10 crazy encounters of UFOs and high‑speed railways have captured imaginations worldwide. While most people know about alien sightings from airplanes, and many have heard of UFOs spotted from ship decks or even tracked on a submarine’s sonar, fewer think of the bizarre meetings that happen when locomotives thunder down lonely tracks. These rail‑bound mysteries span decades, from the early days of the modern UFO era right up to recent times.
10 Crazy Encounters of UFOs on Trains
10 The 1702 Incident: UFO Drags Train Along Tracks in the Soviet Union
Undeniably, a truly remarkable train‑related UFO episode unfolded on the night of 17 February 1985 along the Petrozavodsk‑to‑Suoyarvi stretch of the Oktyabrskaya Railway in Soviet Karelia, today known as the Republic of Karelia. Mere moments after departure, the crew spotted a peculiar, spherical glow skimming the treetops beside the line, and the eerie craft seemed to shadow their progress.
Without warning, the luminous sphere lunged toward the locomotive, hovering roughly a hundred feet away before slipping to a spot directly ahead at a similar distance. Engineer Sergy Orlov hurled the brakes and shut down the power, yet the train stubbornly refused to decelerate. To the astonishment of both drivers, the vehicle seemed to be pulled forward by an invisible force.
The train pressed on until it neared Novye Peski Station, where the orb appeared poised to collide with the station building. In a split‑second maneuver, the object slipped from its forward position, looped around the structure, and then settled again ahead of the locomotive.
The mysterious sphere kept pulling the train onward until, after a few minutes, it vanished from sight. Instantly, the locomotive finally lost momentum, coasting to a halt at the following stop. When Orlov stepped out to inspect the engine, a sudden column of light struck him from above, which he later described as pressing his body against the carriage. He fought his way back inside, staying put until the radiant beam faded.
Just as the train embarked on the last leg of its route, the glowing object reappeared a third time, again exerting a strange pull on the rails before disappearing permanently.
9 UFO Crashes Into a Train in Kentucky
While skeptics still dispute its veracity, an episode near Paintsville, Kentucky, in the pre‑dawn hours of 14 January 2002 turned out to be more than a mere glimpse of an odd light—it caused considerable harm to the freight train involved.
While the locomotive rolled along the line, the engineer observed an unfamiliar glow far ahead, shortly accompanied by a sudden failure of the train’s electrical systems and a noticeable deceleration. He then recognized the illumination as a pair of silvery, disc‑shaped crafts, seemingly sweeping a scan across the river beneath them.
Moments later, as the train rounded a curve, one of the metallic discs hurtled directly toward the engine, slamming into the leading carriage before soaring upward and vanishing as if untouched. Despite the brief contact, the impact left the train badly damaged.
Adding to the mystery, upon reaching Paintsville the crew found a covert group of engineers and technicians already awaiting them, led by a man called Ferguson who interrogated the crew for hours. He later informed them that the event was deemed a “national security matter” and urged absolute secrecy. The wrecked cars were subsequently seized by this enigmatic unit.
8 The Monon Railroad Incident
Among the first documented UFO‑train meetings took place just after 3 a.m. on 3 October 1958 along Indiana’s Monon Railroad. Freight Train 91, bound for Indianapolis, reported multiple bizarre lights soaring overhead. The consist stretched nearly half a mile, with two of the five crew members stationed at the rear.
Although the locomotive engineers at the front were the first to spot the phenomena, it was the rear men—Ed Robinson and Paul Sosbey—who claimed they “got the best view” as the luminous objects looped around the train and closed in from behind.
Robinson instinctively brandished his flashlight, directing its beam toward the apparitions in hopes of establishing contact, yet the crafts gave no reply. Strangely, each time his torch struck an object, it deliberately shifted aside, prompting the glowing entities to “zip away” repeatedly until they vanished. Altogether, the mysterious lights chased the locomotive for more than an hour.
7 The 1977 Fostoria C&O Railroad Sighting
On the night of 21 October 1977, Howard Albert sat inside the cab of a train navigating the private C&O distribution line in Fostoria, Ohio. While awaiting guidance into the warehouse, he first assumed a bright “shooting star” streaked overhead. Yet as the light arced downward, he recognized an unmistakably odd phenomenon.
The craft gently descended, gradually closing in on the locomotive. When it reached roughly 200 feet away, it halted mid‑air, hovering a mere 15 feet above the tracks. Astonished, Albert grabbed his walkie‑talkie to alert conductor Donald, urging, “Come up to the engine…we’ve got a UFO!”
Albert portrayed the vessel as a disc reminiscent of a “birthday cake,” encircled by luminous vertical tubes and rotating counter‑clockwise. He gauged its size at about 50 feet tall and at least 90 feet across, noting an absolute silence emanating from it.
After a brief pause, Albert switched the locomotive’s headlamp to a bright burst, hoping to provoke a reaction. To his surprise, the UFO mirrored the illumination, flashing intensely for the same duration. By then, Donald had reached the front from the rear and also witnessed the craft. Both later confessed that, despite sensing a benign intent, they shared an uncanny intuition to keep their distance.
Approximately twenty minutes later, the object accelerated its spin, then lifted skyward, vanishing until it reduced to a faint “yellowish star” before disappearing entirely.
6 Black Triangular Object Photographed in Plymouth, New Hampshire
Joy P., as recounted on the Coast to Coast radio program, captured a strange triangular craft on camera while riding a train near Plymouth, New Hampshire. Remarkably, the encounter happened in full daylight on the afternoon of 25 October 2003.
She explained that she was aiming her lens at red deer grazing along the forested tracks, yet upon reviewing the images later that day, she discovered a dark triangular object hovering above the canopy.
Because the craft materialized in just a single frame, analysts dismissed the notion of a window reflection. Moreover, the camera had been inspected and cleaned mere hours before departure. Intriguingly, none of the fellow travelers reported any oddity, and Joy herself claimed she hadn’t noticed the object during the ride, prompting some investigators to speculate that it might have been invisible to the naked eye.
5 The 1957 Whitley Strieber Account: Abducted by Aliens on a Train Journey
Writer Whitley Strieber, famed for his mid‑1980s bestseller Communion chronicling personal abductions, has long been associated with UFO lore. According to his accounts, his alien encounters date back to childhood. A notable episode took place “sometime in 1957” while traveling by train from Wisconsin to Texas alongside his sister and father.
In an astonishing turn, the trio abruptly transitioned from the moving train to an unfamiliar craft, unaware of the shift. Both Strieber and his sister reported hearing their father’s terrified screams echoing nearby.
Subsequent hypnotic regression sessions confirmed the episode as an alien abduction, indicating that Strieber had experienced multiple such kidnappings since youth, with other family members similarly affected. He also recalled hazy images of uniformed soldiers present during the encounter.
4 UFO Photographed from a Train in Germany
While aboard a train crossing the German town of Oberwesel on the afternoon of 8 March 1964, Harry Hauxler spotted a disc rising into the bright sky. Equipped with his camera, he swiftly aimed and captured a photograph of the oddity.
The craft presented as a dark gray‑black disc, resembling a spinning top crowned by a “dark vortex” beneath its surface.
Skeptics interpreting the photo argue that the image could be a road sign or lamppost blurred by the train’s rapid motion and brief exposure. Conversely, proponents assert that Hauxler genuinely witnessed the disc ascend in real time, distinguishing this case from sightings only identified after the fact.
The photograph was promptly made public and continues to be regarded as one of the most compelling UFO images captured from a moving train.
3 UFO Witnessed from on Board an L&N Train near Mount Vernon
Just before 7 a.m. on 20 October 1973, a conductor accompanied by another crew member aboard an L&N train observed an intensely bright light approaching from the north while traversing near Mount Vernon, Indiana—a time noted for heightened UFO activity in the region.
The duo recognized the illumination as a craft unlike any they’d previously encountered. As they kept watch, the object pulsated, shifting from a dazzling brilliance to a subdued glow. After a few moments, the luminous craft altered its course, moving away from the locomotive.
He relayed the observation to the rear crew, who shortly after reported an unidentified object trailing the back of the train, seemingly following its path. The mysterious vehicle shadowed the train for a substantial stretch before abruptly departing as fast as it had arrived. Research by Francis Ridge indicates that the U.S. Air Force later seized the train for examination, though its conclusions remain undisclosed.
2 Senator Richard Russell Sees Disc‑Shaped Object While Traveling Through the Soviet Union
During a rail trip through the Transcaucasia area of the Soviet Union on 4 October 1955, Georgia Senator Richard Russell observed a disc‑shaped object through his window.
He reported that as the disc ascended, a “flame‑like jet” could be seen emanating from its underside.
Amazed, he watched the disc dart across the tracks ahead of the train. He then rose to inform his fellow passengers of the sighting. As they all peered out, a second disc‑shaped craft emerged, approaching the moving train from the same direction as the first.
While the trio observed the uncanny scene, a Soviet conductor intervened, drawing the curtains closed and ordering them not to look out, a command they obeyed. Upon reaching Prague, they filed a report with the U.S. embassy, and the story quickly reached American journalists. When a Los Angeles Examiner reporter later questioned Russell, he explained that the agencies he informed deemed it “unwise to publicize at this moment.” The incident remained classified until its declassification in 1985.
1 Train Passenger Sees Six Disc‑Shaped Objects over the Arizona Desert
In the summer of 2017, a passenger aboard a train traversing Apache County, Arizona, reported witnessing “six hovering, two‑story objects casting beams of light onto the ground” beneath the train.
The MUFON filing notes that the witness, unable to sleep, was gazing out the window when she observed a “bright light that intensified as the train drew nearer.” She quickly recognized multiple disc‑shaped objects, estimating they hovered about 100 feet from the moving train.
Her son, who submitted the report, emphasized that his mother “doesn’t exaggerate or crave attention,” urging that her account be taken seriously. Predictably, opinions varied widely, ranging from an extraterrestrial craft to a simple Chinese lantern, leaving the incident unresolved.