Every week, I get a smattering of reader e-mails. Some of them are inquiries about the places I’ve profiled—“How do I get in? Will I get arrested?”—and others are tips that lead to hidden gems.

Most, though, are links, sending me to the work of photographers who produce images similar to my own. One such e-mail, received early last week, linked me to a gallery of colorful old streetcars, decaying in the woods. 

It’s a place I know well. Over the past couple of years, I’ve seen sunlight and moonlight filter through the forest, kissing the faded greens and blues of the retired trolleys from Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland and beyond. Day or night, the scene is surreal.

The link from my reader took me to a series of photos and bizarre statements by Cleveland-area photographer “Seph Lawless.” What caught my attention wasn’t the photos but Lawless’ backstory. “A man who lives in the area,” wrote a Cleveland-area news station, “told Lawless the train wreck is referred to as ’the great trolley tragedy of 1957’, and it’s believed to be haunted.”

“It’s like something straight out of an apocalyptic horror movie,” Lawless adds.

Is it really? And where, and when, was that “horror movie” filmed? I’ve talked to plenty of people in the sleepy town where the cars are located (it’s not in Jefferson County, as Lawless suggests) and nobody there ever heard of a multi-city train “wreck” in the forest. And nobody will tell you the streetcars arrived in 1957; truth is, a local businessman purchased them over several decades. The scrap yard — built on the site of a former mine — is still very much an active business. Cars are sold whole from time to time, or more often parted out to individuals or municipalities looking to restore their fleet.

There’s also a live-in security guard at the site, who tells me the trolleys have suffered from the effects of vandalism over the years. Fostering the impression that these are just an “abandoned” collection of streetcars in the woods does the property’s caretaker & owner a disservice.

The great, haunted trolley tragedy of 1957 has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? The real train wreck is Lawless on Fox News, weaving that tale. Made me break out my own photographs, sans folklore. When you look at them, you needn’t think of an “apocalyptic horror movie.” Just imagine the wind, whispering through the trees.