Are the Railroad Tracks on Edgelea Drive in Greencastle, Indiana Haunted?

 

The Old Railroad Depot in Greencastle, Indiana - Photo from the Indiana Memories Library

This is one of those stories that I just had to share because of how ridiculous it sounds!

Founded in 1821, Greencastle is a small city in west central Indiana. The founder of the city named it in honor of his hometown in Pennsylvania. A small road in the town named Edelea Drive is where you can see the supposedly haunted railroad tracks. You might expect to see a ghostly light or hear train noises, but you probably don't expect to see ghostly hobos!

I'm not entirely sure that hobo is a PC term today, but that's what the stories call these men. Greencastle once had its own railroad depot. While some departed the trains here, others road them west. Many of those men hoped to find better opportunities, especially during the Great Depression.

Local legend says that some of these men would hop off the train long before it reached the depot. Hoping to avoid the hassles of depot workers, they waited until the train slowed down as it passed what is now Edgelea Drive. The men would hop off and hide nearby until they had a chance to jump on another train.

According to some Greencastle locals, their ghosts still recreate this unusual scene. Many claim they saw dark shadows climbing off the trains and then disappearing in the blink of an eye. One story says a woman called the police because she kept seeing and hearing the men nearby. At one point, she called when she heard a man angrily banging his fists against her back door as if trying to get inside.

Visit Greencastle, Indiana, and see if it's really haunted or just another story.