Talk:Dalmanutha, South Africa

The ghost of Delmanutha

Dalmanutha Station. Story By JR Wepener The scene is a cool misty Lowveld night at Dalmanutha station sometime during 1901. After a recent night time skirmish, three British soldiers are busy burying there dead comrade near the station. He was shot and killed, during an attack on the station, where they were based to provide protection to Railway staff and the permanent way. It is almost the end of the Anglo Boer War, Paul Kruger has left for Europe, but Boer commandos are still active in the area - sabotaging the railway line from the Zuid - Afrikaanse Republiek to Delagoa bay, in certain places. The only other sound heard above the chirping crickets, is the sound of shovels disturbing hard ground. There is a sense of urgency in the air as the three men, on high alert, hurriedly try to lay there fallen mate to rest. Unfortunately for them the noise from all their shovelling has not gone unheard by the Boers lurking in the nearby bushes and all to soon the scouts have pinned there position, almost exactly, through the mist. Suddenly they are under fire. Hastily they retreat to the safety of the station buildings.

They quickly realise that they too will be joining there fallen comrade if they carry on with there plan and a new one has to be hatched. Then far in the distance the distinctive sound of an oncoming train is heard. The following then happens in quick succession. As soon as the sound of the train grows loud enough they are back at there posts shovelling a shallow grave. Under the cover of the passing train they quickly lay the soldier to rest in a foreign land.

As the red light of the guards van fades away into dark silence, they are back in the signal cabin and resume there duties, while one scrubs the blood stain from the wooden plank floor where there mate had fallen. About sixty years later, just before electrification of the line, on the exact day of the above event unfolding, a relief station foreman coming on for the nightshift, summoned the general worker to his cabin. Armed with a SAR galvanized bucket, soapy water and a scrubbing brush the worker scrubs out a crimson red stain from the wooden plank floor. This stain had mysteriously appeared a few days earlier and was growing darker by the day. Not really worrying about it the staff have carried on with their duties as normal - probably the humid weather causing the planks to stain... or so they thought. With the stain removed the foreman is left all alone on the station and is soon busy with train operating.

The night passes quickly as the line is quite busy. After the passage of the passenger train to Lourenco Marques the foreman decides to catch some spellow as there is about two hours of "Quiet time" before the next train is scheduled to arrive. He makes a note in his train register that the temperature has suddenly dropped quite considerably and that a very thick mist has enveloped the station area. It is near midnight as he is about to slide the cabin's door shut, he hears footsteps coming his way. His paraffin lamp does little to penetrate the ever thickening mist and after reassuring himself that nothing is out there in the chilly, misty night, he retires to the comfort and warmth of his cabin.

Before dozing off he notices that the blood red stain has returned to the floor planks, he shakes his head in disbelief. Sleep comes quickly. The still sleepy foreman awakes feeling cold and uncomfortable a short while later - due to a freezing chill that has entered his cabin. An eerie silence greets him, he realizes that oddly, there are no night time sounds this morning ? Almost immediately he is wide awake as he hears the unmistakable sound of boots on the gravel platform outside, coming towards the signal cabin, growing louder and louder all the time. He decides to be brave and have a look out onto the platform, as to who or what would be wandering around at this time of the early morning, the bewitching hour.

He slides the signal cabin door open and peers onto the darkened, misty platform. The foreman felt a deathly chill up his spine as the strangest thing he had ever witnessed unfolded before his eyes on the gravel station platform.

What he saw next he never could have prepared for, or expected something like this ever to happen to him, all the stories he had heard before filled his head, paralysed and silent he stood there watching with disbelief...

He clearly noticed a greyish silhouette at the far end of the platform - there, in the thick mist, coming towards him, was a 1900's British Boer war soldier dressed in a Khaki uniform in full battle dress, complete with helmet, rifle and bayonet, marching along the platform, towards him... He froze in time as he watched with horror as the ghostly figure marched right past him, made an about turn and then marched past him again, then simply walked straight off the platform and into the mist, disappearing into the pitch black silent night...

The night sounds returned and all was as before, even the chill had disappeared and the fog seemed less dense.

After his near heart attack and what felt like hours, he composed himself and telephoned the next station to tell the foreman on duty there of his ghastly experience. The voice on the other side had a belly laugh and said: "O jy het toe vir die ou Tommie ontmoet !"

Apparently this was a regular occurrence on the anniversary of the soldier's death and many railway staff had met this ghostly soldier before. This was the final straw though and the following day the blood stained planks were ripped from the floor, burnt and replaced with new wood.

Before the next year's anniversary the line had been electrified and the soldier finally came to a rest.

In the early seventies a group of international "Ghost hunters" approached the SAR with a strange request. They wanted to charter a steam hauled special on the exact day of the year to "awaken" the fallen Tommie and finally give him his peace. The Railway's just laughed at this idea and nothing ever came from this.

Today all that remains of Dalmanutha station is a rusted nameboard and overgrown station area. To those who know however - somewhere out there in the long lowveld grass - lies a British soldier that might one day patrol the station platform on his beat again... 102Mad2 (talk) 05:38, 21 March 2021 (UTC)