The Haunted San Antonio Tracks Everyone Talks About

For those who do not know, I am not from Midland-Odessa or even West Texas; I am from San Antonio.

However, I wanted to share a story that is commonly known throughout the region.

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The Lore of the Ghost Tracks of South San Antonio

On the south side of San Antonio, at the quiet intersection of Shane and Villamain Roads, lies one of the city’s most enduring and creepy urban legends: the Southside Ghost Tracks.

The story goes that decades ago, a school bus full of children stalled on the railroad tracks and was struck by a train, killing the driver and all aboard.

From that moment on, locals claim the children’s spirits remain at the crossing and will push stalled vehicles to safety, leaving tiny handprints in baby powder dusted on trunks as proof.

How It Works

For generations, thrill-seeking teens and Halloween-goers visited the site, parked their cars in neutral on the tracks, and waited to feel a supernatural nudge.

These visitors deliberately stop their vehicle on the tracks in hopes that the "ghost children" will push it across to the other side of the tracks to safety.

Debunked

Some still make the pilgrimage, even though the physical phenomena behind the legend have been debunked.

Research conducted by fact-checkers at Snopes indicates that the original school bus crash did not occur in San Antonio.

Instead, the myth appears to be a conflation of a tragic 1938 bus-train collision in Utah with local folklore.

As for magically being pushed to the other side of the tracks, that can be attributed to the tracks being on a slight incline.

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Despite being thoroughly debunked, this urban legend remains a topic of discussion in San Antonio and the surrounding areas.

To this day, the tracks continue to draw individuals who test the story for themselves.