The San Antonio Ghost Tracks

On the south side of San Antonio, Texas, a set of railroad tracks has attracted visitors for decades seeking to experience one of America’s most accessible ghost legends. Cars placed in neutral at the bottom of a dip in the road are allegedly pushed uphill across the tracks by the spirits of children killed in a school bus accident. The phenomenon has been tested by thousands and remains unexplained to the satisfaction of believers.

The Legend

According to the legend, a school bus stalled on the railroad tracks sometime in the 1940s or 1950s. An oncoming train struck the bus, killing the driver and all the children aboard. Their spirits, the story goes, remain at the crossing, pushing stalled vehicles to safety so that no one else will die as they did.

The legend gained widespread attention in the 1970s and 1980s, and soon people were traveling from across Texas and beyond to test it for themselves.

The Test

The procedure is straightforward. Visitors drive to the intersection at Shane Road and Villamain Road on San Antonio’s south side, where the road dips slightly before rising to cross the railroad tracks. They stop at the bottom of the dip, put their car in neutral, and wait.

Within moments, the car begins to move—seemingly uphill toward and across the tracks. Some visitors sprinkle baby powder or flour on their rear bumper beforehand. When they inspect the bumper afterward, they claim to find small handprints, as if tiny hands had been pushing.

The Experience

Thousands of people have experienced the phenomenon. On weekend nights, lines of cars have been known to form as visitors wait their turn to be pushed across the tracks. The location has become a rite of passage for San Antonio teenagers and a tourist attraction for ghost hunters.

Witnesses describe feeling their cars move with purpose, as if being actively pushed rather than simply rolling. Some report seeing faint figures around their vehicles. Others hear childish laughter or feel sudden drops in temperature.

Skeptical Explanation

Investigations have offered a mundane explanation. The apparent “uphill” is actually a slight downhill—an optical illusion created by the surrounding terrain and the road’s curve. Cars roll across the tracks because gravity is pulling them in that direction.

Television programs and physics demonstrations have confirmed that the road slopes in the direction of movement, not against it. The San Antonio Express-News commissioned a survey that proved the tracks are not uphill from the stopping point.

The handprints on dusty bumpers can be explained by prints already present on the bumper from when the car was last washed, touched, or loaded—prints that the powder simply makes visible.

The Legend Persists

Despite these explanations, the legend persists. Many visitors who know about the optical illusion still report feeling something supernatural at the crossing. The power of the story—dead children helping others—resonates emotionally in ways that scientific explanations cannot fully address.

The street names in the area add to the legend. Several streets near the crossing bear children’s names: Cindy Sue, Laura Lee, Bobbie Allen. Believers claim these streets were named for the children who died. In reality, the streets were named by a developer for his own living children, though the coincidence is striking.

Historical Investigation

Researchers have found no evidence that a fatal school bus accident ever occurred at this location. No newspaper accounts, death records, or other documentation support the story. The closest documented bus-train accident in the area occurred in 1938 in Utah, not Texas.

However, the absence of records does not convince everyone. Records from the 1940s and 1950s are incomplete, and some believe the accident was covered up or simply not documented.

Assessment

The San Antonio Ghost Tracks demonstrate how legends can persist despite scientific debunking. The experience of feeling your car move “uphill” across the tracks is genuinely uncanny, even if physics explains it. The story of protective child spirits is deeply appealing.

The location has become part of San Antonio’s identity, drawing visitors who want to believe and who interpret their experience through the lens of the legend. Whether supernatural occurrence or optical illusion, the Ghost Tracks remain one of America’s most visited and tested haunted locations.