The original train crew had experienced engine trouble near Upton, a little town 3-4 miles northwest of Mt. Vernon. One of the diesel units had been overheating and the Burlington engine was pulling a 6,000-ton load, overloaded under those conditions. The maintenance man at Upton was a 30-year man and told the conductor that the rear unit was "dead" and that there was, in his words, "no use messin' with it". He'd already tried. In any case, the new crew, which included our witness (the lead conductor)  took over the train and lumbered in to Mt. Vernon, taking 20-25 minutes longer to get there than usual. The sky was clear, temperature was a cool 55-degrees, wind was calm. Again, it was about 6:50 AM.

 

Burlington Northern

When they neared Caborn (6-7 miles east of Mt. Vernon), the lead conductor told the two rear conductors by intercom that they had seen a real bright light. When they got near St. Phillips, the rear conductor informed them that there was a train following them, on the same track. By then they had gotten up on Belknap Hill (at Peerless Crossing), "a pretty good pull on a train", and had gotten hung up. One of the rear men suggested that they should get the train behind them, which he said had been following them for awhile, to push them. The lead conductor didn't doubt the man's word, but replied, "Well, I haven't heard him on the radio." After a short while the rear man suggested the same solution to the problem, again: "Well, he's been following us and I can see his light back there and the 'board' is red!" The object following them had given them a "red board" on their blocking system. The signal referred to here is a series of lights, similar in color to regular traffic lights, situated on a pole along the side of the tracks. This shows either red, amber, or green, indicating "danger" , "caution", or "all clear", respectively. (This signal is a part of the Automatic Blocking System which tells of other traffic on the same track). The "red board" normally means that something was on the track behind them. The rear conductor suggested that the crew call the "tower" (Howell Round House at Evansville) and see what was going on.

A quick check with the yardmaster turned up the second mystery of that early morning, by informing the crew that there was no train behind them at all. Upon receiving the news, the rear conductor replied, "There is a headlight behind us. I can see it. It's real bright."  After the train had gotten hung up and had stopped on Belknap Hill, they got out and looked around. The conductor, after backing the train down the hill, got out, walked down to the rear unit and pressed the restart button. To his surprise the unit "kicked right off, ran real good". The light or the object was now moving off, back from where it had come from. According to the conductor, whatever had given them a "red board", now was giving them an "amber", then a "green board". As he, himself, stated, "The board went green. That light cleared up the board". The train, previously hampered with a bad rear unit and way over-tonnage, was now shockingly fully able to climb the steep, hill and made it in to Howell without further mishap!

The map above shows the "U-shaped" course of the L&N R.R. track in which the train was heading SE from Upton, passing immediately south of our detection site at Mt. Vernon, then curving to the NE. Take note of the point in the upper left section, at Maunie, Illinois. And remember the little town of Upton, just NW of us here at Mt. Vernon.

Back to the report, what makes this case extremely interesting is in this detailed report something very bright was first seen, then a similar bright light follows the train, a Burlington diesel engine. Tractors and other diesals have been virtually unaffected by UFOs. The Blocking System reacts as the object approaches and recedes, just as if there was a train on that track. The train, originally disabled (and reportedly with a "dead" rear unit) now works fine even with over-tonnage when the UFO is out of the picture. All this during a massive sighting wave with some of the best close encounters we ever recorded! And that's not all. The crew was reprimanded for filing a report.

Later, an informant told me that the engine had been pulled and taken down south to be studied and reportedly the U.S.Air Force was involved.

The massive wave had begun months before but now the wave was hitting closer to home. The phone had been ringing off the wall. When the special hotline phone rang  I had to stop what I was doing, grab the phone, which was set up to record automatically with a reel-to-reel unit. Beside the phone on my desk was a pad of message slips, that had all the basic questions and the witness was supposed to have those answers.

Two nights later I got a call around 9:00 p.m. (Oct. 22, 1973). This was my family's first year in town. We had been transferred in January from Taylor Springs, Illinois, near Hillsboro, to Mt. Vernon, Indiana. Anyway, the caller, I didn't know the man at the time, felt the need to report a UFO. Upton, Indiana is less than 5 miles as the crow flies NW of Mt. Vernon. The man was a farmer. Later when I got to know him he had bought and ran a laundrymat and we became good friends. He and his daughter were sitting in their pickup truck when they noticed a dark, triangular object with really bright red, white (or light amber) and green lights that looked as though it was going to land. This was two hours before he finally found my number through the local police department and called me. It was 6:50 p.m. and this time of year, dark outside. The object was about 2-3 city blocks away. No sound could be heard. The witnesses decided to move to a safer, better spot on the other side of the field to watch. The object was now either on or near the (RR) tracks. To their surprise an L&N train had come through from the SE and was heading NW towards Maunie, Illinois. Right before it passed in front of them, the strange object dimmed and hovered near the passing train for about a minute, then it took off SE towards Mt. Vernon. "Jim" told me his young daughter was scared. (UFO Filter Center Files, FI Fran Ridge, MUFON SSD).

One of the emergency contact numbers that local police have at their disposal is the local railroad dispatcher. When there is a fire or other emergency involving an ambulance, and a train is blocking an access road, law enforcement can contact the RR dispatcher so that he can radio the RR crew to separate the cars so vehicles can get through.  Apparently this is how the next event was reported. Later that week, the conductor involved in the L&N train incident on the previous Saturday morning (20th) had been talking with a few persons since his sighting. The  Howell dispatcher at Evansville had told him that someone at Maunie (Illinois) had called sometime on Monday (22nd)  and reported that an object was seen flying over a train there, right over the engine. Somebody had seen a UFO over a train at Maunie, Illinois, called the police and the report was relayed to the L&N dispatcher at Evansville, Indiana.

The Maunie sighting and the Upton sighting were two different events, and 7 miles apart! We don't know what time the Maunie sighting took place, but both incidents involved L&N trains and two days after the original incident where the train was disabled when one UFO crossed in front of the tracks and another one dropped down on the deck and followed close enough to be seen as a bright light and set off the RR blocking system.

I thought it was interesting that a Monon RR train incident occurred in Indiana 15 years earlier, also in October (but on the 3rd) in 1958 and over a path from Wasco to Kirtland, up near Indianapolis. The incident was similar in that UFO(s) had crossed in front of the train first, then followed the trains. I have since begun a file on train cases and have received leads and reports from my colleague, Rob Swiatek]

Also interesting is that UFOs were known for many years NOT to disable diesals. In fact, in one case a conventional tractor was disabled but the diesel tractor near it was not. But now we have two train incidents, one of which did not affect the engines (1958) and one where there was definitely an affect on at least one diesel unit by causing it to overheat. This is only speculation, but It looks as if there was a stalking phase in the 1973 event since the rear unit was overheating for quite a while but cleared up right when it was under maximum stress, over tonnage, and on a steep hill. It is also speculation but I think this was either an E-M effect or possible a directed beam.