CLIFFTOP, WV (SWVO) – Visitors staying overnight in cabins 7 through 13 at Babcock State Park have long reported hearing the faint, distant sound of a steam train whistle echoing through the forest at night.
The cabins sit on the road behind the Glade Creek Grist Mill — a route that, over a century ago, was part of the Mann’s Creek Railway line.
The Mann’s Creek Railway, a narrow-gauge line running from Sewell to Clifftop and Landisburg, once hauled lumber and coal through what is now Babcock State Park.
The road behind the mill fed the Landisburg sawmill until 1929 and later served the Clifftop coal mines until the railway’s closure in 1955.
Today, much of the route has been converted into hiking paths, including the Narrow Gauge Trail and Old Sewell Road Trail.
The park’s so-called “ghost train” legend is rooted in a tragic event that occurred on May 21, 1913. On that afternoon, a mixed passenger and freight train was halted by a landslide four miles from Sewell.
As the crew worked to clear the track, a second, larger slide — triggered by a cloudburst — swept the locomotive, three freight cars, a combination caboose, and a passenger coach 500 feet down the mountainside.
Four people were killed, including two traveling salesmen, a lumberman from Braxton County, and the infant child of a Landisburg couple. Several others were injured.
While no physical trace of that wreck remains, many believe the mournful whistle heard by park guests is the lingering echo of that doomed train’s final run.
The phenomenon even inspired musician Barry Carlton to write and record Ghost Train on the Old Mann’s Creek Line, preserving the legend in song.
Whether it’s a trick of the wind or something more mysterious, the sound continues to be reported — especially on still, quiet nights in the cabins along the old railbed.
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