The Devil's Loco

I live by an ancient railway track

Near the village of Nether Stonely,

Though the trains were left in the distant past,

And the ribbon of track is lonely,

The rails are rusted, covered in weeds

And lead to an old stone tunnel,

That squads of Victorian engineers

Once sealed to the height of a funnel.

 

As lads, we’d clamber up to the top

And peer through the gap left up there,

Into the pitch of the blackness, where

You could still get a whiff of sulphur.

We’d shout ‘Hello!’ there, into the dark,

And listen to hear the echo

Bounce off the curve of the soot-black walls

That seemed to be whispering ‘Loco!’

 

The legend went that a local lad

In ’93, in the winter,

Had followed his dog as it chased a hare,

They’d all been seen to go in there,

A tank, a 2.4.2 went in

To the dark of the old stone tunnel,

With sparks and smoke obscuring the view

As sulphur poured from its funnel.

 

It didn’t come out from the other side,

The boy never reappeared,

The company suddenly closed off the line

With that bevy of engineers,

The loco was written right off from the books,

They said it had gone to the knackers,

And secretive meetings were held at the docks

With directors, and all of their backers!

 

I slipped right over that wall at ten,

But nobody would believe me,

And felt my way through the darkness then

As my eyes, they thought to deceive me,

A loco, cold, and covered in rust

Stood silent there in the tunnel,

And under the front, a skeleton crushed,

As dead as the old train’s funnel!

 

On winter days when a fog or haze

Comes down, I can hear it barking,

A dog in chase of a hare, and then

The sound of a young boy laughing,

And then the rumble and chuff of a train

Drifts faintly over the meadow,

As I cover my ears to muffle the scream

And the sound of the Devil’s Loco!

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

Wonderful poetry again here, giving a haunting goosebumb through your European well spelled roots, I felt taken visually and litteraly into your words, The wisdom, and yes your feelers too, paint here a masterpiece, I've got the shivers, so good you explored an tunnel, and an admosphere of the poco locos... Between the eyes of the Devil, or the Devil in...? I still wonder, that makes it perrr-fect

E. L.

[Tomás Ó C..]

Ghostly, and a great read...

[BlackRose]

Love this tale. Haunting in a way. Flows like deep dark art. Once again, well done!

[lee von cleef]

rumble and chuff, sounds and words,good stuff, like the sound of thunder being a potato wagon big ground shaking bellow ,thank you I am glad I stopped by.

[Enid Blake]

Love this spooky tale, poetically beautiful from beginning to end.

[Skelasoldier]

A great piece of literature that both conveys the imagery and interpretation of your idea. I am looking forward the reading some of your other works.

~Skela

[Kimberly "Melody" Carne..]

A talented soul you are with craftiness and pen. You sit down to write rather day or night a story perfectly and poetically pinned!

[Kristallo]

You know, I just finished a book by Stephen King, then I got online and read this and it so admirably fed the same vein, so to speak. :P I love a good ghost story.

Your masterful skill with words is unsurpassed. I thought this poem was fascinating, chilling and very unique. You have such a classic, attainable style of writing, and i'm truly in awe of it. Excellent work.

[Valentine]

Another gem from the pen of my favorite writer..You never seize to amaze me..Your mind must stay active 24 hours of the day..were you a genius in school? Love to you and Lyn...God bless...Kathie

[roarke]

I once lived fifty feet from a commuter train track for two years. Every other month or so, at three a.m. an engine passed to scrape and burnish the rails, screeching and showering sparks everywhere. I called it the devil train. This piece hit home, chilling, marrow freezing.