The final journey ghost is a ghost that appears as an unmanned vehicle traveling at high speeds over its' final route. The most common final journey ghosts are phantom cars, trucks, motorcycles, trains, and horse drawn carriages. These ghosts are a peculiar enigma because physical objects do not have souls. Therefore, vehicles should not have a ghost. Just because there isn't a visible apparition inside the vehicle, does not necessarily mean that there is not a ghost at the controls.
Phantom vehicles appear as real and solid objects. They emanate bright headlights and can sometimes be seen traveling several feet above the ground. Phantom vehicles seem very realistic to witnesses who believe them to be real until they suddenly vanish into thin air.
Phantom vehicles are always period vehicles; meaning that they are from a different time in history so they have a distinct appearance. There are sleek looking phantom sports cars from the 1950's and 60's, who crashed violently while speeding or drag racing, killing the driver and passengers. There are phantom black gangster cars from the 1930's and 40's, which speed recklessly down deserted back roads where gangsters used to dump their victims. In some southern parts of the USA, there are reports of phantom horse drawn carriages that bolt wildly down old dirt roads with and without phantom horses. There are even phantom steam engine locomotives that rocket through empty cornfields at the site of terrible train derailments where train tracks use to lay.
Phantom vehicles are more than just replays of a past event. They act and react to living people and other vehicles. Phantom vehicles have been known to speed directly into the path of oncoming traffic only to disappear right before impacting with another vehicle. They chase innocent pedestrians off of the road by steering straight at them. In some of these cases, the phantom vehicles are actually seen driving off of the road, crashing violently in front of shocked witnesses. The witnesses report hearing the tires squeal and the twisting sounds of metal impacting. They can see the fire and smell the smoke rolling from the accident scene. They believe that they have just witnessed an automobile accident until the phantom vehicle and the remains of the catastrophic crash disappear without explanation.
The exact reasons as to why these phantom vehicles continue to haunt their last route with this type of aggression are unknown. They appear to be reenacting the last moments of their life in the same way as other traditional ghosts. Veering toward innocent people and vehicles might be the only form of communication that these ghosts can offer. Maybe these ghosts are acting out of desperation and trying to do something different on that final route to change their awful fate.
The final journey ghost is most active on the anniversary of their crash or disaster. These hopeless ghosts are continuously traveling the same route while vigorously striving to reach an impossible destination.
The Story of a Final Journey
The strangest experience in Professor James' life happened to him while living in Provo, Utah. The professor was driving home late one night. The lowering train rails that keep vehicles away from the tracks when a train is coming stopped him. He sat there waiting patiently for the train to pass.
Down the railroad line, he could see a bright light in the distance. It was very dark that night, but the light was as bright as the sun. He heard the loud train whistle go off twice as it approached the crossing, but he could not hear anything else. He found that very odd because the trains that run on these tracks usually make quite a racket as they pass. Normally, the professor would have been able to hear the rumbling sound of the train's iron wheels rolling over the railroad tracks, but strangely, he could not hear any of those typical noises. It was eerily silent.
The Professor continued to wait on the train. He watched the light in the distance grow brighter and brighter as it moved closer. He rolled his car window down to listen, but there were still no sounds. The train was only about one hundred yards away now.
As he watched the single bright light move closer, he finally heard a noise. There was a strange clicking sound coming from the direction of the train. It was an abnormal sound that resembled metal banging into metal. Seconds passed. The train continued to barrel toward the crossing. The clicking noise changed into a terrible grinding sound. Professor James was starting to panic. He didn't know what was happening, but he knew those noises where definitely not normal. The train must be in trouble.
It was very close now, about twenty-five yards away and closing in quickly. The train's light was almost blinding. It hurt the professor's eyes to look directly at it, but he could not take his eyes off of it. He could not see a train behind the light. The noises were so horribly loud that the professor had to cup his hands over his ears to block out the screeching metal sounds.
The professor watched in complete horror as the light seemed to jump off of the track and start to skid straight for his car. Professor James thought that he was about to die. The light was sliding right at his car. He screamed out just before the train made contact with the side of his car.
Instead of demolishing his car and killing him instantly, the light seemed to pass right through the car and vanish on the other side. The horrible sounds of twisting and collapsing metal lasted a few more seconds then, they too faded away into nothing. The whole ordeal was over. Professor James was left sitting in his car in total shock as he watched the train crossing gates rise back up.
The professor was alone on the road. He was covered in sweat and nearly hyperventilating from the experience. He was in such a state of shock that he could barely drive. He does not remember most of the drive back to his home.
The professor spent the next week locked inside his house never leaving it, not even to buy groceries. Since the encounter with the phantom locomotive, Professor James has scoured public records and old newspaper articles searching for evidence of a train derailment on those railroad tracks. He has yet to find the evidence that would help him understand his experience, but admits that documentation about past historic events is hard to find. Professor James considers himself a well-educated and rational thinking person. He did not believe in the existence of ghosts or the paranormal until one dark night when a phantom train drove though his car.