On July 20, 1912, a pleasure train departed from the Roma railway station on a cruise arranged by the Il Carnivale company for wealthy Italians. 157 passengers saw the sights surrounding the new section of the road.
The passage was approaching a super-long, by the standards of the beginning of the 20th century, a kilometer-long tunnel. And suddenly something terrible began to happen. According to the testimony of two passengers who managed to jump out on the move, everything suddenly became covered with a milky-white fog, which thickened as they approached the tunnel, turning into a viscous liquid. The train entered the tunnel and … disappeared.
Perhaps this case would have been forgotten if on September 12, 1990, a three-car ghost had not appeared near the village of Svetloye, Poltava region, at the crossing of Olga Mikhailovna Yakusheva on duty. The train with tightly closed curtains, open doors and an empty driver's cabin moved absolutely silently, crushing chickens walking along the canvas. Several days later, the ghost train appeared a second time, then again. The chairman of the commission for the study of anomalous phenomena at the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Nikolai Vasilievich Stapchuk trapped a mysterious train at the crossing in the village of Svetloye. He jumped onto the ghost's bandwagon and … No one saw him again.
There were no rails …
We just quoted one of the old newspapers. But you never know what was printed there in the dashing nineties … Moreover, the rest of the extensive article was replete with lofty pseudoscientific rhetoric designed to prove that the ghost train supposedly moves freely in time. An unknown author sprinkled with homemade terms like "interconnection of different-dimensional spaces", "stereometry of time", "chronal fields" and the like. For an unprepared reader, this looked impressive, but for a person who was in the slightest degree familiar with the basics of physics, it made absolutely no sense. And the facts given in the article could well have turned out to be the fiction of an idle journalist. There was no ghost train, let's say …
But now an episode, supported by the testimony of witnesses. It dates back to 1960. These are the recollections of the Sevastopol old-timer Grigory Filippovich Sanin: “That night I was on duty at the railway crossing, which is right in front of Balaklava … Our linemen, Sasha Bukreev and Misha Mazin, came to my booth, it seemed like to warm up, it was cold autumn. Well, warmed up, as expected … But we were not drunk, no … Well, not much. Suddenly I saw: from the side of the former branch to the quarry (the rails were removed, the embankment remained) there was a train. I rubbed my eyes, I thought, it’s fancy - after all, trains cannot walk on the track without rails, but he goes: a steam locomotive and three passenger trailers. Both the locomotive and the entire train are not from ours, they seem to be pre-war, or maybe even earlier. The locomotive looks like an old "sheep", you probably don't remember - the OB series was like that, but not a "sheep". "Sheep" I know well,before the war he started as a fireman. And this one - well, I have not seen such. A small one, like a shunting one … In general, it walks without lights, it walks from the side of Mount Gasfort, where there have never been rails before, but it leaves on our main path. There, the turnout was removed from the former branch for a long time, but here I clearly hear the arrows clang, I only managed to lower the barrier. The train passed me by and went to Sevastopol. Well, my business is small. I am responsible for the move, everything is in order, and then let the dispatcher figure it out. But how did he walk without rails ?! I even ran out onto the old canvas, the guys followed me - no traces, no grass-bumps crushed. Some kind of devilry … "There, the turnout was removed from the former branch for a long time, but here I clearly hear the arrows clanging, I only managed to lower the barrier. The train passed me by and went to Sevastopol. Well, my business is small. I am responsible for the move, everything is in order, and then let the dispatcher figure it out. But how did he walk without rails ?! I even ran out onto the old canvas, the guys followed me - no traces, no grass-bumps crushed. Some devilry … "There, the turnout was removed from the former branch for a long time, but here I clearly hear the arrows clang, I only managed to lower the barrier. The train passed me by and went to Sevastopol. Well, my business is small. I am responsible for the move, everything is in order, and then let the dispatcher figure it out. But how did he walk without rails ?! I even ran out onto the old canvas, the guys followed me - no traces, no grass-bumps crushed. Some devilry …"
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Abandoned object
On the night from 2 to 3 August 1998 in the Khabarovsk taiga, 90 kilometers west of Antykan, five were sitting by the fire. These were members of an amateur Moscow expedition - Ilya Viktorovich Znamensky, 42-year-old doctor of biological sciences and chairman of the ufological association (ufology is the study of phenomena associated with unidentified flying objects, from the English abbreviation UFO, in a broad sense - the study of anomalous phenomena), and students - physicists Yura Kadyshev and Dima Petrov, university humanitarians Oleg Shulgin and Tanya Vekshina. This very ufology is a thankless task. The condescending grins of fellow scientists, ridiculous, capable of discrediting any scientific search for the invention of charlatans, the unhealthy interest of yellow rags, and most importantly - not a single, literally not a single serious evidence of the existence of something paranormal. Indirect - as many as you like, a dime a dozen. There were no direct ones.
The purpose of the expedition was to explore the area where four hunters mysteriously disappeared. Muscovites have already managed to inspect the ruins of an object built here in the 1940s at the direction of the NKVD - undoubtedly, with the personal approval of Comrade Stalin. According to unconfirmed reports, something like a third capital was being planned. Allegedly, in the event of the fall of Moscow and Kuibyshev, they intended to evacuate the government here. But there the ufologists did not find anything - in the fullest sense of the word. Huge empty dungeons, some kind of unfinished buildings, rusty remnants of dismantled railway lines. The construction was not completed, it was abandoned as soon as the situation on the fronts changed in favor of the Soviet troops. But the purpose of the object was not exactly known. Maybe not a reserve capital,and something else was planned here … There were vague rumors about some scientific center of unclear purpose, but rumors are rumors. There were either no documents left, or they could not be found. In a word, the expedition achieved zero results. The Muscovites were going to start on their way back.
Disappeared in the dark
Further narration is based on the story of Yura Kadyshev. There was a strange sound - a low hum that seemed to come from under the ground. It pulsed in an uneven rhythm, becoming louder, then quieter, then dying down completely, then bursting out in a series of dull powerful blows, not subject to visible laws. This is how a crazy bass player could play when he hooked up his instrument to giant speakers … The sound was in no way like distant thunder. The thought of an earthquake also could hardly claim to be close to the truth - the ground did not tremble for a second. But perhaps it was some kind of harbinger of an earthquake that was about to begin.
Then Muscovites saw a whitish glow, as if at the very surface of the earth dozens of searchlights stretched out in a line directed into the sky were turned on, and someone slowly and steadily increased the tension with the help of a rheostat. The source or sources of the mysterious light were 150 meters away, and tree trunks made it difficult to see any details. This light was white and bright, it became more and more saturated. The hum had subsided somewhat and now resembled the hum of a huge transformer located somewhere in the distance.
Ufologists rushed to the light. The yellowish beams of the lanterns cut through the darkness, feeling for roots, fallen trunks and other obstacles that one could stumble over and not only fill oneself with bumps, but, God forbid, damage the equipment. Znamensky carried a biological locator - not a traditional frame, but a prototype of the device, embodied in metal under the direction of Yura Kadyshev. Yura himself and Dima Petrov armed themselves with cameras loaded with highly sensitive film. Tanya took a video camera. The biolocator needle darted on a weakly phosphorescent scale. About three meters from the wall of light, which went vertically to the dark sky, the ufologists stopped. Here the taiga ended - trees and bushes disappeared. Instead of that, some rubble embankment stretched further, white light was born right in the air 30 centimeters from its surface. He was very brightbut in a strange way he did not blind his eyes and allowed his eyes to penetrate the shining barrier, There were rails, sleepers. Railway. Yes, behind the wall of light was a railroad track, disappearing to the right and left in clouds of whimsically swirling bluish fog. The new rails glittered against the rubble and black stripes of tarred sleepers. There was a vibration in the air, as if people were in a strong electric field. A new sound was added to the low hum - a distant rhythmic rumbling, and it grew louder. From the west, a misty cloud was split by a blinding beam, and something huge, dark, rumbling followed it. It was a train. A steam locomotive rushed along the railway, a real one, of those that can now be seen only in museums. The passenger cars that he dragged with him through the dense foggy curtain,suggested pre-war movies. It was impossible to see whether anyone was inside these cars, for the windows were in pitch darkness. Znamensky and Vekshina were the closest to the train. Golden balls, throwing out trails of sparks, swept parallel to the railway track, accompanying the train. Shulgin, Kadyshev and Dima Petrov fled to Znamensky and Tanya, when the white light turned crimson, then blue and, finally, quickly faded away in twilight agony. It became absolutely dark, as the lamps of the ufologists also went out. The three stood helplessly in complete darkness and silence. There was no more hum, no sound of train wheels, no more vibration in the air. Tanya and Znamensky disappeared without a trace.emitting trails of sparks swept parallel to the railway track, accompanying the train. Shulgin, Kadyshev and Dima Petrov fled to Znamensky and Tanya, when the white light turned crimson, then blue and, finally, quickly faded away in twilight agony. It became absolutely dark, as the lamps of the ufologists also went out. The three stopped helplessly in complete darkness and silence. There was no more hum, no sound of train wheels, no more vibration in the air. Tanya and Znamensky disappeared without a trace.emitting trails of sparks swept parallel to the railway track, accompanying the train. Shulgin, Kadyshev and Dima Petrov fled to Znamensky and Tanya, when the white light turned crimson, then blue and, finally, quickly faded away in twilight agony. It became absolutely dark, as the lamps of the ufologists also went out. The three stopped helplessly in complete darkness and silence. There was no more hum, no sound of train wheels, no more vibration in the air. Tanya and Znamensky disappeared without a trace.no air vibration. Tanya and Znamensky disappeared without a trace.no air vibration. Tanya and Znamensky disappeared without a trace.
It's all wasted
Searches in the taiga, organized by the rescuers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, have yielded no results. At the point where Vekshina and Znamenskoye disappeared, no railroad passed - neither now, nor before. On cautious questions about the possible presence of a functioning railway line somewhere nearby, the rescuers answered with perplexed looks. And where two members of the UFO expedition disappeared, the trees grew so densely that a man could hardly squeeze between them.
The films turned out to be exposed, the cassette in the broken video camera was empty, the electronic memory of the biological locator dropped by Znamensky did not record anything. By the way, it was the shattered camera carried by Tanya that made the investigators suspicious. How could she crash, falling on soft soil from a low height? But did not there arise any contradictions between the participants of the expedition, did they end in a tragic denouement? The incident with the camera seemed all the more strange since none of the young scientists could explain it clearly. Of course, they were not going to tell the officials that the camera broke on a rubble embankment, which subsequently disappeared in a single moment … Fortunately, the investigators had enough common sense not to bring the case to accusations against three reasonable and balanced people, but Shulgin and Petrov this story was expensive. Both ended up in the clinic with a severe nervous breakdown. Kadyshev was more fortunate, but he also suffered from headaches. As for Znamensky and Vekshina, the authorities considered them lost in the taiga and, alas, dead …
Even before returning to Moscow, Petrov, Shulgin and Kadyshev argued for a long time about who and in what form to report what they saw. We agreed that Kadyshev would make a report at a meeting of the UFO Society - only there it was possible to find people who would not rush to dial 03 after such statements. They reacted to Yura's report in different ways. They talked about mass hallucinations, about rare cases of mirages, as usual - about the intervention of aliens. One way or another, the report added to the collection of circumstantial evidence of the existence of paranormal phenomena. The indisputable fact was only the disappearance of two people in approximately the same area, from which four local hunters had not previously returned. But both of them really could get lost, no? Even hunters are unlikely, but possible.
In the laboratory of his institute, Yura Kadyshev carefully examined the failed flashlights (they restored their functionality without replacing the batteries a few hours after the failure). He found no evidence of exposure to any known radiation. Nothing unusual happened to the biological locator and video camera either. True, the fact that the camera broke, seemed to prove irrefutably that the rubble embankment is not a mirage or a hallucination. As if … But nothing more. Why, say, the camera could not hit a stone covered with earth, then fly off to the side to be thrown by someone's foot in the dark? It was not difficult to come up with a dozen other rational explanations. It is much easier than believing in the truth of what did not fit into consciousness.
Train to nowhere
The fate of Znamensky and Vekshina remained unclear. No evidence was found that could confirm the reality of what the three ufologists saw. And they did not seek to initiate anyone, except for the same ufologists, into this nightmare. The most they could achieve was a psychiatric diagnosis with mass hallucination syndrome, if not the title of notorious hoaxers. Only their wounded memory remained … Yura Kadyshev said that he often dreamed of the blinding lights of a black train, which, perhaps, was being carried away to hell itself.
Andrey Bystrov