In search of the phantom porter still protecting haunted railway

One of the next events I’m hosting is an evening of storytelling around a campfire, on the Longest Day, June 21st.
I was recently contacted by the owners of Wray Valley Camping, asking if I’d like to do something on their land for their guests. So I paid them a visit and we came up with the idea of giving people a guided walk around the land surrounding the campsite, which includes the Wray Valley Trail, that follows the route of the disused railway between Bovey Tracey and Moretonhampstead, and the woodland areas of Wray Cleeve.

The evening will consist of refreshments followed by a walk around and then a gathering by the campfire for the storytelling, led by yours truly, with the opportunity of spending the night there, either camping or in the B&B. I’m reliably informed there are many bats on site and owls in the woodlands, so it should all make for a very atmospheric occasion.
With the old track running through the grounds, it was suggested that I might like to add some suitably spooky railway-based tales into my repertoire, so this got me thinking and I came up with a few...

During the course of my research into the Okehampton area, ahead of my Ghost Walk, I came across a story suggesting that the railway station there is haunted by the spirit of an old train driver, known as Sam. Having gone from being fully in use to a tourist attraction to being fully in use again, the station has gone through some turbulent times of uncertainty. Back in the late 90s, this state of affairs seemed to be felt quite keenly by its resident ghost, for he started to make his presence felt, moving things around, making noises, and generally making a nuisance of himself. This was taken as a sign that he didn’t approve of all the stress that the staff around him were suffering from and that he was coming out in sympathy with them. Once things were sorted out, and everyone was happy again, Sam seemed to settle down too.

At the recent meeting I held at The London Inn in Okehampton, where around 60 people turned up, designed as a way for me to learn about people’s local experiences, a gentleman stood up and shared his story. Being an avid train buff, he had spent a lot of time at the railway station, and once, whilst standing on the platform, he saw a man walk out of the office, wearing the livery of a porter, a livery belonging to a company that he knew had operated there many years previously, but not now. The “porter” walked to the edge of the platform and disappeared...hearing this, reminded me of the story of Sam, so I asked if it could have been him that he’d seen. The gentleman thought for a moment and concluded that it possibly was, as the livery for porters and drivers was the same back then, and the sighting was around the late 90s when Sam was most active. So we have a positive sighting of a phantom train driver!

My good friend, Melissa, who owns The Whistlestop Cafe on Teignmouth railway station and when she used to come to our meetings, she would always tell us how active the place was. Furniture would often be moved around, in a tidy way, money would be left for her if she was ever short for making a bill payment, and she felt blessed that the place seemed to be looking out for her. There is even an annual sighting of a man, running through the cafe, on the same day, at the same time, to reach the platform, where he promptly disappears...obviously he never does quite catch his train!

Melissa was kind enough to let us hold an investigation there one night, and what an interesting time we had. In order to give us access to the platform, where the toilets were, she placed the keys on a table, by the locked back door, to make it easier to come and go. When the first person felt the need to use the toilets, the keys weren’t on the table, and no one else had moved them. Straightaway, Melissa knew where they would be and opening the till, there they were, back where they were usually kept.