Eidolon - Mid North Paranormal - Joint Investigation - SteamTown - Peterborough SA 2011

Steamtown Heritage Rail Centre

Location: Peterborough, South Australia

Location Type: Interactive Museum

Location Status: Tourist Destination

Museum open to public during business hours

Open late for Light show (please see below for more information)

Website: http://www.peterboroughsa.com.au/steamtown.php

 

Contact Information
Steamtown Heritage Rail Centre
1 Telford Avenue, Peterborough SA 5422

Phone (08) 8651 3355
Fax (08) 8651 2173
Email marketing@steamtown.com.au
Website: www.steamtown.com.au
Brochure Steamtown Price List (PDF)

 

 

TOURS:

 

Day Tours:

Guided tours by the friendly staff at Steamtown, tours start at 9am until 3pm, or you can arrange a time for your tour group by phoning ahead

Tours take approximately 1 and half hours. The Steamtown tour gives an insight into the history of locomotion in South Australia, but also diesel engines, carriages and other interesting vehicles

 

 

http://www.steamtown.com.au/tours

 

 

 

 

Night Tours:

 

Steamtown Heritage Rail Centre also offers a light and sound show. The Light show takes place in Steamtown's rail yards. Comfortably seated in an historic 1916 rail car, watch and learn about Peterborough, and South Australia's fascinating railway history. Take in personal stories of how the railway's in the region affected the lives of thousands of people.

The light and sound show lasts for approximately 1.5 hours

http://www.steamtown.com.au/tours

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Investigation

 

Eidolon Paranormal was invited to Steamtown by local Peterborough Team, Mid North Paranormal, to work together on a joint investigation on the 2nd of July 2011.

 

 

We arrived during the day and assessed the enormity of the ground we had to cover. Steamtown is an old rail yard and covers a large area, it contains many large sheds, buildings, old trains and carriages. The two team leaders worked together to decide which areas would be most suitable to investigate. It was decided, as the weather was turning increasingly bad, that we would try EVP recording within a couple of carriages, inside the three shed areas, and lastly in the main building where the grand steam engine 199 is stored.

 

 

After our scouting we returned for the light show, which proved to be a fantastic journey into the history of the museum, the history of Peterborough and gave us an insight into the working lives of the very deceased who's existence we were about to investigate.

After the small crowd had left, we journeyed into our first area with our guides in tow. The weather had grown increasingly bad and we were beginning to wonder if we were going to lose any chance for EVP sessions as the noise of the rain on the roof was growing louder by the minute.

 We persevered with our mission and began taking readings and doing EVP sessions in the various areas we had earlier decided on.

We experienced a few equipment problems which hindered our investigation results, the night vision in our cameras ceased to function, we had continual battery drainage in the locomotive sheds, and of course, the weather proved to be a nuisance.

 

During our investigation, our volunteer guides from Steamtown experienced some paranormal phenomena for themselves. Near platform 13 Allen had a visual sighting of a man after blowing a train whistle used as a trigger object. The sighting was confirmed by one of our guides who said she had seen the same male following Allen earlier in the evening - This site was locked down (with high security fences etc.), no-one could enter, and as there were only two males on the entire site, and both were accounted for, we can rule out intruders and bystanders

 

 

 

 

 

Trigger Objects

 

 Allen's Father, Grandfather and Grandmother all worked within the rail industry in various roles, Eidolon Paranormal had access to a variety of trigger objects to use upon this investigation, train whistles and uniforms, hats and badges etc. 

We chose Karen to play a role as a Trigger Object. She donned the S.T.A. uniform and hat, and blew the whistle near the 199 Steam train in an attempt to rouse any old passengers or workers who might be lingering in the old buildings.

Earlier in the evening we had great success with the train whistle as a trigger object. Where the steam engines are stored, particularity platform 13. After Allen blew the whistle the second time, A male figure was spotted walking towards the carriages, we also had lights and equipment failures.

After the third whistle blow, we managed to capture disembodied footsteps on our video camera and EVP equipment.

 

 

Conclusion

Firstly, Eidolon Paranormal would like to thank Mid North Paranormal for the invitation to work with them. 

We would also like to thank the management and staff of Steamtown Heritage Rail Centre for allowing us to investigate their premises

A special thanks also to our guides for the evening, Len and Tanya .

It is our opinion that Steamtown is indeed a haunted location in South Australia, it also a place of State and National Historical significance. Eidolon Paranormal highly recommends a visit to Peterborough to take in a day tour of the heritage centre, and also the light and sound show which is an informative and entertaining experience.

Below are some more photos from our night at Steamtown, also check our youtube channel for the video!

 

 

1937 Morris 25HP Series Sedan

Used by Management and department heads, as well as paymasters, The South Australian Railways (S.A.R.)imported the Morris car from England for specialised usage upon south Australia's rail network.

This particular model was upgraded and modified for the narrow gauge in South Australia, it features a "Jackall"  hydraulic jack built into it that allows the car to turn around for the trip back. 

This vehicle was restored in Peterborough  and was once white with red on the bonnet, it can travel up to 60MPH and has no steering!

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SA Paranormal Investigation: The Capitol Theatre - Peterborough, SA (2011)

Capitol Theatre

Peterborough, South Australia

History

The Capitol Theatre opened Monday the 17th of May 1926 in Peterborough, South Australia. The opening was a grand spectacle in the Mid North, attracting such a large crowd that hundreds were turned away from the vestibule to listen from the street as Mr A.R.G. Hawke, M.P. presided over the gala event and opening. (Mr Hawke was later to become Premier of Western Australia)
The Theatre was erected by the Rees Brothers.

Below are news stories we have collected from various publications to further our research about the Theatre, Antique Store and Garage


The Register (Adelaide), Friday 21 May 1926

NEW HALL AT PETERBOROUGH.

PETERBOROUGH, May 17. — On Saturday evening the new Capital Picture Theatre was opened by Mr. A. R. G. Hawke, M.P. Over 1000 persons filled the ball, and hundreds were denied admission. Mr. Hawke said the town had required such a building for years, but the local council could not agree whether to build a new hall or enlarge the old one. They so dallied that it was left to a private firm to further the matter. Messrs. Rees Brothers, who had been the town hall tenants for about 15 years, were responsible for the erection of the building. The speaker wished the proprietors every success. Mr. L. Lester suitably responded. The building is situated in Main street west. It is 50 ft. wide, and 140 ft. long. The body of the hall is 50 ft. by 100 ft., and the dress circle will seat 220, the stalls 600, and the pit 200— a total of 1,020.
 The building is of the latest design, and though it was built for a picture hall, it can be used by theatrical parties also. The ventilation of the ball is excellent, the ceiling being of lattice-work, and 12 electric fans are installed.
  All the woodwork is of polished blackwood. There are two shops In front, the vestibule is lined with tiles, and the wall is also tiled up to the height of 12 ft. The dress circle is reached by a 10-ft. staircase that is beautifully polished. The stage is 50 ft. long and 25 it. wide, with two dressing rooms at the rear. The dynamo and electrical plant are housed at the back of the building.
 There are 20 windows and six exit doors available. The building throughput is lit by electricity. The proprietors are Mr. H. W. Rees (known under his stage name of Mr. L. Lester) and Mr. T. Rees. The contractors were Messrs. Silver and Ollrich, of Rosewater. Mr. Matthews, of Adelaide, did the ornamental work, and Mr. Lowe, of Port Adelaide, had charge of the electric light installation. There is a fine orchestral pit for 10 performers.

..........

The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA) Friday 1 October 1926:

Found Dead
Peterborough, September 30.

At 4:30pm today, Mrs P.H. Chinner, who lives at the north end of Jervois street, heard a man crying out in Jubilee Park. On her husband returning home, Mrs. Chinner sent him to investigate, and he found the dead body of a man lying under a tree near the quarry on the west side of the park. There was a poison bottle close by. Mr Chinner communicated with the police, who removed the body to the cells. It was later identified as that of Stanley Major, aged about 28, who recently opened a garage near the Capitol Theatre. An inquest will probably be held

..........

Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW), Monday 21 March 1927

Bishop Killian, who recently returned from Europe, will be giving a welcome home in the Capitol Theatre, Peterborough, to-morrow night when the mayor of that town will preside.

.........

Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW) Thursday 14 February 1929

MR. G. DALE ACCEPTS BRACELET
FROM PETERBOROUGH CLUB

During the interval of the picture show, at the Capitol Theatre, Peterborough opportunity was taken to present the bracelet won at Peterborough races last Saturday to Mr G-. Dale of Broken Hill, on behalf of his son, Mr Allan Dale, owner of Lady Alda (says the "News").

Mr J. P. Keane .(president of the club) said that Mr Dale had visited Peterborough whenever possible. He had always been a good supporter, as was his trainer (Mr Tom. O'Brien)

Mr S. D. Jones (mayor) trusted that success would continue to shine on both the owner and trainer, and that Peterborough would always receive their support.

Mr Dale, who was received with acclamation, stated that he was pleased on behalf of his son to receive the bracelet, especially as he was to become a-father-in-law at an early date, and his new daughter-in-law would doubtless have no objection to receiving an extra wedding present. He complimented the club on the manner in which its meetings had been conducted, and assured the committee that he and his son would always be pleased to bring horses to Peterborough.

..........

The Advertiser Monday 11 April 1938

Peterborough

Mr Thos Rees proprietor of the Capitol Picture theatre, Peterborough received a surprise visit from about 80 of his friends at the Hotel Peterborough. Dancing to music by Mrs M.A. Grubb (Gawler) Miss Molly Deed and Messrs Naish and Tom Casey, was interspersed with community singing and vocal solos by Miss Dawn Reid and Mr Laurie Malycha. Mr F.P. Adams, on behalf of all present, presented Mr Ress with a leather lounge chair

.......

The Advertiser, Saturday 12 July 1941

Movements Of R.A.A.F. Mobile Unit

After showing films for an hour and a half to 400 people in the Capitol Theatre, Peterborough, on Thursday night, members of the Mobile Recruiting Unit of the TLAAF. had a particularly busy morning yesterday interviewing applicants. The unit, of which Flying Officer R. Goodman is in charge, will be joined by Mr. W Law Smith, of the Recruiting Drive Committee, and an education officer, who left Adelaide last night to go with It to Broken Hill It will return to Adelaide on Wednesday,

.......

As most of Eidolon Paranormals Fans are aware, our research continues long after the investigation. This ensures that future investigations on the site will get tailor-made EVP questions, trigger objects and experiments that are configured to the site and people who used it.
It also gives an insight into the history of a location for the client, and you, the reader.

Ghosts?

There are numerous reports of spirits roaming the Theatre, Antique Store and Old Garage. One spirit is said to be that of a little girl, she is often seen near the stage or up in the balcony area, young, around 7 years old and wearing a long white dress with frills at the bottom.

Another Spirit is said to be that of a man who looks down over the balcony above the entranceway, he appears with a very long drawn out face.
Disembodied footsteps have been heard walking through the Antique store, as well as full-bodied apparitions near the glass cabinets that make up the checkout area - could a spirit be attached to one of the old Antiques for sale?

In the Old Garage are numerous old tools, disembodied voices are heard in here. In this section, shadows are often seen from the corner of the eye, and on rare occasions, full-bodied shadow people have been witnessed. Did someone die whilst utilising one of the old tools in the workshop?

Behind the stage a door that is locked at night is often found to be open again in the morning - the door locks only from the inside and has no handles on the outside - in the same area voices of a man and younger female have been heard...

 Investigation

Our investigation started with a meet and greet with the owners of the Capitol Theatre, Phil and Leanne White. John and Allen then set about making a photo and video map of the theatre to document where everything is for our records.
We then, as a group, discussed the locations where our cameras should be placed for the best overall view of the theatre, so as not contaminate viewfinders with the glow of IR lighting.
We left the theatre for a while and converged at The Junction Hotel for dinner.

 
On our return to the theatre, John and Ben from Adelaide Shadow Hunters began an EMF sweep while Allen (E.P. ), John Murphy (S.R.P.I.) and David Size (A.S.C.) began setting up the various cameras.
Lisa (S.R.P.I.) began an EMF sweep of the front rooms of the theatre whilst Karen (E.P.) set about taken photos of the various locations we would be investigating.
Eidolon Paranormal and Shadow Riders Paranormal Investigations set up laptops in one corner of the theatre which would become an H.Q. of sorts for all the team members to view D.V.R. and temperature recordings which the laptops were set up to record.

 
At approximately 7:30pm we were ready to go live and dim the lights - we had a brief team meeting where we discussed different experiments and how we would approach our EVPS and who would start where - we then dimmed the lights and began our investigations.
At this point Allen went into the Antique shop and started to take full spectrum photos of various areas in the shop, he then went back into the theatre and took more, some in the balcony and some behind the stage curtain.

 
Karen set up a number of trigger objects on the Pianola, including a mirror and make-up, all things a stage performer may need before the big performance!
We began our first EVP session by breaking into the different teams and going to various parts of the buildings - John and Lisa sat out and timed us, giving us 1/2 an hour to start with - Allen and Karen began in the Antique shop, but had various equipment problems for the first 15 minutes with all equipment malfunctioning. That wasn't the only problem, the team inside the Theatre realised that their voice carries extremely far from the stage and that questions asked behind the curtain, could be clearly heard in the book store and the Balcony, over 150 feet away!


We decided to rethink our strategy, but as we were discussing our approach, David noticed what appeared to be a little girl near one of the entrance doors of the stage - Allen and David decided to take a closer look, taking video and full spectrum photos. Allen and David then climb the stairs into the backstage area, only to hear the soft sounds of a little girl speaking - Quiet was asked for in the theatre and David and Allen sat and listened.

 
A male voice and a female voice could be faintly heard, whispering, David began to tell the child not to be scared and talked of his own child, it wasn't long after this that David was touched by an unseen force!

 
It was also around this time that the team from Adelaide Shadow Hunters were experiencing paranormal activity in the Antique store, with footsteps being clearly heard, they began to take photos and video and do EVP recordings.

 
Mid North Paranormal and Shadow Riders Paranormal Investigations monitored the DVR system, noting a large amount of contamination to our video by insects and dust.
Our investigation continued long in the night, with different teams observing the DVR systems, taking readings in various rooms and doing EVP sessions.
Mid North Paranormal tried an experiment with crystals and candles but without much success.
Eidolon Paranormal tried an experiment with a strobe light, but also without much success.

Allen, Lisa, Karen and David sat in on a "Ghost Box" session behind the stage curtain, which we recorded for future reference, but we believe it was in vain as there were no real audible replies.
As Allen left the Theatre to check out what John and Ben (A.S.H.) were doing in the Antique store, 4 investigators heard the sound of what they described as "music from an old cartoon" play for about a minute - unfortunately the sound was not recorded on the audio equipment present, however, it may be embedded on the video.

Much later in the night, as some of the teams were heading off to bed a voice was heard by at least 4 investigators calling for Karen, when asking around through the various team's no-one had called for her, this also happened with someone calling for "John"...John Murphy ( S.R.P.I.) or John Broeckelmann (A.S.H.)? Of which they were asking for we were not sure.
This is just a brief summary of our investigation, for more information, photos and stories please visit the Facebook pages of the teams involved, these can be found below:

 
Eidolon Paranormal
Mid North Paranormal
Adelaide Spirit Chasers
Shadow Riders Paranormal Investigations
Adelaide Shadow Hunters


References
TROVE
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/47023569?searchTerm=Capitol%20Theatre%20Peterborough&searchLimits=
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/30859869?searchTerm=Capitol%20Theatre%20Peterborough&searchLimits=
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/45967724?searchTerm=Capitol%20Theatre%20Peterborough&searchLimits=
FACEBOOK
Friends of the Waterside Workers Hall
Friends of the Waterside Workers Hall Page
Vitalstatistix Theatre Company


© 2007 - 2014 Allen Tiller
www.eidolonparanormal.net

5 Team Paranormal Investigation in Kapunda, then Peterborough.

Hi
It's been a while since I posted on here, we at Eidolon Paranormal have been extremely busy with investigations and the S.A. Paranormal Meet-ups.

Since my last blog, we have been involved in two multi-team investigations, one at a cemetery in Kapunda, which also included a tour with some of the public who came from the S.A. Paranormal Meet-up. The investigation included: Eidolon Paranormal, Shadow Riders Paranormal Investigations, Mid North Paranormal, Adelaide Spirit Chasers and Adelaide Shadow Hunters. This investigation happened on October 29th 2011, and as far as we are aware, up until that time, was the biggest multi-team investigation in the world.

 The 2nd multi-team investigation happened on November 5th 2011 at "The Capitol Theatre" and "Peterborough Antique and Removals Store". This involved the same 5 teams working together in an enclosed environment.
 The teams worked exceptionally well together covering all areas of the Theatre, shop and garage, getting involved in experiments and sharing the vast amounts of equipment each team had brought to the investigation.
 We would like to thank Leanne and Phil, owners of the location for allowing such a large group of teams to descend upon their buildings, and for inviting us to come back to do it again!

 In Other news, Eidolon Productions has been filming a new ad for the Excel Health Fitness Gym in Kapunda, this project should be finalised soon. Allen has written his own score for this one, so everything in it is totally original - we are hoping the owners will really like it.

 Eidolon Paranormal has also adopted a new team member/ mascot/ trigger/object "Abby". Abby was given to Karen by our good friends Hillary and Ron for "Goth Girl Appreciation Day" in October 2011. Hillary made her by hand - and what an excellent job she did! You'll be seeing more of Abby as she starts to appear in investigations, and maybe some of her own videos too...

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to visit our website and facebook page for updates on what we are doing...

Thanks for reading
Allen and Karen

Steamtown Heritage Rail Centre Paranormal Investigation

Steamtown Heritage Rail Centre Paranormal Investigation

For this post, I thought I might go back a few months and post some info about one of our recent paranormal investigations.
 In July this year (2011), we teamed up with Peterborough paranormal investigation group, Mid North Paranormal to conduct an investigation at a local heritage rail museum, Steamtown.

 Karen and I arrived late in the day and joined Mid-north Team leader "Tizzy" for an inspection of the site. We needed to see what possible dangers and obstacles there might be and to get an idea of the layout of the site to design our plan to investigate.
 What a magnificent place Steamtown ended up being! Steam locomotives, diesel loco's, carriages, it was a trainspotter dream place!
 We worked out where we would set up our base camp, we then returned to Tizzy's house for a quick briefing, before returning to the site. Steamtown has a light and sound show, which includes a feature film about the history of the town, the trains and townsfolk, we were invited to watch, and did so, taking notes for our EVP sessions and for when we return for future investigations...
 During the movie, it started raining, which soon turned became a downpour! We feared we might lose our investigation, and having driven two hours, it would be a costly loss! However, our guides, Len and Tanya, two of Steamtown's volunteers allowed us to investigate inside the train carriages, something we didn't expect - and our investigation was saved!
  We had a number of other problems with equipment though, throughout the night, our night vision failed, which left us in the dark with video, but we persevered, and believe we collected some good footage of the location.
 We had a number of "incidents" during our investigation with a shadowy figure seen walking along platform 13, which was not one of the team or volunteers. Unexplained footsteps were heard walking through another section of the complex, with no visible source. We also hear whistling from an unknown source and witnessed lights that we can not account for. Steamtown was heavy with orbs, but this is explainable due to excessive dust and air currents. While we gathered a lot of data, we concluded that we did not gather any solid evidence of paranormal activity (other than personal experiences)  that could be presented to the client.  We will, however, be returning to try again at some point in the future.

Steamtown video - this is a little video of our adventure