The Midnight Train That Never Stops

The Rumor

Every city has its urban legends. Some talk about haunted bridges, others whisper of cursed houses. But in Jordan City, the story that never dies is about the Midnight Train.

According to locals, if you wait at the old Eastbound platform at exactly 12:33 a.m., you might see a train that isn’t on any schedule. It doesn’t appear on transit apps, it isn’t announced over the loudspeakers, and no one admits it exists.

Yet, dozens claim they’ve seen it: a long, rattling locomotive with dim lights and carriages shrouded in shadow.

The legend is simple: once you board, you don’t come back.

First Sightings

The earliest account dates back to the 1920s, when a night watchman claimed he saw a “phantom train” pull into the platform. It was silent except for the hiss of steam. The doors slid open, but no one stepped out.

The watchman, curious, approached -- but the moment he reached for the railing, the train vanished, leaving only cold metal tracks and silence.

Over the years, similar stories cropped up. Commuters on late shifts swore they saw headlights where no train was scheduled. Others reported figures sitting inside the cars, their faces pressed against the glass, unmoving and pale.

The Missing Passengers

What makes the legend more chilling are the disappearances linked to it.

In 1978, a man named Harold Lister wrote in his journal about waiting for the “special train” after a night out. He described the doors opening, the carriage warm and inviting compared to the freezing platform. He ended the entry with: “I’ll ride just one stop and see where it goes.”

Harold never returned.

His journal was found on the bench, but he was never seen again.

More recently, in 2011, two college students on a ghost-hunting trip livestreamed themselves waiting at Eastbound. At 12:34 a.m., the video caught faint lights approaching. One student joked, “Here it comes!” before the stream cut out. Their phones were later found on the tracks, shattered. Neither student was found.

Theories

Skeptics insist the Midnight Train is nothing more than collective imagination. Sleep-deprived commuters, drunk partiers, and urban storytellers feeding into one another’s paranoia.

But paranormal enthusiasts argue differently. Some believe the train is a ghost itself, a relic of a long-forgotten crash. Others say it’s a “death train,” a vehicle that collects wandering souls, luring them aboard with promises of warmth, rest, or curiosity.

A few fringe theorists even suggest it’s a glitch in time — a real train from another era bleeding into ours for a moment before slipping back into whatever dimension it belongs to.

The Rules of the Legend

Every urban legend comes with warnings. Locals insist that if you ever see the Midnight Train:

• Do not look directly into the windows. The passengers will look back.
• Do not step onto the platform alone. You might hear voices calling your name.
• Never board. No one who has ever entered the train has returned.

Older residents say the safest thing to do if you glimpse it is to close your eyes and count to ten. By the time you open them, it will be gone.

A Witness Speaks

I spoke once to a retired conductor named Elaine who swore she had seen it herself.

“It wasn’t just a story,” she said, her hands trembling around her teacup. “I was waiting for a transfer in 1983. The station was quiet. Then I saw the lights.”

She described the train as long and endless, its windows glowing faintly yellow. Inside, she saw rows of people — but not one of them moved.

“They weren’t breathing,” she whispered. “They were waiting. For what, I don’t know. But I knew if I stepped on, I’d be waiting too. Forever.”

Why It Persists

Stories like the Midnight Train endure because they tap into something primal. Trains are meant to have destinations, beginnings and ends. But a train with no schedule, no map, no terminus? That’s not travel -- that’s entrapment.

The Midnight Train legend speaks to our fear of being swallowed by the unknown, of stepping into a place where time no longer matters.

Maybe it’s just an old story passed down to scare teenagers. Or maybe, somewhere out there, the train is still running, waiting for its next passenger.