The Haunted Railcrossing

This tale is about one of the most infamous rail-crossings in North America. The spooky tales concerning the rail-crossing near San Juan Mission, south of San Antonio, Texas is now the stuff of urban- legends and the details vary greatly in different accounts. However, the gist of the story is somewhat same-- it was the location of a tragic accident. Sometime in the 1930s or 1940s, a school-bus full of young children was making its way down the rail-crossing when it was rammed hard by a speeding train. Ten children along with the driver died on the spot. Ever since the tragic accident, any cars that stopped across the crossing are pushed uphill by unseen entities. It is claimed that the spirit of the children push the vehicles away from the way of accidents to prevent similar tragedy.

The story has fueled enthusiasm throughout the community and even today people regularly line up their cars a few yards of the tracks and put them in neutral to see whether the legend is true. The cars roll up the road (the track is slightly uphill) against the gravity on their own accord. The legend has been tested over and over again. Now comes the second part of the story. Many people have sprinkled baby-powder on the boot and the rear bumper of the car and noticed tiny fingerprints and hand prints appearing after the cars are pushed uphill.

A first-hand account:

Brenda Pacheco is lucky enough to have a first-hand experience of the legend. According to her account, she put the car in neutral and took her foot off the pedal. The car moved quickly towards the tracks, up over the bumps, down the other side and well out of the harm's way. She also did the powder test and noticed tiny fingerprints at the back of her car along with a pair of adult fingerprints.

So, what is the truth behind the legend? Several serious investigations had been done into the legend but, neither did yield any result. San Antonio police also took out an investigation into the alleged accident. However, they do not have any such accident in their records. Now, we come to the gravity-defying cars. A technical survey done by a local TV Station has found that the road going uphill is in fact an illusion. The road is actually at a 2 degree decline. So, a car put into neutral will naturally roll forward. But, what about the fingerprints? Experts say that powder sprinkled onto a car can display much older fingerprints also. So, the fingerprints might as well be the fingerprint of some living people.

So, almost all the happening seems to have a scientific explanation. Nevertheless, the legend has fascinated people for decades and will probably go on doing so.