running. One of the
poles had to be put fairly close to the tracks. They alerted
all the railroad crews, especially the engineers and
firemen; but, the brakemen, the ones who rode in the red
caboose, didn’t pay that notice as much attention as they
should have. There was just enough room for the trains to
pass, but not much more. There was a warning sign along
the track, but it was difficult to see at night as this was
before the time of electricity and incandescent lights. The
engineers and firemen knew not to put their hands out the
window in the vicinity of the Great Falls trestle. They had
plans to replace the trestle fairly soon, but as usual, it was
one of those budget items that was easy to postpone when
budgeting got tight.
The president of the railroad had his own personal train,
and it was really quite fancy. The boiler and metal plating
were painted dark green, and all the moving parts
including the wheels were painted silver. The silver looked
like stainless steel, but that was before the time of stainless
steel. It was cleaned spotlessly after each trip. It was a 2-
10-4 (refer to my nonfiction article on “Steam Engines”),
which is bigger and more powerful than most steam
engines of the day. It was scheduled to leave Hamlet to go
to Charlotte to pick up some rich dude and bring him back
to Hamlet. He was leaving with the president to go on a
long trip down south just as soon as the train got back to
Hamlet. Naturally, they went through Rockingham on the
way to and from Charlotte. The president was in a big
hurry, so they didn’t have time to call his regular crew
together. They just got the first qualified men they could
find and sent them on this special run to Charlotte;
besides, the regular crew needed to be fresh to take the
president on his high priority trip early the next day.
Normally, a crew stays together as much as possible. With
a mixed crew, there isn’t the sense of coordination and
smoothness as with a fixed crew. They had no trouble
going to Charlotte. But, while they were taking on water
for the return trip, the engineer fell as he was climbing
down from this huge steam engine (that he was not
accustomed to) and broke his arm. A doctor in Charlotte
near the station set his arm. They were in a hurry to get
back since the president was waiting on this train, but the
engineer couldn’t do his job properly with a broken arm.
They should have requested a substitute engineer, but
Charlotte was part of the Southern Railroad system;
whereas, Hamlet was part of the Seaboard Railroad
system. So, one of the brakemen who had ambitions of
becoming an engineer volunteered to take the controls on
the condition that the engineer station himself nearby
should anything go wrong. The engineer agreed to that
and strapped himself into a seat well back behind his
regular seat. The return trip was going smoothly until they
got back to the Rockingham area. This was late at night
and the train was going through here at full throttle since
they were in such a hurry to get back to Hamlet.
This was a beautiful clear late October night. It was a little
cold, but that doesn’t matter much when you are working
behind the boiler on a steam locomotive where it’s always
hot even in the middle of winter. There was a beautiful
silvery full moon. The old Great Falls Mill was particularly
attractive in the moonlight with a nice reflection on the
millpond. The engineer had fallen asleep since this was his
second run that day, and he was quite tired. Our
brakeman (playing engineer) was really impressed by the
image of the Great Falls Mill and put his head out the
window to get a second glance. As you are fully aware, this
was not a good place to put your head out the window
especially looking backward. I don’t think I have to tell you
what happened. The noise of this accident was nothing
compared to the normal noise level on a steam engine. So
no one paid any attention to it at the time. Anyhow, about
five minutes later as they were pulling into Hamlet, the
fireman yelled at our brakeman to slow down since they
were in the yard limits. When his yelling did no good, the
fireman got up to see what was the matter. When he did,
he was aghast at what he saw. He did manage to cut the
power to the drive shafts, and the train slowed to a stop.
About that time the engineer woke up. Movement and
noise didn’t wake him but non-movement did. He too was
shocked at what he saw. The brakeman was setting there
in the engineer’s seat, and everything looked normal
except he was missing a head. They never did find his
head. They dragged the millpond but to no avail. Some
people reckoned an animal or maybe a large vulture must
have carried it away.
There’s a legend around the county that the ghost of the
brakeman comes back looking for his head. Some people
have reported seeing the ghost as far away as the Great
Falls Mill, but mostly going up and down the tracks near
the trestle looking for his head. All those who claimed to
have seen the ghost reported that it didn’t have a head.
They still haven’t figured out how a ghost with no head, and
hence no eyes, could actually look for anything. But, it did
anyhow; no one ever said ghosts were logical or had to
make sense.
Now nearly sixty years later in the early to mid 1950’s, some
people still go out to the old Mill, which is currently in
disrepair, but is still being used for cotton storage. They
hope to get a glimpse of the “Headless Brakeman.” This is
especially true in late October in general, and on
Halloween night in particular.
At one of the regular meetings of the Sand Hill Club, the
boys started thinking what they should do for Halloween
this year. This was a few years before “Trick or Treating”;
however, that would have been a good idea to the boys had
they thought of it. Then they started talking about the
“Headless Brakeman.” There still are a few people who go
down to the old mill and the old trestle looking for the
ghost on Halloween. One of the boys said: “Maybe we
should supply them one?” These boys were much too old
to still believe in ghosts; that’s something for little kids and
superstitious adults.
The boys started discussing the logistics of their upcoming
prank. Since most people would walk down to but not
cross the trestle, and some would go to the grounds of the
old mill, the best place to station their ghost would be on
the far side of the trestle. One of them needed to dress up
in a white sheet that covered their head. Several of the
boys had football outfits. They reckoned two sets of
shoulder pads on a kid would give the impression of the
Headless Brakeman. They would cut two small holes in the
sheet for their eyes and hoped the spectators would be too
far away to notice. When they scouted the area, they found
there was a small patch of level ground, but much of the
terrain around there was hilly, bushy, or marshy. They
needed to hang a dark colored blanket so they could create
the illusion of disappearing when anyone went behind it.
They drew straws; the short straw had to be the ghost.
Frank drew the short straw. The boys weren’t planning to
tell anyone about their intended prank since it might alert
their intended victims. Frank was to leave just after dark
with all his equipment that included a flashlight since he
had to cross the trestle after dark. The other boys were to
come thirty minutes later and gather by the blinkers where
they were to wait for some unsuspecting fool (or fools) to
come along so they could encourage them to hunt for the
ghost. They didn’t have to wait long. There were many
people including women and children that came that
Halloween Wednesday. The boys asked if they could come
with them, as they were pretending to be afraid to go by
themselves. So this group of thirty to forty people left the
area of the blinkers and started walking down the tracks
toward the trestle. They decided it would be too dangerous
to cross the trestle at night, and they found a good place to
stand off the tracks in case a train happened to come. They
waited for about an hour or so, and they neither heard nor
saw anything. Then all of a sudden the ghost appeared and
was running up and down the tracks, but on the other side
of the trestle. Everyone thought this was fantastic. It was a
wonderful show, but it only lasted about thirty seconds
before it disappeared. Most of the children were starting
to cry with fear and wanted to go home. Most of the adults
were convinced they had seen a ghost. Of course our boys
knew better. So the group slowly walked back to the
blinker area, and all but the boys had left. It was about
time for the boys to leave, but they waited for Frank to
come back across the trestle before they headed toward
home.
They waited and waited, and they started to wonder why
Frank was taking so long. Then they saw someone coming
down Sand Hill Road (South Caroline Street) toward
them. They were surprised when they could tell it was
Frank. There was no quick way back except across the
trestle. They asked Frank how he had managed to get from
there to here so quickly without crossing the trestle. Frank
said his mother caught him right after dark as he was
leaving with all his equipment, and she wouldn’t allow him
to go out. Instead, she made him go to prayer meeting with
them over at the Pee Dee Church, and they had just
returned. You know, it’s a bad idea having Halloween on
Wednesdays, almost as bad as Sundays.
At first, the boys couldn’t decide whether to believe Frank
or not, but he had always been so reliable in the past. He
was true blue and would never tell a fib to fellow club
members. Then Harry said: “If Frank was at church all this
time, then who was it or what was it we saw down at the
trestle?”