Located in south central Pennsylvania is the city of Altoona.  At one time this little city was the railroad capital of the world.  It was home to the Pennsylvania Railroad, the largest railroad in the world.  Today, most of the railroad industry is gone, but the memory of its past greatness still lingers.  During the heyday of the railroads in the 1920’s the Pennsylvania Railroad’s complex of shops, round houses, foundries and other infrastructure stretched for nearly 7miles through the middle of town and along the valley floor. 
            Altoona was founded in 1849 as the country began its westward expansion in earnest.  The railroads continued to grow as the 19th century progressed, bolstered by a need for transportation during the Civil War.  The railroads emerged as the most efficient means of transportation for the ever-growing tide of people and goods westward.  The Pennsylvania Railroad met this challenge and established its base at Altoona.  Generations were born, grew up, worked for the PRR and died there.  During World War Two, trains were passing through Altoona with less than a minute between them.  This was a testament to the efficiency of the PRR.  The Nazis ranked the rail yards in Altoona as one of the top 10 targets in the United States for attack.  Fortunately, they never achieved the means to do so.  The past few decades have brought a decline in the rail industry.  Most of the jobs with the railroad in Altoona are gone and so are many of the buildings once associated with it.  However, one very interesting building still remains. 
            That building is the Master Mechanics building of the Pennsylvania Railroad.  It is a large four-story building at the corner of 9th Avenue and 12th Street in Altoona. The entire building is nearly a block long.  It was constructed in 1882 with very little fanfare.  At the time, it received only a small mention in the PRR’s records.  According to documents from the time, it was “ …a new building to be used as a storehouse, test room, chemicals laboratory and shop offices.”  This brief statement shows that the PRR was not sentimental about its resources.  The Master Mechanics building was only useful to the Pennsylvania Railroad as long as it could function to help turn a profit.  At the time of its construction, it was but one small building in a huge complex that helped the PRR achieve its reputation and set the standard for all railroads in the world. 
            One part of this building’s function was to house the test department.  The Pennsylvania Railroad’s test department experimented with anything the railroad used in its day-to-day operation.  Not only was machinery tested, but also items such as light bulbs and even oranges were tested.  For instance, if you could make a light bulb that would last longer, you needed fewer light bulbs and less labor to change them.  Oranges make orange juice, and if you could find oranges that produced more juice for the same price, you made more profit from the passenger lines. 
            The Master Mechanics building also served as offices for some of the railroad executives, it housed the paint shop, the chemical laboratories and also served as storage space for a time.  During its existence the building also became home to the infirmary of the PRR.  The Master Mechanics building finally closed its doors to railroad service in 1984.  After over a century of service, it looked like the building might fall victim to the wrecking ball.  It got a reprieve in the early 1990’s when the Altoona Railroaders Memorial Museum needed a new home.  It took several years, and millions of dollars, but today, the old Master Mechanics building is now the ultra-modern Altoona Railroaders Memorial Museum.  It was through the museum’s curator, R. Cummins McNitt, that I learned that the building was haunted.

           I have been investigating ghosts and haunted places for several years.  Patty Wilson and I started the Ghost Research Foundation together.  It is an organization that uses scientific methods to investigate sites that are reportedly haunted.  My friends and acquaintances know what I do and are always coming to me with places that they have heard are haunted.  That was how I found out about the railroaders museum. 
            I happened to bump into one of my friends at a local restaurant and she told me that she had heard about a place I might be interested in.  Knowing that a ghost story was sure to follow, I began taking mental notes.  She told me that she was at a fund-raiser and had spoken to the curator of the museum.  Somehow the topic had turned to ghosts, and the curator had told her about the experiences he and the staff have had in the building. She then explained who I was and what the Ghost Research Foundation does. She wondered if it would be okay if we were to get in touch with him.  He readily agreed and she promised to put us in contact with each other.  Naturally, I called him the next day and set up an appointment.
            I met Cummins a few days later.  I brought a sample of some photos we have collected and a few recordings of EVP (electronic voice phenomena) that we have acquired through our investigations.  I explained to Cummins that we believe ghosts are some type of electromagnetic energy.  We talked about how matter and energy cannot be destroyed or created, they simply change form.  I used the analogy of burning a piece of paper.  If I set a piece of paper on fire, the matter is transformed into heat and light energy.  Since humans are based on electricity, what happens to that energy after death? That is a question that no one can solidly answer.  I explained that we do not deal with religious subjects, merely the scientific aspects of ghost or haunting. 
            I told Cummins that we use scientific instruments to try to document a haunted location.  I explained that we use electromagnetic field detectors, thermal scanners and Geiger counters to detect changes in the local environment. I told Cummins that we look for changes in electromagnetic fields, background radiation and temperature.  If we do get any indications with our equipment, then we try finding any natural source such as wiring or electrical equipment in the area.  If we can’t find a natural source for these anomalous readings on our instruments, we will try to document these findings.  We use audio recorders, video recorders and cameras, both digital and 35 mm to see if we can obtain any evidence.  I asked Cummins if he would be amenable to some of the members of the Ghost Research Foundation spending an evening in the museum.  Cummins said that would be fine, all we had to do was pick a date and come in at closing.  I then asked Cummins about his experiences in the building.  I was not prepared for the stories he was about to tell me. 
            Cummins had his first experience just after the building opened as a museum in 1995.  There was a meeting of volunteers on the third floor to orient them to the new museum.  As Cummins was speaking, he noticed two men in the doorway.  He thought they might be shy because they were late and did not want to intrude.  As he started towards the doorway, the two men turned around and began to walk away.  As Cummins got closer to them, he realized something was very wrong.  The men were not solid, they were transparent, and he could see right through them.  The men then just simply disappeared. Cummins did not share this story with anyone for quite some time.  He did not want the rest of the staff to think he was crazy, but it seemed that Cummins was not the only staff member to have an experience in the museum. 
            Many of the staff have had their own strange encounters while working in the museum.  The people who did have strange encounters in the museum kept the stories to themselves, for the same reason Cummins did, they did not want the others to think they were crazy.  The stories then came flowing out one day at a staff meeting.  Someone mentioned a strange incident that occurred to them in the building and the others began to speak up about their own experiences.  Almost all the staff have heard or seen something strange in the building at some point. Cummins then began to relate to me the stories that came out of that staff meeting.  I was on the edge of my seat as the stories unfolded.  
            One day as the museum was closing; a staff member was walking through the building to ensure that all the visitors had left.  He was walking through the area that is a reproduction of the test department and saw a man in a white coat.  He described it as a long, lab type coat.  This man ignored the tour guide and simply walked through a wall and disappeared.  Ironically, long ago, there was a doorway where this apparition disappeared through the wall. 
            When you enter the museum, you can see that a section of the second floor has been cut away during the renovations.  This gives the entrance area a very open feeling.  The remaining section of floor on the second level above the entrance area is a walkway that connects each half of the building.  This walkway is called “ the bridge.”  Several of the staff has heard footsteps running across the bridge when they know they are the only ones in the building.  Some of them have been standing in the entranceway when they heard these footsteps running across the bridge.  They look up, but there is no one there.  This is one of the more common occurrences that have been reported by the staff. 
            Other phenomena that have been reported are things such as the sound of the fire doors being opened and closed when no one is there. Also, staff members have heard voices coming from areas that are empty and the exhibits there have been shut down.  On occasion, someone will be sitting at the Welcome desk and watching the security monitors.  They will see a person standing by an exhibit for what seems to be an extended period of time.  This person seems to be just standing there and not really looking at the exhibit.  At this point, someone will go to that area and see if the person is okay or needs help. When the guide gets to the area where this unknown person is, they find the room empty.  The most unusual thing about this is that the person at the Welcome desk will see two figures in the monitor. Unfortunately, the video feed from the monitors is not recorded.  What a shame.  It seems that there is something happening in the old Master Mechanics building that cannot be easily explained. 
            I was amazed at the amount of stories Cummins was telling me.  I had never been to a single building with so many sightings of apparitions, unexplained sounds and ghostly footsteps.  Cummins looked at me and could tell I was impressed.  He smiled at me and said,” If you think these stories are interesting, wait until I tell you the next one.”
            One of the employees was getting ready to leave at the end of the day.  This day, he happened to be the last one in the building.  Up to this point, he had never had a strange experience in the building.  That would soon change.  He made sure things were shut down in the fourth floor office, and walked down the hallway toward the elevator.  He pushed the button for the elevator and waited for it to arrive. Thinking he was alone in the building, he was surprised to see a man in the elevator when the doors opened.  The man was standing on the far side of the elevator with his back to him. The employee first thought that this was a guest who had been left in the building.  The man in the elevator was short and dressed in what looked like dirty overalls.  The man in the elevator turned to look at the employee, then just faded out and dissipated through the ceiling. 
            The employee became extremely frightened at seeing this, and bolted for the stairs.  He made it down four flights of stairs and into the entranceway in record time.  He quickly shut down the museum for the night and left, locking the door behind him.  Seeing the apparition in the elevator was a very disturbing event for this man.  He refused to take the elevator for weeks.  A few weeks after the sighting, the employee received a second shock. 
            The Altoona Railroaders Memorial Museum has large displays of historic photographs.  The original photographs have been copied and enlarged.  They are placed throughout the museum between the exhibits.  It was one of these historic pictures that gave the employee his second shock.  Outside the elevator on the first floor is an enlarged photograph of several men in an unfinished steam boiler. The employee was looking at this photograph and was stunned to see the apparition from the elevator standing in the middle of the photograph. The only thing known about the photograph or the people in it, is that it was taken sometime around the year 1920.  Is that man still walking the halls of the old Master Mechanics building? The employee thinks he still does. 
            When Cummins finished telling me the stories, he asked if I would like to take a tour of the museum.  Since I had never before been there, this was the perfect opportunity for a guided tour from the curator.  I packed up the things I had brought to show Cummins, and followed him out of the office suite.  As we were walking down the fourth floor hallway, I felt someone tap me on my left shoulder.  As Cummins was to my right front, I assumed it was the secretary bringing something that I had left behind.  I turned around to see what she wanted, but the hallway was empty.  I do not usually see or experience anything paranormal.  I instead, rely on our equipment to give indications of paranormal activity.  Therefore, being touched on the shoulder when no one was there was a bit unnerving. One does not expect to be touched by something unexplainable in a museum in broad daylight.  I called to Cummins to get his attention and told him what just happened.  He did not seem surprised.  It was just another small incident in a building that has many such incidents. 
            Cummins and I continued our tour of the museum.  He showed me the areas where people have had experiences.  He also told me what each section of the building was once used for.  Nothing else unusual happened that day.  Cummins walked me to the door and I thanked him for his time, his stories and my most unnerving experience.  We set a date for myself, Patty Wilson and some of the members of the Ghost Research Foundation to come in and conduct an investigation.
            We had chosen a Saturday evening for our investigation.  We did this because the members of the Ghost Research Foundation are all volunteers.  They all have jobs they go to during the week. All of the members buy their own equipment and volunteer their time without compensation.  They come with us to investigate these sites because they wish to learn what is happening there.
            Patty Wilson and myself founded the Ghost Research Foundation to investigate haunted sites in a scientific manner.  We have been fortunate to have very intelligent and logical people join us in this quest. We operate under a very specific set of rules. Only one or two members will know the stories of the haunting, this prevents the rest of the investigative team from having any preconceived notions.  One senior member of the team will run what we call “central.” “Central” is one central location where the investigators will report their findings without telling anyone else present.  We strive to prevent anyone from becoming prejudiced about what may be happening. 
            The investigators are assigned locations in teams of two.  This is to ensure their safety and to have a back up witness in case something should occur.  All members of the investigative team carry two-way radios. This allows the investigators to contact others should the need arise.  The radios are not to be used to report any incidents that may happen. 
            When audio or video recorders are used, the tapes must be new and in the original packaging.  This prevents any bleed-through from a used tape or accusations of forgery. When using still photography, two shots of the same frame must be taken.  In the event of something unusual on the film, this method provides a control shot.  If an investigator is using a digital camera and captures an anomaly, they must show the picture to the person who is at  “central” that evening.  This is a way to verify that a computer did not alter the image. 
            The standards and protocols that the Ghost Research Foundation uses are merely common sense.  We try to control the environment as much as possible.  This is the easiest way to try to isolate anomalies, be they electromagnetic, thermal or radiological. Then we next try to eliminate all logical possibilities. To be a paranormal investigator, you must apply common sense and rational thinking.  The best investigative tool you can employ is your brain.
            Our group of investigators met at the museum at 5:00 p.m., closing time. Cummins was there to meet us, and told us we could stay as long as we wished.  I had told Cummins at our previous meeting not to reveal any of the details of the haunted activity that was occurring to anyone in the group.  Since Patty was the co-founder of the group, she knew about me being touched on the fourth floor and about the apparition in the elevator. I kept the rest of the details of the ghostly activity to myself. I introduced the rest of the team to Cummins and then he took us on a tour of the building so everyone could understand the floor layout. Cummins ended the tour in the conference room on the fourth floor. This is where we would unpack our equipment and begin our investigation. 
            Although Cummins had told me all the stories of the ghostly happenings here, and I did have my own experience in this building, I was not getting my hopes up for an eventful evening.  I have been on many sites that have great stories associated with them, but nothing has happened during our investigation.  It turned out that I did not have to be worried about being disappointed at the Railroaders Museum. 
            That night, I was running a mobile “central.”  If someone had something to report, they could call me on the radio and I would go to their location.  It turned out that I ended up doing a lot of running that night.

            Two of our investigators and Cummins’ son were on the second floor setting up an infrared video camera.  They had not yet inserted a tape into the camera, when something strange caught their attention on the view screen.  They had the camera pointed at an area of the museum that is set up to resemble a small section of the town from the 1930’s.  One of the displays resembles a railroad worker’s house.  It was dark in that section of the museum, so that section could not be seen with the naked eye. Through the view screen of the infrared camera, they could see a figure walk into the house.  They called out asking who was there because no one else was supposed to be there.  When no one responded from the house, they went over to investigate.  When they got to the house, they found it empty.  
            Patty was the next person to have an experience.  She was in the gift shop on the first floor with her audio recorder at about the same time the figure was seen on the second floor.  She was trying to capture Electronic Voice Phenomenon, which is commonly known as ghost voices on tape.  As far as Electronic Voice Phenomenon or EVP, we believe that these ghosts or entities are some type of electromagnetic energy. Audiotape recorders use an electromagnet to put a pattern, or flux, on the tape.  The audiotape is just a piece of plastic ribbon coated with a metal oxide. It is our theory that these ghosts or entities are either manipulating the electromagnet or putting a pattern directly onto the tape. 
            Patty had her tape recorder running and was asking questions, then pausing for answers. Patty was explaining to the entities that we simply want to document their presence using scientific methods.  She appealed to them as scientists.  She said that since this was once the test department and that they were men of science, maybe they could understand what we were doing there. She then thanked them in advance for their help.  That is when Patty had her experience. She had paused to wait for an answer when she heard an audible voice, it sounded like a very faint whisper.  When she reviewed her audiotape, there was indeed something on it. The question she had asked was, “ If there is anyone here, could you make your presence known?” The whisper on the tape seemed to reply to that question.  The answer sounded like, “We can do that.” Patty was the only one on the first floor when this occurred. (Patty and I will usually monitor the investigation’s activities independently.)  The events that happened after that continued to become more interesting. 
            After I left Patty on the first floor, I took the elevator upstairs to check on some of the other investigators.  I had my camera with me and waited until the instant the doors of the elevator opened to snap a picture.  It was rewarded with a nearly perfect orb picture just outside the doors of the elevator.  I immediately snapped several more, but the orb only appeared in one photo.  Just after taking this series of pictures, I went into one of the rooms that is set up to resemble an executive’s office from earlier in the 20th century to quietly sit and watch the through the view screen of one of our Nightshot cameras. As I was sitting there staring at the view screen, a small orb quickly passed across the screen.  I waited for quite some time after that, but saw nothing else.
            Eventually, I went down to the second floor to be with the team stationed near the “bridge.” As we were sitting near one end of the bridge, three of us heard faint footfalls running across it. None of us could see who or what was causing the sound.  One digital shot did show an orb above the far side of the bridge.  Although we definitely heard the footsteps on the bridge, none of our audio recorders picked up the sound of the footsteps.
            This incident on the bridge convinced me to find Patty and get her up to speed. Since she is the co-founder of the group, I thought it necessary that she be informed of the current happenings.  After all, two heads are better than one. I checked the first floor for her, but she was not there.  I’d just left the second floor, so I started looking for her on the third floor. I was walking into the children’s room when I found her, or should I say she found me.  I had just reached the double swinging doors, when they flew open, nearly knocking me unconscious.  I asked her what was wrong and she proceeded to tell me an incredible story. 
            She had left the gift shop on the first floor and walked over toward the elevator.  She knew the story of the man in the picture, but no one else did.  She sat down near the picture and began to ask questions.  Some of the questions included, “ What is your name?” and “How did you die?” She repeated these questions several times.  After about 20 minutes of asking questions and quietly waiting for answers, she went upstairs to review her tape.  Someone answered one of her questions.  She told me I had to come inside and listen to her tape. She advanced the tape to the point where she had recorded an Electronic Voice Phenomenon.  I listened to the tape and was shocked!  A voice did indeed respond to her question of, “ How did you die?” The voice replied, “ Steam, steam burn, Lord it hurt.” I only had to hear this tape once, it was so clear.  We wanted to ask Cummins for his opinion, but that would have to wait until the end of the investigation. Just when I thought nothing else could possibly happen that evening, I got a call from Linda, one of the investigators, and Cummins at the Welcome desk.
            Linda and Cummins were sitting at the Welcome desk watching the monitors from the remote surveillance cameras.  They were seeing fuzzy human shaped objects in areas of the building that we knew were not occupied by our investigators. I arrived at the Welcome desk in less than a minute.  The monitors flipped from camera to camera at random intervals.  One moment these human forms would be there, the next they were gone.  When we had investigators that were in the area converge on the site, they found nothing.  The random appearance of these apparitions lasted nearly five minutes.  When this activity stopped, things quieted down for the rest of the evening. 
            We called all of our investigators together in the fourth floor conference room to conduct a debriefing with Cummins. We went one by one around the table with each investigator relating their observations from the evening.  Cummins was very interested as each investigator showed him the physical evidence they had obtained.  It was hard to contain my emotions, since I knew they had experiences in areas that were traditionally haunted in the building. 
            To me, the most amazing part of our debriefing was when Cummins heard Patty’s audiotape of the man speaking of steam burns.  Patty turned her tape player on and placed it in front of Cummins. As he heard the words on the tape, his eyes became as big as saucers and he slumped back in his chair.  His first question was, “ Where did you get this?” Patty told him it was next to the picture of the man from the elevator.  Cummins then told us that that part of the building was once the infirmary for the Pennsylvania Railroad. 

            Steam burns were a common injury on the railroad up until the past few decades.  Many PRR employees died of these injuries.  Cummins told me of an interview he had with a survivor of the Red Arrow train crash of 1947.  This man told Cummins that the engineer had been horribly burned by steam. When he reached out to take the engineers hand, the flesh just pulled away.  The engineer died of his burns shortly after.  Will we ever be able to positively identify this man in the picture? Possibly.  We do know we have a voice on tape that says he died from a horrible injury.  For us, at least the voice says “hurt”, not “hurts”.  Hopefully, his pain is in the past. 
            We took quite some time to finish our debriefing and then began to pack up our equipment to leave.  While we were packing, we heard footsteps in the outer office suite.  This elicited a stare from everyone, as the building was locked and all the people in the building were in the conference room.  Immediately, several of us ran from the conference room to see who was making the noise. We found no one. The building was empty and locked. 
            As we left the building, I told Cummins that this was one of the most active sites we had ever been at.  In one night, we had seen things on cameras, monitors, and were able to hear sounds with our own ears and on our tapes.  I told Cummins that we would like to thank him somehow for his generosity in sharing the building.  He refused, but I explained we wanted to repay a kindness.  We agreed to do a presentation for the museum for Halloween. 
            We returned in October to do our presentation.  What I thought was to be a simple lecture on ghosts and investigations, turned out to be something more.  The museum has a theater in it, and that is where we were to do our presentation.  Cummins had done a press release so that some of the local media might attend.  A local television crew did show up to film the presentation and the tour. Everything went well when we checked out all the audio-visual equipment in the theater.  When the time for the actual presentation came, things were much different.  None of the electrical equipment would function properly.  Cummins could find no explanation for this.  We used what we had, and the tour went on. 
            Is the Altoona Railroaders Memorial Museum haunted?  I would have to say definitely yes.  The stories from the staff are numerous, and varied.  The people that work there are well educated and rational.  They have no reason to fabricate any stories.  Then, there are my experiences as well as those of the other members of the Ghost Research Foundation. These people have been investigating haunted sites for several years.  They are not easily shaken and don’t jump to conclusions.  If you doubt the veracity of the occurrences at the museum, stop and see for yourself.  Just don’t be surprised at what you might find.

(Originally published in FATE Magazine)

Update:

Scott Cessna is the current director of the museum and has been very kind to support our research.  We have several new discoveries from the museum which can be found on the site.

Scott Crownover