The strangest experience of my life happened when my wife and I were staying in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The Tamil Tiger terrorists were active at the time and we were advised by our hotelier not to go out after curfew and avoid the beach in particular. But one night we had a problem getting back and in order to avoid the beach we had to take a route along the railway line.
The old steam trains normally made quite a racket- you could hear them hissing and clanking from miles away. I noticed a bright light behind us. Assuming that a train was coming I quickly pulled my wife away from the rails as a large train brushed by, almost touching us.
Even though it was an old steam train it was totally silent- not quiet, it was totally silent. The steam, the wheels, the carriages made not a single sound. We were so close that we could also see that the train had no driver, no passengers and no guard.
I'm a skeptical man- I was trained in the navy and have worked as a counselor- so I went next morning to ask the stationmaster about the incident. He insisted that no trains passed that way at the times I said. And he added that the track where we had walked had been the site of a number of fatal train disasters!
The old steam trains normally made quite a racket- you could hear them hissing and clanking from miles away. I noticed a bright light behind us. Assuming that a train was coming I quickly pulled my wife away from the rails as a large train brushed by, almost touching us.
Even though it was an old steam train it was totally silent- not quiet, it was totally silent. The steam, the wheels, the carriages made not a single sound. We were so close that we could also see that the train had no driver, no passengers and no guard.
I'm a skeptical man- I was trained in the navy and have worked as a counselor- so I went next morning to ask the stationmaster about the incident. He insisted that no trains passed that way at the times I said. And he added that the track where we had walked had been the site of a number of fatal train disasters!
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