Man Killed Waiting On "Ghost Train"

Man killed while waiting for ‘ghost train’

By Steve Lyttle
slyttle@charlotteobserver.com

Posted: Friday, Aug. 27, 2010

A man who was among amateur ghost hunters standing on an Iredell County trestle early Friday waiting for a “ghost train” was killed by a real train that apparently surprised the group, authorities say.

The group had gathered on the 119th anniversary of the Bostian Bridge train wreck – an accident that sparked one of the Carolinas’ best-known ghost stories.

Christopher Kaiser, 29, was killed when he was struck about 3 a.m. by a Norfolk Southern train, Iredell County Sheriff Phil Redmond said.

A woman who was with the group was seriously injured and airlifted to Carolinas Medical Center after being treated initially at a Statesville hospital. Several reports indicate Kaiser pushed the woman out of the way before he was hit by the train.

The incident happened on a trestle near the site of the old Bostian Bridge, off Buffalo Shoals Road, about 2 miles west of Statesville. They apparently did not hear the eastbound train coming until too late.

“There were reported to be around 12 amateur ghost hunters caught on the trestle when the train rounded the bend,” Redmond said.

The sheriff said the group began running to the eastern end of the trestle, and all but Kaiser made it. Deputies found Kaiser’s body under the trestle, at the bottom of a steep ravine.

Redmond said investigators talked to some members of the group and will continue the investigation today.

One witness told WCNC-TV, the Observer’s news partner, that the group was waiting for the ghost train.

"It was the anniversary of a train wreck … ," a witness told NewsChannel 36. "They say on the anniversary that it replays in front of you or you hear the accident or you hear the train wrecking."

An Observer story from the 100th anniversary of the wreck reported that people gather annually on Aug. 27 at the Bostian Bridge. In 1991, hawkers sold T-shirts and other memorabilia, and there were an estimated 150 people waiting for the train.

The original incident, in 1891, involved a passenger train traveling from Salisbury to Asheville. Although there is some disagreement over the time of the wreck, most accounts say it happened about 2 a.m. For some reason, the train went off the bridge, dropping 60 feet below into a creek.

About 30 people were killed and about two dozen injured.

The legend of the ghost train developed when a group of people walking near the Bostian Bridge on the first anniversary of the wreck claimed to have met a man, dressed in a railroad uniform, who asked them for the time. According to the legend, the man resembled Hugh K. Linkster, a baggage master who was killed in the wreck.

Legend claims that the man vanished before the group’s eyes.

WCNC-TV contributed.