The second half of this set of episodes revolves around the story of a bus-train crash that killed a number of school children.  Ever after, the ghosts of the children would push cars uphill and over train tracks to safety.  And even more mysterious was that small fingerprints could then be found on the rear portions of the car.  Ben, Chi-Lan, and Larry check this one out.

After an obligatory drive past the Alamo for location-establishment, the FoFF head to the crossing where the alleged bus/train crash took place and meet with Capone De Leon who tells how the story originated.  He points to the tracks and tells how a schoolbus full of children got hit by a train right at this crossing.  And now whenever someone is parked at the tracks, the children will push the car up over the tracks.  He explains taking the car out of gear, taking the brake off, and the car proceeding to roll “uphill” and over the tracks, and when they used baby powder on the back of the car afterward, there were prints which was all the proof he needed.

FoF wants to mimic this exactly so they ask Capone if they could use his car. I had this immediate vision of something going horribly wrong and Capone getting his car broadsided by a train. My vision was almost prophetic which is about the closest thing to the paranormal that I’ve experienced while watching this program.

In preparation, the team wipes down the back of the car.  Chi-Lan and Larry get into the car, take it out of gear, take out the keys, and then release the parking brake and the car starts to roll “uphill” and pick up speed.

As Ben is filming the outside view, he neglects to tell them a train is coming. This immediately made me wonder why the “children” would be pushing the car into the path of a train. It was also interesting how the camera angles appeared to be tilted to give even more of an impression of going uphill. They avoid getting schmucked by the train and restart the experiment which proceeds as before with the car rolling “uphill” and over the tracks.

Apparently they did do a good job wiping down the back of the car because when they dusted for prints, none were to be found.

Instead of doing some tests about levelness of the road, the team decides to try bigger vehicles and get a schoolbus which also starts rolling. Amazing, amazing, holy cows and all that sort of stuff.

They do another fingerprint test and again find nothing.

Only at this point do they decide to look at things other than the paranormal (kinda backwards but okay) My joy was short-lived as they decide to check out magnetic fields to see if the vehicles are being pulled instead of pushed. I was literally swearing at the TV at this point.

They detect a magnetic field from the powerlines but, even though every one of the team experiences nausea, paranoia, itchiness, and sees ghosts, they rule it out.   Ben comes to the conclusion that, if it's not supernatural and if it has nothing to do with the magnetic field, then they need to explore something like a “geographical cause” and FINALLY they survey the roadgrade.

They setup road cones at 25-foot intervals over a distance of 150 feet, grab a surveying rod, and shoot levels at each of the cones.  Ben needs a sec to work the numbers which anyone should have been able to realize in his head. Lo and behold he announces that it was 1 degree DOWNGRADE which is precisely what we knew. I ran their numbers myself since I'm not quite trusting everything they say anymore and in this case I came up with 1 degree as well.  Well, 1 degree for the overall distance of 150 feet.  In the first 25 feet the grade is over 2 degrees and then flattens out a bit.  I suspect initial placement of the car might make a difference.  If placed 150 feet from the tracks, the downward grade is a bit steeper than if it were started at the 75-100 foot distance away from the tracks.  Regardless, it is a downgrade for each of the segments.

Almost as an afterthought, Chi-Lan finally mentions that the accident took place in 1938 in Salt Lake City, Utah, which people could have read right here at SV.

The Texas Ghost Track Case has finally been solved.  Again.

Discussion of this episode can be found here: http://www.skepticalviewer.com/forums/other-shows/fof-s01e05blazing-horizon-rollover-12-aug-2010/page-1