Previously: The 13 Steps Of Maltby Cemetery.
Type: PV (Phantom Vehicle).
Period/location of origin: 1911, Italy. However, please note the following caveat: Although all reports of subject itself, known generally as the “Zanetti ghost train” (in Italian, “Zanetti treno fantasma”), position it at this time and in this location, the actual reports themselves originate, by and large, from other regions and at much later times. This fact renders nearly all extant reports of subject as… questionably reliable. See: Additional notes.
Appearance: Subject appears to be a passenger locomotive allegedly belonging to an Italian railway company identified by the name Zanetti. The locomotive was reportedly constructed in the early 20th century, and therefore would likely resemble other passenger locomotives of this era; additionally, a handful of details regarding subject’s intended usage suggest it may have been a luxury locomotive specifically. However, no images or descriptions of subject itself have been located; as such, no further information is available the train’s physical appearance.
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Subject is known to have been large enough to carry between 100 and 106 humans aboard (see: Additional notes). It is also known to have at least one intended route: A railway line connecting the cities of Rome and Milan. It is unknown whether subject was intended to travel other routes in Italy or Europe, as well.
Subject is notable for having vanished during its very first journey in 1911 (see: Additional notes). It has reappeared at various times throughout history, and in various places — times and places that have little to nothing to do with subject’s period and location of origin.
Hence, subject’s name: The Zanetti ghost train.
Modus operandi: Very little is known about how subject operates — how it reappears, why it reappears, when or where it reappears, etc. Reports vary with regards to all of these considerations, leaving no distinct set of rules or governing principles by which it tends to abide.
Subject may, as reportedly occurred in Mexico City in 1840 — or perhaps 1940, depending on the account — arrive at a railway station in a location with no connection to its original route and allow its confused passengers to debark; however, there will later be no indication that either subject or its passengers were ever present in said railway station or in said location.
Subject may, as reportedly occurred on the Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine in 1955, simply be spotted speeding along the rails of one railway system or another, regardless as to whether or not the line is in operation, or even intact. Subject additionally may or may not actually be touching the rails — that is, if the rails themselves are intact, subject may be floating above the rails, rather than actually traveling on them.
Subject may, as reportedly occurred in small village elsewhere in Ukraine in 1991, stop and allow new passengers to board, after which those new passengers will never be seen again.
Aside from this last incident, subject has not shown any interest in acquiring additional passengers beyond those already known to have ventured aboard. It simply… travels, unstuck in time, so to speak.
Containment: Subject is still at large, although it seemingly has not been witnessed for many years. Subject is therefore considered uncontained, although there is also possibly no need for containment.
Additional notes: Subject’s history is typically recounted as follows:
In 1911, the Italy-based Zanetti railway company conceived a new tourist journey to add to their roster — a sightseeing trip ferrying passengers between Rome and Milan in style and comfort, with champagne and live violin music to accompany them as they passed through the scenic landscape.
100 passengers were invited along for the inaugural journey, which departed from Rome on July 14, 1911. In addition to the 100 passengers, a handful of crewmembers were also aboard; the number is usually placed at six, although reports vary.
The trip went without incident for nearly its entire journey — until the train reached the Lombardy region, some 600 kilometers from its departure point in Rome and just 65 miles from its destination of Milan. Somewhere in this region, the train entered a tunnel… and never emerged again. Or at least, not in its original time, or in its original place. It simply vanished, with no indication of where it had gone, or why it had disappeared in the first place.
It is sometimes reported that two passengers managed to escape the train shortly before it disappeared. According to these reports, the two passengers described a white fog suddenly enveloping the train; disturbed by this development, the two passengers reportedly then jumped from the train. After they reached safety, they are said to have reported their experiences to Italian journalists, although no published news articles based on these accounts have yet been uncovered.
In the years and decades following the train’s disappearance, it has been witnessed reappearing in various times and places, as previously described (see: Modus operandi).
In the case of the Mexico City incident, the passengers reportedly debarked and were subsequently brought to a medical facility for treatment; their statements of having arrived from Rome raised questions, as Mexico is not accessible by train from Italy. A psychiatrist, usually named as José Saxino, is said to have documented the case.
In the case of the 1991 Ukraine incident, one person, identified by name as Vasyl Petrovych Leschatyi, reportedly stepped aboard subject and was never seen again. Leschatyi is said to have been studying anomalous phenomena, and considered subject to be particularly worthy of examination; upon witnessing subject appearing himself, he subsequently made the decision to travel aboard it. He is — allegedly, at least — the only known “new” passenger to have joined subject’s original passenger roster from 1911.
Discussion of subject reportedly experienced renewed interest following the 1991 incident. According to one interested party — a Russian writer — an article titled “Ghost Train On The Roads Of Ukraine” was published in the Ukrainian newspaper Glory Of Sevastopol on Aug. 12, 1992 (although the railway company responsible for the creation of subject is reportedly referred to as “Sanetti,” rather than “Zanetti”); the writer subsequently is said to have used the story of subject recounted in this article as inspiration for a short story titled “Ghost Train In The Labyrinths Of Time.”
Subject has, in the years since, been discussed online with some degree of frequency, with particular spikes in interest occurring around 2007/2008 and the late 2010s/early 2020s.
However, it is worth noting that all sources regarding subject and its history remain somewhat questionable.
There are no extant historical sources that contain evidence of subject. No Italian railway company existed at the time that subject’s inaugural journey was said to have occurred; indeed, virtually all railway lines and systems in Italy at that time were government-owned and operated. As such, a private luxury railway company such as Zanetti would likely not have been permitted to exist at all.
There is no record of a psychiatrist named José Saxino practicing in Mexico City in either 1840 or 1940 — that is, either of the years in which the Mexico City incident is said to have occurred. His alleged documentation of the incident has also not been recovered. “Saxino” also does not appear to be an actual Spanish language name. This portion of the narrative also fails to identified what happened either to the passengers after their delivery to a medical facility, or to the train after its arrival in the station.
Nor is there any record of Vasyl Petrovych Leschatyi’s existence outside of reports of subject. He exists in these reports, and only in these reports. No other information about him is known.
Although the Glory Of Sevastopol was an actual newspaper that published regularly between 1917 and 2022, this researcher has not been able to locate the 1992 article reportedly published in it regarding subject; as such, this report cannot confirm the article’s contents, or even whether it actually existed in the first place.
The paper trail for subject does not, in fact, begin until the late 2010s, and then, it is almost entirely reported upon in Russian sources — not in Italian ones. In fact, there is surprisingly little discussion of subject — which, it bears remembering, is allegedly Italian in origin — in Italian at all; it only occurs in very recent years — that is, the late 2010s and onward, long after stories of subject had already spread in other languages.
To wit: It is possible that subject is not best classified as PV, or Phantom Vehicle.
It is possible that subject is, perhaps better classified as EV, or Electronic Virus, with its period/location of origin not being Italy in 1911, but Russia and the internet many decades later.
After all: Despite there being no evidence that the Zanetti ghost train ever existed… folks just can’t seem to stop talking about it, can they?
Recommendation: If the train stops for you, do not, under any circumstances, board it.
This is one journey you absolutely do not want to take.
Resources:
The Zanetti Train Mystery: Fortean Fake News? at Roy Bainton Writes.
The Mystery Of The Zanetti Train That Disappeared In 1911 That Still Travels In Space And Time at e-Borghi.
Is The Zanetti Train Time Traveling Story True Or False? at Quora.
No Evidence For “Italian Ghost Train” Story at Snopes.
Zanetti Train Incident at the High Strangeness Wiki.
“Ghost Train In The Labyrinths Of Time” short story. (In Russian.)
Examples of online discussion of subject, 2007-present:
- 2007 (Russian)
- 2008 (Russian)
- 2010 (Russian)
- 2017 (Italian)
- 2020 (Italian)
- 2021 (Hindi)
- 2021 (English language, Malaysian publication)
- 2022 (Hindi)
- 2023 (English language, Indian publication)
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