Cool fact: The hit television show "Ghost Hunters" will soon be airing its fourth season on Sci-Fi. If you rewind to the very first episode of the very first season, where will you find yourself? Altoona! You wouldn't believe how many ghost stories come out of Altoona...
The TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society) team investigated two historic buildings, the Mishler Theater and the Railroad Museum, as well as a private residence. Tonight I'll tell you all about the Railroaders Memorial Museum.
The Railroad Museum, located at 1300 9th Avenue, was formerly the Master Mechanics building for the Pennsylvania Railroad. It was built in 1882 and has been home to an office, a doctor's office, a warehouse and much more. Before the museum opened, the director of the museum was sitting in the training room on the third floor and noticed two men walking the hallway. They were dressed in work pants and flanel shirts. He claims they hesitated near the doorway of the training room. Initially he thought they were volunteers that had come in late and that perhaps they didn't want to interrupt the meeting. He went to welcome them but they had already turned around. When he stepped out of the room and called to them he realized he could see right through them - moments later they simply faded. At the time, the director did not share this sighting with anyone. However, staff members continued to have paranormal experiences. Displays turned themselves on and off, fast paced footsteps could be heard above the entranceway, coming from the second floor above. In addition, stuffed toys were found strewn on the floor of the giftshop before opening and books were stacked in the aisles. The curator had several more experiences in which he saw two separate men on two separate occasions walk past him and disappear into a wall. One man wore a white lab coat and the other wore a black rubber apron and gloves. A finance director of the museum went to use the elevator one night and when the doors opened, an old man with his back to the doors stood in the opening. After a few moments passed, the man turned a little and then dematerialized upward. The finance director was so scared that he would not go near the elevator for a few days. Later on he was examining a photograph of a group of men working with a steam boiler. He identified the man he had seen in the elevator as the man in the center of the picture. The scariest incident occured when a secretary saw a man standing alone on a survellience camera and she thought he seemed lost. She asked a security guard to go check on him and via walkie-talkies, she told him where to go and where to find the man standing by himself. When the secuirty guard reached the floor where the man was seen on screen, the secretar was able to see both men on the screen in front of her. When the security gaurd was unable to see the man where she'd directed him, he radioed the secretary who responded "You're standing right next to him!". Still, talk of ghosts remained hush hush. During a staff meeting, however, a new employee blatantly asked if anyone had had any weird things happen to them while in the building. She described the books and the toys from the gift shop. That's when the silence came to an end - everyone seemed to have a personal ghost story or weird experience associated with the building.
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